This guide is written for someone who has never used Python or the command line. Follow the steps in order and you'll be generating audiobook chapters with a gaming GPU.

What you'll need

Requirement	Why
Windows 11 PC with a modern NVIDIA GPU	Fast audio generation using CUDA
~5 GB free disk space	Python, PyTorch, and the TTS model
Internet connection (first-time only)	Downloads packages and the AI voice model

Step 1 — Install Python

Go to https://www.python.org/downloads/
Click the big yellow "Download Python 3.11.x" button
Run the installer
IMPORTANT: On the first screen, tick the box that says "Add Python to PATH" before you click Install Now

If you skipped that checkbox, uninstall Python and reinstall with the box ticked.

Step 2 — Get the project files

You should have a folder (e.g. voice_model) containing the project. Make sure it contains:

setup_windows.bat
run_gui.bat
run_audiobook.bat
requirements.txt
gui_proper_noun_player.py
create_audiobook_lightbringer.py
Audio Text for Novel Lightbringer\   ← your text files go here

Step 3 — Run Setup (one time only)

Open the voice_model folder in File Explorer
Double-click setup_windows.bat
A black terminal window will open and run through 5 steps:
- Checks Python is installed
- Creates a private Python environment
- Downloads PyTorch with GPU (CUDA) support — ~2.5 GB, be patient
- Installs the remaining packages
- Downloads the Kokoro AI voice model — ~330 MB
When it says "Setup complete!", press any key to close

You only need to do this once.

Step 4 — Launch the GUI (Proper Noun Player)

Double-click run_gui.bat
The Proper Noun Player window opens
Use it to review and fix how proper nouns are pronounced before generating audio

Controls:

Click a word in the Review list to hear it
Type a phonetic spelling in the box at the bottom and press Enter to save a fix
Press Enter without changing anything to mark the word as Correct
Press Space to replay the current word
Click "Apply Fixes to Text" when done to save a pronunciation-corrected text file

Step 5 — Create the Audiobook

Double-click run_audiobook.bat
A menu appears:
- 1 — Generate ALL chapters (this can take many hours — leave it running overnight)
- 2 — Just list what chapters were detected (safe, instant)
- 3 — Generate a short preview clip of each chapter (quick test)
- 4 — Generate specific chapter numbers only
Choose an option and press Enter
When finished, the .wav files will be in the output_audiobook_lightbringer folder

Troubleshooting

"Python was not found" → Python is not installed, or you forgot to tick "Add Python to PATH". Reinstall Python.

The window opens and immediately closes → Right-click the .bat file → "Run as administrator", or open a new terminal window first: press Win + R, type cmd, press Enter, then drag the .bat file into that window and press Enter.

Audio generation is very slow → The GPU (CUDA) version of PyTorch may not have installed correctly. Re-run setup_windows.bat.

"No .txt files found in Audio Text for Novel Lightbringer" → Make sure your chapter text files are placed in the Audio Text for Novel Lightbringer subfolder.

Output files

Folder	Contents
`output_audiobook_lightbringer\`	One `.wav` file per chapter
`output_proper_nouns\`	Pronunciation fix data (JSON)
`proper_nouns_audio\`	Cached audio for each proper noun