sthompson

I get notifications for this thread, but not for the Official Updates forum or for the "Official News 2021" thread even though I'm "following" each and have the option selected to receive notifications. In general the notification system has seemed flaky ever since the new forum software was rolled out. Wish they would fix it. Sorry to bitch here but it seems at least as relevant as some of the other comments. BTW, I also do not seem to receive the newsletter reliably. I'm subscribed and sometimes it shows up, but often does not.

I only have this problem on MP servers where there is a lot of traffic in and around the airport, where DCS will reply "go to alternate" when other aircraft are on the runway. If you fly on the Aerobatics Online server during busy times for example, this is a common ATC response. But, those replies are generated by DCS and have nothing to do with VAICOM as far as I know. Why do you think otherwise? If you think it's VAICOM related you might give some more detail about the mission and the VoiceAttack and VAICOM logs showing the issue. I've never seen anyone post this as a problem on the VAICOM forums, and its hard to know where to start without more info.

Actually voice recognition is done by Windows and not by either VoiceAttack or VAICOM. VoiceAttack just uses the MS Windows voice recognition services.

Not all TX nodes are supported by all modules when in NORML mode. Sometimes what is supported and what is not does not entirely make sense. I do not recall whether TX3 is supported in the Hornet using the NORML PTT mapping of VAICOM. To check, open the VAICOM PTT page while flying the hornet and note whether it is greyed out or not. Switching the rotary switch to MULTI might solve the problem.

Easy Communications can be forced by the mission. Open the mission causing trouble in the mission editor and look at the mission options. Perhaps Easy communications is being enforced.

MAXsenna is referring to the VAICOM control panel. Specifically, select the "custom path" option and check the box to fix the registry. You may have to restart VoiceAttack and then DCS afterwards.

If the radio tuning is changing then you probably still have easy comms on. Your own setting for easy comms does not apply on some MP servers that force easy comms on no matter what you have set in your own DCS configuration. So it would help to know if this is just an MP issue, or if it happens in SP missions as well. Also, I have found that for AAR you sometimes need to give an explicit "Select" command to select the appropriate tanker. And if there is more than one tanker with the same call sign then there is no guarantee that this will work, even if they are on different frequencies. In that case, what has worked for me is to use the communications menu to make the initial contact with the tanker. This let's you distinguish between tankers with a common callsign but different frequencies. Once initial contact is made, "ready, precontact" seems to go to the correct tanker. Unfortunately, at this point VAICOM ignores the frequency setting when trying to identify the recipient of a command and will happily set the recipient to a unit that is not on the tuned frequency if it recognizes the callsign. And if easy communications is on then that causes the tuning to change too.

Instant Select does not tune the radio, even if "Select tunes radio" is on. So that is probably not the problem here. Rather Instant Select automatically selects the recipient who is named in a command. Thus if Sukumi is the currently selected ATC, then "Batumi, Inbound" will go to Batumi, and change the selected ATC recipient to Batumi for subsequent communications.

True. VoiceAttack + VAICOM PRO costs about $20 US -- much less than most DCS modules -- or 10% of a mediocre joystick. The full VAICOM PRO bundle only adds about $12 more.

@Gumbie, apologies if you took offense at my post. But I thought it important to clarify that it is not true that you can reproduce VAICOM functionality using VoiceAttack alone. I don't know if you are familiar with the history of VAICOM, but the early (free) versions tried to do exactly what you suggested. Making it work required a number of DCS mods (e.g. the StaticATC mod) that tended to break every time DCS updated. The mods were needed to rewrite the internal communications menu code so that it would be less volatile across maps, modules, or player location on the map. A number of people, including me, contributed to trying to keep some of those mods up to date as DCS evolved. In the end it was an enormous amount of unpaid lua coding work just to keep it working, even without adding new features, and so Hollywood decided to shift to the VA plugin approach starting in VAICOM 2.0. It's from personal experience that I know you cannot reliably program some of the most basic VAICOM PRO functions using VA alone. The example I gave, "Batumi, Inbound" cannot easily be programmed in VoiceAttack because the location of Batumi in the communications menu changes as you fly closer or further from Batumi. So there is no stable keyboard sequence that reproduces that function.

