A word of warning for new VAICOM users

[dakuth]

First and foremost: VAICOM is very clever, and most users seem to LOVE it. So I am NOT saying it's garbage, and you shouldn't get it.

 

I do only really see two flavours of comments on VAICOM though:

 

1. "It's amazing! I couldn't imagine flying without it! Don't hesitate, just get it!"

 

and

 

2. "I don't get it, this is absolute garbage, I'm asking for a refund."

 

The truth, as in most things in life, is somewhere in the middle.

 

When working, VAICOM is pretty cool. Use a radio just as you would in real life, and then talk to AI just as you would in real life, and they respond.

 

The problem is, the application is deceptively complex. It's hard to set up, it frequently breaks, it's built on top of several layers of technology outside of VAICOM's control, and it takes a significant investment of time to learn how to use it.

 

If you're imagining an application you can install, will pop itself seamlessly into DCS, and then allow you to control the comms menu in VR ... then reset your expectations.

 

There are so many moving parts:

- Voice attack, itself a complex piece of software that leverages Microsoft Speech Engine which is itself it's own bit of complexity - especially if you're not American.

- DCS, which is prone to different versions, modules, and updates any and all of which can interact differently and break the integrations

- Other DCS plugins, such as SRS which is like the multi-player version of VAICOM so a natural thing to have alongside, and Tacview and whatever else is out there.

- Other voice software, like TeamSpeak or Discord that may be competing for your PTT buttons and mic

- Windows sound devices and drivers. If you only ever use your headset, then bully for you. But if you use speakers, until you switch to gaming them you use a headset... unless your using VR, then you use the VR Headset's built in hardware then... enjoy fumbling with changing sound devices. You can TRY updating the Windows Default device, but it's really hit and miss which applications notice and which ones don't.

 

 

Should you get everything set up smoothly enough, you jump into a module and give a command. It doesn't work. Is this because Voice Attack didn't recognise your voice? Was VAICOM's PTT configuration set correctly? Are you in Multiplayer? Easy comms? Or, do you just not know the magic combination of words to say? Sure, you can update the words, but like everything in this space, that's not as straight forward as you'd think. It's usually just easier to learn what you need to say... which means forget natural speech, we're back to memorising the correct key words.

 

"Kutasi...." nothing "Kutasi...." nothing. Sigh. "ATC...*click* Turn on Air Supply" nothing. That's right! "ATC... *click* Connect Air Supply"

 

As you can see, NONE of this is insurmountable. You may not have MOST of these complications in your setup. But I liken it to those survival games. No individual mechanic in those games is complex - hunger, thirst, heat, cold, roaming monsters, crafting shelter - but all combined they become a challenge of endless juggling that makes them some of the hardest games out there. They're *designed to kill you*, primarily by 1000 cuts.

 

That's what VAICOM is like. It's a solvable problem, but *be prepared* to put the work in.

 

For my money, I have been slowly reducing the complexity. I had VAICOM+AIRIO+Chatter. Chatter's pretty straightforward, but just fluff, so when I start having problems, it was first to go.

 

AIRIO's removal of the Jester menu, especially when I was learning the F14, meant I had no idea how to control Jester, let alone what to say. What I really wanted was to use my Jester Menu binding so I can see what my options were, and how the menu was nested and over time "short cut" straight to things I wanted by saying what I remember seeing there. Can't do that though, and if I have to choose between trying to memorise Jester commands vs picking them from a list I'll go with the list. Not to mention learning when certain options are available to say to Jester at all. So I disabled AIRIO.

 

I tried to use "natural" commands for general menu options. But I found that all I ever used was the couple I used every time - ground and air, rearm refuel, maybe bogey dope.

 

What do I say to form up with a Tanker? Can't remember. Approach for landing? Not sure. I know there's a couple steps to both those processes.... so... "Options > Take 1/2/3". Considering I can just click the menu options, I could just limit to "Options" and then click... and if I'm doing that I have all this complication for a glorified comms hotkey? I could acheive all this with a single DCS binding on my joystick. So VAICOM itself is slowly migrating out of my DCS "workflow" as well.

 

I realise the mission goal of VAICOM is to replace the menu with an immersive experience. You'd think as a dedicated VR user I'd be keen for that.

