sthompson

The dirty background is a "feature" not a bug. It's documented in the manual that it gets dirtier the longer you are in a mission. It certainly seems overdone in your screenshot, and you might want to start a separate thread in the main VAICOM forum to bring it to Hollywood's attention.

If you are referring to DCS track files, don't bother checking them. VAICOM commands bypass the menu system and so are not registered in track files. This means that DCS track files created while using VAICOM do not work properly even if VAICOM works perfectly.

As the title says. In a MiG-29S 4 ship SP mission messages to FLIGHT never get sent. Excerpt from the VA log (debug on) showing this is below: 8:43:19.054 Listening suspended 8:43:18.916 Joystick : 'Transmit TX1 release' 8:43:18.292 Recipient for Flight set by call contents. 8:43:18.291 Getting selected unit for category Flight 8:43:18.289 Have result, identified as command: Join 8:43:18.288 Captured sentence: join up 8:43:18.284 Recognized : 'join up' (contains 'join') (Confidence 89) 8:43:16.562 (awaiting additional input) 8:43:16.560 Have result, identified as recipient: Flight 8:43:16.559 Captured sentence: flight 8:43:16.545 Recognized : 'flight' (Confidence 94) 8:43:15.064 Listening resumed 8:43:14.912 Joystick : 'Transmit TX1 press' 8:43:11.235 Listening suspended 8:43:11.103 Joystick : 'Transmit TX1 release' 8:43:10.352 Recipient for Flight set by call contents. 8:43:10.350 Getting selected unit for category Flight 8:43:10.347 Have result, identified as command: Join 8:43:10.346 Captured sentence: join up 8:43:10.337 Recognized : 'join up' (contains 'join') (Confidence 66) 8:43:09.083 WINGMAN (Chevy14): 2, ejecting! 8:43:08.433 (awaiting additional input) 8:43:08.431 Have result, identified as recipient: Flight 8:43:08.430 Captured sentence: flight 8:43:08.421 Recognized : 'flight' (Confidence 94) 8:43:07.023 Listening resumed 8:43:06.863 Joystick : 'Transmit TX1 press'

@NineLine You might move this thread elsewhere since it has nothing to do with the Octopus I-16

Regarding the tankers. Do you use the "Select" command before trying to contact them. I've found that usually solves the problem, unless there is more than one tanker with the same callsign. Regarding Easy Comms. Are you saying that this behavior occurs only when running VAICOM, everything else the same? (I've been frustrated when MP missions force Easy Comms on, but that isn't a VAICOM issue, and can even occur in a SP mission if the mission designer choose to enforce easy comms.) If so, can you be more precise about symptoms? Does killing VoiceAttack while still in mission restore normal behavior, for example? It might be helpful to post some examples from the VA log when VAICOM debug is turned on. (I leave it on all the time since it has very low overhead and provides insights into what VAICOM is doing). Regarding "The commands do not address the object defined by the radio frequency," VAICOM does not define recipients using the radio frequency (and never has). That is not how it works. You need to use the VAICOM "select" functions to choose the recipient, either by using an explicit select command, or by using the "instant select" method. Otherwise there is a default recipient, depending on the command (typically the closest recipient of the correct type at the time VAICOM first started communicating with the mission). If the recipient selected by VAICOM is not on the tuned radio channel you are not going to get a reply. That is not a bug. VAICOM relies on local network communication between the VA plugin and DCS. I suspect that some problems occur when DCS gets busy, leading to dropped messages. If so, this is not so much a bug as it is a performance issue. Frustrating nevertheless.

Its primary mission is giving commands to the AI, hence the name vAIcom. Cockpit tasks are not part of the core functionality. That said, Hollywood has added some support where he can. "Select Tunes Radio" being a prime example.

Agreed regarding better joystick mapping software. The proposed solution using VoiceAttack is essentially using it as a joystick mapper, and it's better to just use a program designed for that. In my case I have a CH throttle and pedals and a VKB stick. Using joystick programming software (CHSETUP in my case, but any remapper will do) I programmed a key combination on my throttle to output a high button number on a virtual DX device. That button number is not used on the other devices, and so I do not have the problem of a conflict when I use it for Discord PTT. (I originally did this because Discord would not accept a combination of two keys as a PTT.) This is far cleaner than programming VA to press and hold a keyboard key (which may generate its own conflict with other software, including DCS). In any event the problem lies with Discord's software and you/we might find a way to complain to them. There is no reason they shouldn't recognize different DX devices separately, and they should support key combinations for PTT or other functions.

