UnheardCity/docs/categories.md

Categories and characters

Implemented in ackit/classify.py; used both when building the shipped catalog (tools/build_catalog.py) and when a game build is not in the catalog (runtime scan), so every language/build gets the same scheme.

Groups and categories

Every sound has a group and a finer category, derived from its name (taken from the game files: the soundbank names in CookedBanks.txt and the Wwise event names; the 3 SFX entries no name reaches show as hex). First matching rule wins:

name starts with	group	category
CHR_RadioScanner, PSO_CarRadio, Speech_RADIO, Speech_TV, Speech_CAMERAS, DIA_	Speech	Radio & TV
Speech_TAPE_	Speech	Interview tapes
Speech_INTERROGATION_	Speech	Interrogations
Speech_CINEMATIC_, Speech_New_	Speech	Cinematics
Speech_Boss_ / Speech_BOSS_	Speech	Boss fights
Speech_RIDDLER_, Speech_RIDDLES_	Speech	Riddler
Speech_SIDE_	Speech	Side missions
Speech_DLC_	Speech	DLC
Speech_PRED_	Speech	Predator chatter
Speech_COMBAT_, Speech_Bully_	Speech	Combat barks
Speech_EMOTE_	Speech	Efforts & emotes
Speech_REACT_	Speech	Reactions
Speech_STREETS_, Speech_ZONES_, Speech_OUTCAST_, Speech_Vertical_	Speech	Open-world chatter
Speech_CHAR_	Speech	Character lines
Speech_CH_, Speech_SEQUENCE_, Speech_STEEL_, _MUSEUM_, _CHURCH_, _COURT_, _UNDER_, _GCPD_, _ZP1_	Speech	Story missions
Speech_GAME_, Speech_MAP_, Speech_AUGMENTED_, Speech_FORENSICS_, Speech_TEMP_	Speech	Gameplay & hints
NPC_...Crowd...	Ambience	Crowds
other Speech_	Speech	Other speech
media of the Music / Music_PDLC stream packs, Music*, MUS_	Music	Music / Music (DLC)
AMB_, PSA_	Ambience	Ambience
PSO_ (flies, drips, fans, lights)	Ambience	Ambient emitters
WND_	Ambience	Wind
WTR_	Ambience	Weather
VOL_, PVOL_	Ambience	Room tone
anything containing Footstep	SFX	Footsteps
CHR_/NPC_ containing Combat, BoneBreak, Bodyfall	SFX	Combat
SEQ_, MTN_	SFX	Scripted sequences
OBJ_	SFX	Objects
PX_, PHY_	SFX	Physics
WPN_	SFX	Weapons
DVC_	SFX	Gadgets
GUI_, SBJ_	SFX	Interface
VFX_	SFX	Visual effects
other NPC_	SFX	Enemies & NPCs
CHR_, GEN_	SFX	Character foley
Global	SFX	Global
anything else (e.g. unnamed hex IDs)	Unknown	Unknown

BANK sounds (in-memory, docs/formats/banks.md) are classified by the name of their soundbank (e.g. CHR_CatwomanFoleySuit, Speech_EMOTE_Batman), which is more systematic than their event names.

Counts per voice language (identical in all 5): Story missions 1996, Predator chatter 1796, Character lines 1537, Open-world chatter 1295, Side missions 808, Combat barks 801, Efforts & emotes 616, Interview tapes 514, Riddler 360, Radio & TV 223, Gameplay & hints 199, DLC 167, Boss fights 150, Cinematics 150, Reactions 108, Interrogations 95. SFX archive: Music 389, Ambience 225, SFX 31, Unknown 6. BANK (all languages): Combat barks 4360, Character foley 3051, Other speech 2590, Footsteps 1256, Ambient emitters 705, Weapons 494, Combat 412, Objects 401, ...

Characters

Two separate fields, because Wwise names describe a scene, not the speaker of each variation (a conversation alternates speakers between NAME_1, NAME_2, ...):

• character - the verified speaker, only from the curated lists in data/catalog/source/<lang>/*.txt (one file per character, listening-based; the lists so far were made on the Italian voices, source/ita/). A list names sounds by their position in its language's WAD (wemscan names); positions differ between languages, so each listed recording is found at its position in that language and the label goes to its line (characters.csv, keyed by the line's name), i.e. to the same recording in every language. A label applies to exactly the listed recordings (not to other versions of the same event). Checked by ackit verify --catalog against the speaker field of the game's dialogue objects: 2,766 labelled lines agree (spelling aside: Mister Freeze, Bruce Wayne, TwoFace, Mysterious_stranger = Azrael), 25 listed as Unknown are named there, 19 differ (to listen to: Batman_sword_raised_01-04 game: Ra's al Ghul, ENCRYPTION_CARD2_02 game: Hugo Strange, thug1_heckle_01_3 game: Thug 01, SIDE_CAT_TF_intro1_03 game: Thug 06; the 12 Wonder City lines say "Announcement"). Display names: Calendar -> Calendar Man, Croc -> Killer Croc, Freeze -> Mr. Freeze, Ivy -> Poison Ivy, Madhatter -> Mad Hatter, Quinn -> Harley Quinn, Ras -> Ra's al Ghul, Strange -> Hugo Strange, Talia -> Talia al Ghul, Twoface -> Two-Face, Vicky -> Vicki Vale, Zsazz -> Victor Zsasz, Unknown -> Unknown (speaker checked but not identified). A line in two lists gets both ("A; B").
• characters_inferred - characters and roles mentioned by the name (token rules in classify._TOKENS, e.g. BM/BATMAN -> Batman, PENG -> Penguin, TF -> Two-Face, THUG*/GENTHUG* -> Thug, TYGER -> TYGER guard; interview tapes add Hugo Strange). A hint for the ~7,400 lines without a verified speaker, never shown as the speaker. In the editor the character filter matches verified speakers, and optionally inferred ones.

Coverage of the 10,811 WAD voice lines (every voice language, the same lines): 3,366 with a verified speaker, 6,258 more with inferred characters, 1,187 with neither (combat barks 407, story missions 267, open-world chatter 228, radio & TV 122, ...).