 

In truth, I came across VAICOM when looking for a solution to navigate the dynamic menu system in VR, without a keyboard, without needing to bind over a dozen keys to my HOTAS. Now I've been on this journey, I think I would never have gone on this journey if I had have realised I could click on the settings as I use the virtual hands for cockpit clicking ... they can click the comms menu so ... I just didn't know that worked! All I needed all along was a comms menu binding.

 

So that's my word of warning: Be aware of what VAICOM is. It's an immersion upgrade, and requires effort to get that. If all you're looking for is a better way to use the comms menu, that's not really the best use of VAICOM, in my opinion.

[Fisherman82]

I dont mean to criticize your post but I just have to say that to me VAICOM is like going VR, its no going back. I can not belive that everyone is not using it.

 

In the beginning I had big problems eventhough I had a good Sennheiser headset with a very good mic I got bad recognition. I guess there my desperate postings about this is somwhere in the giant VAICOM thread. It turned out to be related to me needed to use a extension cable from my Zonax sound card. Bought a cheap usb sound card just to run the mic and now I have no problems.

 

So for me it just runs now, it tells me when there is a update automaticly and I update. Never any problems setting up PTT or anything like that I have the TXes mapped to keypad 1-5 and then I just map the ones I need to my Warthog.

 

Worth every dollar and even a weeks effort to set it up if thats needed because in the long run it is totaly worth it. I hope everyone is aware that it exists.

 

Skickat från min D5503 via Tapatalk

[Greyman]

First and foremost: VAICOM is very clever, and most users seem to LOVE it. So I am NOT saying it's garbage, and you shouldn't get it.

 

I do only really see two flavours of comments on VAICOM though:

 

1. "It's amazing! I couldn't imagine flying without it! Don't hesitate, just get it!"

 

and

 

2. "I don't get it, this is absolute garbage, I'm asking for a refund."

 

The truth, as in most things in life, is somewhere in the middle.

 

When working, VAICOM is pretty cool. Use a radio just as you would in real life, and then talk to AI just as you would in real life, and they respond.

 

The problem is, the application is deceptively complex. It's hard to set up, it frequently breaks, it's built on top of several layers of technology outside of VAICOM's control, and it takes a significant investment of time to learn how to use it.

 

If you're imagining an application you can install, will pop itself seamlessly into DCS, and then allow you to control the comms menu in VR ... then reset your expectations.

 

There are so many moving parts:

- Voice attack, itself a complex piece of software that leverages Microsoft Speech Engine which is itself it's own bit of complexity - especially if you're not American.

- DCS, which is prone to different versions, modules, and updates any and all of which can interact differently and break the integrations

- Other DCS plugins, such as SRS which is like the multi-player version of VAICOM so a natural thing to have alongside, and Tacview and whatever else is out there.

- Other voice software, like TeamSpeak or Discord that may be competing for your PTT buttons and mic

- Windows sound devices and drivers. If you only ever use your headset, then bully for you. But if you use speakers, until you switch to gaming them you use a headset... unless your using VR, then you use the VR Headset's built in hardware then... enjoy fumbling with changing sound devices. You can TRY updating the Windows Default device, but it's really hit and miss which applications notice and which ones don't.

 

 

Should you get everything set up smoothly enough, you jump into a module and give a command. It doesn't work. Is this because Voice Attack didn't recognise your voice? Was VAICOM's PTT configuration set correctly? Are you in Multiplayer? Easy comms? Or, do you just not know the magic combination of words to say? Sure, you can update the words, but like everything in this space, that's not as straight forward as you'd think. It's usually just easier to learn what you need to say... which means forget natural speech, we're back to memorising the correct key words.

 

"Kutasi...." nothing "Kutasi...." nothing. Sigh. "ATC...*click* Turn on Air Supply" nothing. That's right! "ATC... *click* Connect Air Supply"

 

As you can see, NONE of this is insurmountable. You may not have MOST of these complications in your setup. But I liken it to those survival games. No individual mechanic in those games is complex - hunger, thirst, heat, cold, roaming monsters, crafting shelter - but all combined they become a challenge of endless juggling that makes them some of the hardest games out there. They're *designed to kill you*, primarily by 1000 cuts.

 

That's what VAICOM is like. It's a solvable problem, but *be prepared* to put the work in.

 

For my money, I have been slowly reducing the complexity. I had VAICOM+AIRIO+Chatter. Chatter's pretty straightforward, but just fluff, so when I start having problems, it was first to go.

