Gina under Linux

[Nokio]

Introduction
Over time I saw a few people use a software called Gina that does Audio trigger and text trigger/timer. I never looked at it since I had my bash script that does pretty much the same and I am quite happy with it. In the past weeks I saw a few reference to people saying that Gina just don't work or install under Linux and I was curious to checkout why. Long story short, I went on to try and see if it can be made to work and if I could in the process share my findinds so that maybe other can benefit from it. Much like I benefit from the work of others.

Installing/Running Gina under Linux

• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" WINEARCH=win32 wine wineboot
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" winetricks -q dotnet462
• wget https://eq.gimasoft.com/GINA/setup.exe -P "$HOME/Gina/"
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" wine $HOME/Gina/setup.exe

What works

• Adding your many character log files
• Creating/running triggers
• Sharing, I was able to import a basic bundle
• Overlays work and can be moved around to your liking
• All in all, I don't know much about what people achieve to do with the tool but it seems to all work, beside one thing

What does not work (maybe just for now)

• Text to Speech

Research
With the installation done and the application running, when you add your character log file there is a voice setting and it's blank. Nothing in the drop down menu. What I did is install a Windows Virtual machine because I wanted to see what would appear in that field. Under a fresh Windows 10 2 options appear in that voice drop down.

• Microsoft Zira Desktop
• Microsoft David Desktop

A quick search made me learn a bit more about Zira and David : https://www.thewindowsclub.com/micro...vid-hazel-zira
It seems that under Windows10/11 Zira/David/Hazel are the default voice for US english at least.
But I only have Zira and David under Gina. I went and started the settings for the "change voice narrator" In there I see quite a few voice

• Microsoft David
• Microsoft Zira
• Microsoft Mark
• Microsoft Zira Desktop
• Microsoft David Desktop

No Hazel, he must not be installed from a language pack or something. BUT Gina is not showing the other 3 either.

Test1
Be carefull with the following
You will mess your wine prefix.
If you do so just delete the prefix folder and repeat the installation process

I learned that using winetricks you can install the SAPI5.1 SpeechSDK to get the older voice from prior Vista. The SDK is available for download and can be quickly installed using winetricks

• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" winetricks -q speechsdk

But in doing so. It set the windows version to windowsXP(from windows7 prior). Because the speechSDK don't work on anything else. If you now try to start Gina. It just crash. If you then use winecfg to set the windows version back to windows 7. Gina still crash. Delete the prefix and restart

Test2
I learned that using winetricks you can install SAPI, which seems to be the other available option under winetricks for speech api : https://github.com/Winetricks/winetr...src/winetricks

• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" winetricks -q sapi

Doing the base install plus installation sapi changes nothing once you start Gina. Still no voice options. At least the prefix did not get messed up it seems.

Test3
So then I went on to try and see if I could get an application in the wine prefix to test the TTS (Text to Speech)

• From a freshly installed prefix
• cd "$HOME/Gina/drive_c/Program Files/"
• wget http://balabolka.site/balabolka_portable.zip
• unzip balabolka_portable.zip
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" wine "$HOME/Gina/drive_c/Program Files/Balabolka/balabolka.exe"

Using these I was able to get a software to run inside the wine prefix but much like Gina it does not see any voice to use for TTS.
After some research I found that you have to install additionnal elements. Some of which are, it seems, installed by default with a windows installation.

• wget https://download.microsoft.com/down....ormRuntime.msi
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" wine msiexec /i SpeechPlatformRuntime.msi
• wget https://download.microsoft.com/down....US_ZiraPro.msi
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" wine msiexec /i MSSpeech_TTS_en-US_ZiraPro.msi
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" winetricks msxml6
• WINEPREFIX="$HOME/Gina" wine "$HOME/Gina/drive_c/Program Files/Balabolka/balabolka.exe"

Now the software sees the voice and is able to do TTS. Which I think it awesome!
You can install more voice from : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=27224
If I then start Gina. There is still no voice under the option.

My thinking is now as follow. I think that Gina may be hardcoded to "only" see

• Microsoft Zira Desktop
• Microsoft David Desktop

The Zira voice I installed seems to be refered to as ZiraPro and not Zira Desktop. They sound exactly the same.

Ending
This is where I stand for now. If I have more time later I will try to see if I can somehow find a way to download or extract the Microsoft Zira Desktop voice to bring over under my wine prefix. For now I will think on this and leave it here.

I hope this is helpfull to someone who may not need the Text to Speech.