Not upset. Apologies if it came across that way. I was just trying to point out that better help might be available elsewhere.

This and the follow up posts I've seen so far don't seem to have anything to do with VAICOM, and so you might have more luck in forums devoted to VoiceAttack and/or SRS and/or Discord. FWIW, I have a single throttle button bound as PTT for both Discord and SRS since I rarely have reason to use both at once. I do the bindings in Discord and SRS directly and these bindings have nothing to do with VoiceAttack or VAICOM. And it works just fine. So I'm having trouble understanding what the problem is that you are trying to solve. Using VoiceAttack to program PTT for Discord or SRS seems like quite a kludge solution.

Which module? And is VAICOM showing the correct module on the PTT page? Is it showing Easy Comms ON on the PTT page? And do you have "Select Tunes Radio" checked in DCS options? Suggest you check those things, then turn on VAICOM debug and show us the VA log when this fails. To be clear: Radio should tune automatically when you give "Truman, Select" if you have "select tunes radio" checked, regardless of whether Easy Comms is turned on. The radio should also tune automatically if you have "instant select" checked AND have Easy Comms on.

I'm happy with Wags' videos as they are. I'm not happy that so many new or modified features have no training missions or discussion in the documentation. Seems like that is not much of a priority for ED and its partners. I personally do not believe that modules should be considered out of EA unless there are training missions for all major weapon and sensor systems, and these are documented in the manuals.

To diagnose this it would be helpful to know what VoiceAttack is hearing. Perhaps turn on debug mode in VAICOM and then try a few commands, then post the VoiceAttack log here.

The LANTIRN commands are listed in the latest update to the manual.

Have you tried toggling the exterior light switch? It's a HOTAS binding. L on the keyboard if I'm remembering correctly.

It was @hornblower793, not me who suggested that. I do not run the tray app, because VoiceAttack rarely crashes for me, and also because I do not wish to run VoiceAttack as administrator, which the tray app forced the one time I tried it. I have found that VAICOM works just fine running with ordinary user permissions provided I set some file permissions appropriately. The user needs permission to edit some of the DCS files, as well as files in its own folder structure. As nearly as I can tell, if you set those file permissions appropriately then administrator mode is not needed. Does the tray app shut down VoiceAttack if you kill it? If so, that's one more reason to not use it.

Just switch to your preferred profile in VoiceAttack if you want to use a different one. And I've never seen VAICOM close VoiceAttack. Perhaps you can provide some more specific information about your experience and get some help here. Your "Crazy" comment makes no sense to me at all. VAICOM is a VoiceAttack plugin, and it does things that are not possible through VoiceAttack programing alone. Of course they are interlinked.

Are you sure you added asterisks in the VAICOM Editor window? I tried to do that and couldn't do it. VAICOM gave me a message that Inbound was already in use when I tried to edit it to *Inbound*. And it didn't take that as an alias either. So I'm wondering what exactly you did to add asterisks to existing commands in the editor.

On #2, if you want it realistic then you will let your SRS buddies hear your communication with the AI and so map the keys to activate SRS and VAICOM at the same time. (In the real plane they would hear those calls to ATC on the same frequency.) You would want to use "Instant Select" in that case along with Easy Comms OFF. On #3 I've heard that others have problems with "JAYTACK" even though that's the way it's supposed to work per the manual. Try using the callsign of a JTAC instead. For example, "Anvil, page." This works for most of the other pages too. For example "Chief, page" will bring up the REF page. (Show Log and Show Notes are exceptions.)

Do NOT add the asterisks in the keyword editor. The words and phrases in the keyword editor are the ones that VAICOM recognizes when it receives them from VoiceAttack. But before VoiceAttack will pass one to VAICOM it has to recognize it first. The sequence is: (1) You push a TX button, which causes VAICOM to tell VoiceAttack to start listening. (2) Microsoft voice recognition recognizes some words and passes them to VoiceAttack. (3) VoiceAttack tries to match what it received to a command. (4) If a command is recognized then the received phrase is passed to VAICOM. The Asterisks come into play in step (3). They are there to tell VoiceAttack to recognize a command even if it is embedded in a longer phrase. (See VoiceAttack documentation for details.) But the words in the VAICOM editor do not include the asterisk, and are not supposed to. These should only appear in the VoiceAttack profile, and they get put there when you do the FINISH step because VAICOM adds them when it copies the word list to the clipboard. That happens in the background and you should not do it manually.