 

AIRIO's removal of the Jester menu, especially when I was learning the F14, meant I had no idea how to control Jester, let alone what to say. What I really wanted was to use my Jester Menu binding so I can see what my options were, and how the menu was nested and over time "short cut" straight to things I wanted by saying what I remember seeing there. Can't do that though, and if I have to choose between trying to memorise Jester commands vs picking them from a list I'll go with the list. Not to mention learning when certain options are available to say to Jester at all. So I disabled AIRIO.

 

I tried to use "natural" commands for general menu options. But I found that all I ever used was the couple I used every time - ground and air, rearm refuel, maybe bogey dope.

 

What do I say to form up with a Tanker? Can't remember. Approach for landing? Not sure. I know there's a couple steps to both those processes.... so... "Options > Take 1/2/3". Considering I can just click the menu options, I could just limit to "Options" and then click... and if I'm doing that I have all this complication for a glorified comms hotkey? I could acheive all this with a single DCS binding on my joystick. So VAICOM itself is slowly migrating out of my DCS "workflow" as well.

 

I realise the mission goal of VAICOM is to replace the menu with an immersive experience. You'd think as a dedicated VR user I'd be keen for that.

 

In truth, I came across VAICOM when looking for a solution to navigate the dynamic menu system in VR, without a keyboard, without needing to bind over a dozen keys to my HOTAS. Now I've been on this journey, I think I would never have gone on this journey if I had have realised I could click on the settings as I use the virtual hands for cockpit clicking ... they can click the comms menu so ... I just didn't know that worked! All I needed all along was a comms menu binding.

 

So that's my word of warning: Be aware of what VAICOM is. It's an immersion upgrade, and requires effort to get that. If all you're looking for is a better way to use the comms menu, that's not really the best use of VAICOM, in my opinion.

 

 

 

This appears to be only the 2nd of 2 posts that you have made on the VAICOM forum, the first, a request for help, being very shortly before this one. From experiencing the setting up process myself and seeing more than a few others going through the same process, over the years, i understand that it's not a plug and play process, but it is more than worth the time required to do it properly.

 

However, if you don't want to invest that time, then perhaps it just isn't for you.

 

BTW, the DCS Garmin 430 modules, which you have probably downloaded as part of the free trial, do conflict with VP, so maybe try disabling those before giving up.

[dakuth]

It is. I've been thinking all the above, while researching my problems which have varied for months now.

 

I figured I'd ask for help - i've paid for it, i might as well use it.

 

But, the more time that passes, the more I think it may not be for me. When I first started on this journey, though ... I *did* think it would be right up my alley. Hence my warning so others can be informed / Hollywood or anyone that cares could think about QoL improvements that are a real barrier.

 

I'd seriously consider trying to change tack to a standalone, natural-speech solution ... but, you know, that's no small task.

[TOViper]

My experience in short words:

It took preparation and patience, but then it finally worked.

If I were not patient, I most probably have stopped configuring it.

 

I became a lover of this tool, and I can suggest it.

Edited May 15, 2020 by TOViper

[hornblower793]

Hollywood or anyone that cares could think about QoL improvements that are a real barrier.

 

 

What QoL improvements are you thinking about? I have learned the commands I use regularly and for the others I use a combination of the Options menu and kneeboard cheat sheets with the VAICOM commands on them. AIRIO does take some learning, but again there are a lot of commands in there that can be used to show the options if you have the settings correct. An example is Track Single which I use regularly.

 

 

Where a lot of people seem to have had issues recently is either not wanting to spend time learning the commands (or adding aliases to make it more natural for you) or wanting it to work the way they personally would do it. While both of these are valid points of view I liken it to some of the planes don't do things in the way I would have thought natural, but that is the way the designers chose to make it so I have to fit with their system.

 

 

 

There may be some initial installation challenges (because there are a huge range of pieces of utility software / hardware setups etc.) but once set-up it is not high maintenance - after each DCS update I clear my fxo and metashader folders, hop in the cockpit and, if the slowly flashing menu reoccurs, I reset my OB custom path and restart both VA and DCS (a couple of minutes to fix and restart). I know from your other post you say you have had issues with this but I am sure we can get you through this if you want.

[Svsmokey]

I've had experience with Vaicom Pro on my previous pc . It is an incredible addition to immersion and works flawlessly until a DCS update breaks it . 2.56 broke it for me , and i fiddled around for a couple of hours to get it fixed . Then after months on 2.56 , I gave up on it and reverted to stable-and broke VA again . Tried manually pointing it to no effect , and dropped it as i was building a new pc .