You obviously haven't tried doing what you recommend here. That approach requires communicating with the AI using the communications menu, and the communications menu changes a lot from mission to mission, map to map, when the player changes locations, and for numerous other possible reasons. So there is no way to implement the equivalent of "Batumi, Inbound" for example in a reliable way using VoiceAttack alone. Yes you can program voice commands for F1-F12 and use those to manipulate the communications menu, but that isn't at all the same as giving commands to the AI directly with your voice. Rather it's just using your voice as a keyboard substitute. Not the same thing at all.

Whenever there is an update you must, must, must restart VAICOM after the patch, and then restart DCS after VAICOM starts up. That's because the patches that VAICOM makes to DCS get overwritten during an update. So VAICOM needs to redo them, and then DCS needs to be restarted so it sees the modified versions of the files. Try holding the TX key down a bit longer. You should not release the TX key until after the sentence is recognized and you have heard the confirmation beep. Your log suggests you are releasing the TX key before "rock and roll" is recognized.

If I give the command "Batumi, Select" and release the TX key immediately after I say Select then I get the following in the VoiceAttack log (newest messages at the top): Notice that the Select command is recognized only AFTER the TX4 release occurs. This is similar to what is going on in your log file, and likely is the cause of the problem. If instead I wait a second or two before releasing TX4 after I say Select I get the following: Notice that VAICOM built a correct Select command in this case. (I did this without running a mission, which is why Batumi is not available.) So the lesson is that you need to hold the TX key until you hear the audio hint (a high pitched beep) indicating that the command is complete. This is documented (sort of) in the manual. On page 16 it says "Note: Commands are executed immediately and you can release PTT almost immediately, hold for another 0,5 second after you finish your voice command." So you can release the TX "almost" immediately, but not immediately.

If they would put in a proper API for external apps to message the AI then VAICOM would not need (or have less need) to modify any core code. And ideally such messages would be included in Track files so that VAICOM commands to the AI would get recorded. Let's hope they get there soon.

Nineline reported that the patch will be tomorrow (Wednesday):

First, Select is still necessary with Easy Comms on. Easy comms will automatically tune the radio, but you still need to tell VAICOM who is the intended recipient. Second, looking at your log file, it appears that "Batumi" is being read as one sentence, and "Select" is being read as a second unrelated sentence. So "Batumi" ends up without enough information to make a command, and "Select" does not include the intended recipient. Make sure you keep the TX4 key pressed continuously while giving the "Batumi, Select" command and that the pause between words is fairly short. If this does not solve the problems, please send a log again, but this time also send the VoiceAttack log (cut and paste from the VoiceAttack window to a text file) in addition to the VAICOM log. It's helpful to have both logs so we can make sure they line up. Also, please try to keep both short, with just enough to demonstrate the problem.

Can you please turn on VAICOM debugging and post the VoiceAttack log that shows the incorrect behavior? That would help diagnose why this is not working for you. "Batumi, Select" should switch the recipient to Batumi, for example.

No it's not. Those are separate commands. Request Launch asks the deck crew to prepare for launch. Salute requests the cat shot.

You need to disable the plugin (or not run VoiceAttack at all) AND repair DCS.

No. Aux is TX6. TX5 is "Interphone" per the VAICOM manual, which in the Tomcat is the same as ICS. So use TX5 (or TX4, which is "AUTO") to talk to ground crew, same as talking to Jester.

That due to recent changes in VoiceAttack it now gets installed in a different directory than before and the VAICOM installer has not caught up. The workaround is to download the ZIP file for VAICOM and unzip it to the right location instead of using the VAICOM installer.

As far as I recall I do not own this campaign. It does not show up in my list of licensed products in my profile in the website. I can't find any mention of it in the forums. Yet starting yesterday I started getting prompted for a serial number for it when starting DCS, and it shows up in the module manager as a campaign by "B&W Campaigns." I don't see that in the list of DLC forums either. I'm running OpenBeta. I do own the VIggen buy I've rarely used it.

Your export.lua file loads the vaicom scripts twice. Could possibly be related.

You might want to check the "fix registry" box. Then the DCS install path gets saved in the registry and VAICOM will not have to go hunting for it. DCS itself saves the install path if you install it from scratch. If you have moved DCS or changed the installation type without using DCS's own installer then the registry key may be incorrect, and the above will fix it.

You might get in touch with the campaign author for help with a specific campaign mission. On some campaign missions where I'm supposed to join up with another flight already in the air the mission is set up for the flight to fire flares to help me find them. I'm pretty sure the green flight path markers can only be set at fixed positions on the map -- not on a moving unit.