General EQWatcher Concepts > Installation > Text-to-Speech

Installing Text-to-Speech is OPTIONAL.  EQWatcher's Text-to-Speech (TTS) support is based on Microsoft's Speech API (SAPI). For owners of Windows XP, there is no need to download or install any new software.  For Windows 95, 98, 2000, and NT (note that I've only tested 98, 2000, XP), you will need to install the SAPI.

Caution: Some sound cards do not support multiple waveout devices.  Since SAPI 5.0+ has no DirectSound support, a sound card that supports multiple waveout is required for this option to work within EverQuest.  If you do not fill this requirement but have TTS installed on your computer, you will need to manually disable EQWatcher's TTS (see the miscellaneous commands section for enabling and disabling TTS).

To install SAPI, download Microsoft's Speech SDK 5.1 (68 MB).  68 megabytes is a hefty download for anyone using 56k, which is a good reason that TTS is not required.  However, it provides some really neat functionality for EQWatcher.  I believe it is possible to install SAPI in less than a 68 MB download, but I do not have a mirror to host anything that large.  So, download the SDK.

Once installed, there will be a "Speech" section in your Windows Control Panel.  You can pick the default voice in the Text-to-Speech tab (I think there's like Microsoft Sam and Microsoft Mary by default?).  Please note that if all you hear from EQWatcher or any other TTS application is "blah blah blah blah" that you need to visit the Speech control panel and switch to a voice other than "Sample TTS Voice", which only says "blah".  There you can set the speed of the voice as well.  Once full functionality is in EQWatcher, this will also become something you can do using EQWatcher commands.

If that is in place and you have a voice selected other than Sample TTS Voice, then EQWatcher will now greet you with synthesized speech.  Congrats :)