 

I do plan on installing VP on the new pc (now built) , but i have been putting it off because the installation is so problematic . Think it took me two days to get working the first time .

[Baldrick33]

I am easily baffled by the systems deployed in modern combat aircraft but found VAICOM Pro pretty straightforward to setup and run.

 

I love the immersion of flying in VR and VAICOM Pro adds to that by making the comms feel much more real and avoid any nasty floating menus in my VR world!

 

I use speakers for general sound and the Reverb headset for comms without issue.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Baldrick33

[speed-of-heat]

VIACOM, is not perfect, but then nor is DCS. I use VIACOM everyday i fly DCS, it was a a little bit of a fiddle to get set up, but it is and occasionally i have problems, or struggles as i explore new parts of the sim but the community and Hollywood are always helpful.

 

DCS is not a plug and play game, nor is VR, Voice attack, or VIACOM... but they are so very much worth it.

[dakuth]

What QoL improvements are you thinking about? I have learned the commands I use regularly and for the others I use a combination of the Options menu and kneeboard cheat sheets with the VAICOM commands on them. AIRIO does take some learning, but again there are a lot of commands in there that can be used to show the options if you have the settings correct. An example is Track Single which I use regularly.

 

 

Where a lot of people seem to have had issues recently is either not wanting to spend time learning the commands (or adding aliases to make it more natural for you) or wanting it to work the way they personally would do it. While both of these are valid points of view I liken it to some of the planes don't do things in the way I would have thought natural, but that is the way the designers chose to make it so I have to fit with their system.

 

 

 

There may be some initial installation challenges (because there are a huge range of pieces of utility software / hardware setups etc.) but once set-up it is not high maintenance - after each DCS update I clear my fxo and metashader folders, hop in the cockpit and, if the slowly flashing menu reoccurs, I reset my OB custom path and restart both VA and DCS (a couple of minutes to fix and restart). I know from your other post you say you have had issues with this but I am sure we can get you through this if you want.

 

Speed-of-heat mentions "plug and play" and that's really what it's about. It's NOT plug and play, but it'd be amazing if it was. It's frankly pretty impressive how well it DOES work, but that doesn't matter so much to the end-user when they can't work it out (e.g. svsmokey's examples.)

 

These QoL suggestions won't be simple ... the difference with planes' designers and modern software is the different roles they play in society. It's much more practical to retrain the small pool of already highly-trained pilots, than it is to correct a usability issue (that may include extremely expensive software AND hardware.)

 

Modern software has no such restrictions, and preferrably aims for that seamless UX. Not that I'm saying ignore the technical challenges - but to try and come up with solutions that are seamless, but also as easy to build and maintain as possible.

 

Now I've said that, I'll ignore it all and throw out my pie-in-the-sky wishlist. It really just boils down to:

 

1. single-click installation

2. hands-off maintenance

3. natural voice recognition (a la Google Assistant.)

 

None of those would be easy to pull of, but imagine if they existed! Implied in all this is to de-couple from Voice Attack. NLP (natural language processing) can be done with cloud services and I'm pretty sure lightweight off-line solutions as well (I'm thinking here that most users would be fine with connecting to cloud for NLP, but some would prefer to take a bit less robust NLP so they can be totally offline.

 

Stuff like that :) You know, simple stuff! (lol)

 

As a final comment - I *love* the theme of the configuration tool ... all plane switches and dials and such, but it really is quite hard to drive sometimes, especially with so many options that are pretty confusing to first-timers.

[speed-of-heat]

As a series of wishlist items i agree it would be cool. as would 90FPS in VR on maximum detail on affordable, or even available, hardware.

 

lets look at them

 

1. single-click installation - functionally unless hollywood writes it all from the ground up thats not going to happen...

 

2. hands-off maintenance - more achievable and it depends on what you mean by maintenance, but even then changes to the windows speech engine of to Voice Attack itself would likely cause some maintenance

 

3. natural voice recognition (a la Google Assistant.), yep using Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Microsoft Cognitive services, would all likely improve voice recognition, im not sure where that actually sits though and that might well be a VOICEATTACK problem rather than a Vaicom one, or essentially require a ground up rewrite ...

[VirusAM]

Yes VAICOMM requires a significant investment of time to get working properly but when you do it is satisfying.