Some answers: 1. You are misreading the manual. TX4 is for VAICOM AUTO mode, and TX5 is for Intercomm. You also seem confused about what are the TX's. They are not HOTAS buttons but rather communications channels for communicating with VAICOM. You can map a HOTAS button to a TX in VoiceAttack, but you don't have to. VAICOM does not support MIDS communication. It's for communicating with the AI, and since no AI unit supports MIDS, neither does VAICOM PRO. If you want to use the MIDS channels with SRS you will need to bind those separately through SRS. Those bindings have nothing to do with TX channels even if bound to the same HOTAS button. 2. The way I handle this is as follows: I have a four-way hat that I bind to TX1, TX2, TX3, and TX5 in VoiceAttack using the instructions in the VAICOM manual. I bind the same buttons to radio selection for radios 1-3 and Intercom in SRS, but I deselect the SRS option for radio selection keys to also work as PTT. Instead I bind a separate PTT button for SRS. When I want to talk to the AI I use the appropriate 4 way hat button so that the communication goes over the corresponding TX to the AI only. Pushing this button also selects one of the SRS radios. When I want to talk on SRS I first select the SRS radio using a short press on the four way hat, then push the SRS PTT key to transmit on SRS. The SRS PTT key does not trigger a TX channel and so that communication goes only over SRS, not to VAICOM. If you want TX6 for VAICOM (rarely needed in my experience), or MIDS for SRS then you will need separate button bindings for those. 3. Say "JAYTACK" as one word, then a short pause, then "page." Keep the TX key pushed until you hear the confirmation beep. You can also use the callsign of an active JTAC recipient instead of "JAYTACK." For the AOCS page say "Crystal Palace" instead of "JAYTACK." 4. It's hard to know what the problem is. Possibly your TX channels are not bound properly in VoiceAttack. You might provide some screenshots of your TX keybindings in VoiceAttack so that we can see the details of the TX1 and TX2 bindings. It would also help if you would turn on VAICOM debug and then post the VoiceAttack log from when you are experiencing the trouble. Also post a screenshot of your VAICOM PTT page to make sure that TX1 shows up as active and not greyed out.

Thought I had replied to this but since I don't see my reply in the thread, I'm trying again. I looked at all of the files and didn't see anything obviously wrong. I also tried flying the attached mission on my rig, VAICOM worked perfectly. So while I agree with others that the problem is mission related, I don't think it is just the mission. Instead it's something about the interaction of the mission and the host system. I'm now officially stumped and I suggest you try to reach out to Hollywood since apparently the issue does not seem to be user error or configuration error, but is happening for only some people in some settings, but is reproducible for those people/settings.

Regarding the second issue, you can just press the keyboard shortcut for the mic key. If you really want to do this with your voice, create a VoiceAttack command that presses the mic key using the DCS keyboard shortcut. You would only need it temporarily to make progress. It's not really a VAICOM issue, but rather a limitation of the design of those training missions.

Also, turn on debug and then send the VoiceAttack log generated from a mission where the issue occurs.

This is really weird. Can you verify that you can run one mission with no problems and then (without quitting DCS or VoiceAttack) run another mission that does have the problem? That would suggest that everything is installed correctly but that there is some kind of a timing or communication issue that is triggered only by certain missions. You might want to post a simple mission file that causes the trouble for you so that others can try it out in an attempt to reproduce. It would be helpful if you would send the VAICOM and DCS log files. That is, make sure VAICOM debug is on. Then restart VoiceAttack, then restart DCS, then fly a problem mission. Then close both programs and send VAICOMPRO.log from the Apps\VAICOMPRO\logs subfolder of your VoiceAttack installation (not the same as your VoiceAttack log, which is similar) DCS.log from Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\logs dcs_variants.txt from the root of your DCS Open Beta installation. (The first two files should have timestamps indicating they were freshly created, which is worth checking.) Also, let us know whether you run VoiceAttack as administrator? What about DCS Open Beta itself? BTW, I strongly suggest you stop doing the uninstall/reinstall stuff. It's hard to diagnose what's wrong if you keep changing the configuration. And I very much doubt it's a corrupted lua unless you have a drive that is going bad.

This screen shot shows that in your MP example that VAICOM is not detecting that you are in the Tomcat (or any other module). Furthermore, the log shows no indication that VAICOM has detected that you have started a mission. So it's no wonder that AIRIO is not working there. (Contrast with the prominent display of the F-14A/B in the second screen shot, and the lines identifying the mission and module in the second log file.) Can you verify that these same characteristics are present when you experience the problem in SP? That is, does the log indicate that a module and mission are detected when you have the problem in SP? If not, then I think we can safely say that the problem is something interfering with communication between the VAICOM PRO plugin and the DCS code in these cases.