I had a lot of troubles with voice recognition as i am not native English speaker.

Also with recognize non native accent i have hard times. With training and recording specific words it improved but it is far from working 100%

The strange thing is that usually windows (cortana) recognizes me 100% like google assistant and apple siri.

Don’t understand why voice attack engine recognize dollar when i say tower (and it is only an example).

I also disabled AIRIO because without the wheel I don’t know what to say to Jester (in VR I cannot have the vaicomm manual) and because I cannot get to recognize me in training mode (try to tell jester the navgrid thing) for it to work i need to record manually my speaking of about 400 words (i did that for the normal Vaicomm) and right now i have no time to do it. I will dedicate to it as i will have time

Anyway I repeat my self...when correctly configured vaicomm is a blast.

And I managed to get basic comms to work (tower wingman awacs tanker).

But now I get a strange menu popping up automatically and cannot solve it also with the suggestions on the forum (remove and reinstall exports).

So it is something that needs a lot of care to work, but when it works its great

[hornblower793]

I also disabled AIRIO because without the wheel I don’t know what to say to Jester (in VR I cannot have the vaicomm manual)

 

I know this is not your only issue, but I use a set of kneeboard pages for this and they work well in VR

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

[streakeagle]

If you fly the F-14 frequently enough, the AIRIO commands become 2nd nature. I keep a printout of them next to me in case I need to review some old commands or learn some new ones prior to entering VR. But after flying the F-14 almost every day for two weeks, I haven't looked at the print out for a while. The only problems I have are when Voice Attack doesn't recognize my speech correctly or the odd times when it crashes or gets hung "waiting for further input".

 

As for the original topic, put me in the camp of not wanting to fly without VAICOM. I was already using an old, free speech recognition tool called Shoot 1.6. I had Shoot programmed really well. But VAICOM integrates and updates with DCS World in ways Shoot never could. VAICOM keeps up with new commands and new modules, such as adding AIRIO. VAICOM also has lots of extremely useful/powerful options such as integration with SRS/VoiceChat, hiding text/muting own pilot speech, etc. If you value immersion, using realistically mapped push-to-talk buttons with speech recognition that accounts for radio types and capabilities is as much of a game-changer as VR. When integrated with something like SRS that does the same for voice chat as VAICOM does for talking to AI, the experience becomes super-immersive as there is little difference between talking to people and AI other than needing to speak in a distinct pattern with particular phrasing for the speech recognition to work well. Human or AI, you have to choose the correct radio and have it tuned to the correct frequency. Though you may find practicing the same patterns and consistent phrasing improves communication with real people, too.

Edited May 17, 2020 by streakeagle

[hornblower793]

Though you may find practicing the same patterns and consistent phrasing improves communication with real people, too.

 

 

It is why the military, police etc. do it in real life so couldn't agree more:thumbup:

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

I know this is not your only issue, but I use a set of kneeboard pages for this and they work well in VR

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-T835 using Tapatalk

good tip :thumbup:

[streakeagle]

It is why the military, police etc. do it in real life so couldn't agree more:thumbup:

 

8 years in the Navy, 6-1/2 at sea on submarines. Voice communications had rules. The word fire was reserved for flames, you either shoot or launch weapons. You open and shut valves not open and close valves. I was a horrible phone talker for drills. I could never understand what they were saying over the sound powered phones and even when I did it was too long and convoluted for me to repeat back what they said.

 

I was able to talk just fine as a sonar supervisor since I understood everything that was being said to me and could easily communicate what they wanted to know in the correct format...

"Conn, sonar. New contact, designate sierra two-four, bearing 137 on broadband. Initial classification is a merchant doing one hundred turns on four."

 

The phrase that pays when you are a submarine sonar supervisor on watch and call out, "Conn, sonar. Torpedo in the water!" Big things start happening automatically before the Officer of the Deck can even issue the order for torpedo evasion.

Edited May 18, 2020 by streakeagle

[mdee]

Here is my experience:

(This is more about Windows Speech Rec. than viacom) I am not native English speaker, but my accent is mild (been living in English speaking country for a long time). I've spent about an hour reading Viacom keywords/training speech recognition. No problems with VA recognizing me. I have 7 (yes, seven, I make music for fun and have specialized gear hooked up, plus 2 VR headsets, camera, headset) sound devices capable of recording, I just locked VA to my headset. No fumbling required.

 

I know exactly what to say because I've read the manual and memorized phrases/protocols.

 

I use Viacom with SRS and Discord at the same time. I have separate PTT button for Discord.

 

I don't even know how to operate radios from keyboard. Total setup time was about 30 minutes, it took me about 2, 2-3 hours sessions to memorize most comms phrases, including JTAC interactions, by just playing the game.

Edited May 21, 2020 by mdee

[streakeagle]

Here is my experience:

(This is more about Windows Speech Rec. than viacom) I am not native English speaker, but my accent is mild (been living in English speaking country for a long time). I've spent about an hour reading Viacom keywords/training speech recognition. No problems with VA recognizing me. I have 7 (yes, seven, I make music for fun and have specialized gear hooked up, plus 2 VR headsets, camera, headset) sound devices capable of recording, I just locked VA to my headset. No fumbling required.

 

I know exactly what to say because I've read the manual and memorized phrases/protocols.

 

I use Viacom with SRS and Discord at the same time. I have separate PTT button for Discord.

 

I don't even know how to operate radios from keyboard. Total setup time was about 30 minutes, it took me about 2, 2-3 hours sessions to memorize most comms phrases, including JTAC interactions, by just playing the game.

 

I have a separate ptt for discord, too. It is amazing how well SRS and VAICOM Pro integrate into the game communication system. I am an native American English speaker with a very neutral accent aside from a few southern words/phrases. My problems with recognition often relate to words with the same exact sound that require context to differentiate, so no amount of training will ever fix that.

 

For example, if I say "two" <pause> "engage bandits" the command is recognized every time, but if I don't pause long enough it become "to engage bandits", which is unrecognized. Computers would have a much easier time understanding English speech if there weren't words with different spellings but exactly the same sound, "two, "too", "to". I also tend to speak fast, so I have to concentrate on not only the pause between the identifier and the command, but the speed at which I pronounce single words as well as the short pause between words in a phrase. Most of the time, I don't have to think too hard about it, but sometimes I hit a phrase or word that forces me to focus on what I am saying and how I am saying it.

[speed-of-heat]

Try vfpx processing...

[mdee]

I have a separate ptt for discord, too. It is amazing how well SRS and VAICOM Pro integrate into the game communication system. I am an native American English speaker with a very neutral accent aside from a few southern words/phrases. My problems with recognition often relate to words with the same exact sound that require context to differentiate, so no amount of training will ever fix that.

 

For example, if I say "two" <pause> "engage bandits" the command is recognized every time, but if I don't pause long enough it become "to engage bandits", which is unrecognized. Computers would have a much easier time understanding English speech if there weren't words with different spellings but exactly the same sound, "two, "too", "to". I also tend to speak fast, so I have to concentrate on not only the pause between the identifier and the command, but the speed at which I pronounce single words as well as the short pause between words in a phrase. Most of the time, I don't have to think too hard about it, but sometimes I hit a phrase or word that forces me to focus on what I am saying and how I am saying it.

 

I'd try alternative VSPX processing, you don't need to pause between keywords. Works for me, although I turned it off because it doesn't allow for callsigns in the comms and I am used to it.

 

I too have issues with words sounding the same.. I try to set up aliases when I can.

[Fri13]

In truth, I came across VAICOM when looking for a solution to navigate the dynamic menu system in VR, without a keyboard, without needing to bind over a dozen keys to my HOTAS. Now I've been on this journey, I think I would never have gone on this journey if I had have realised I could click on the settings as I use the virtual hands for cockpit clicking ... they can click the comms menu so ... I just didn't know that worked! All I needed all along was a comms menu binding.

 

Years ago when Oculus hand controllers were implemented in DCSI stopped using any other binding in HOTAS than real ones. It means PTT or ICS and then clicking the menu for radio. But it is counter to realism as radio is to be spoken. But problem is AI, not the system. Like fly with humans and all OK, but with AI you needs to be specific, and correctly formatting all.

 

If I need to take hand off from throttle to flip gear handle down, it is realism. If I need to take hand off to click radio menu, it is unreal.

 

I want radio to be usable with 4/8-way hats. Just keep pressing direction to get wanted. I don't want it to be big and obstructive like Jester in F-14 but small pie on bottom of view.

As I don't either want to talk to AI and even less to talk myself to perform tasks like "flaps down" and such.

 

So the voice systems are not answer for me.