Provide Keyboard Bindings for all Commands!

[LeCuvier]

Background:
I'm trying to set up Voice Attack profiles for the Hornet (could be any other module). This requires that I assign keyboard key sequences for each of the commands I want to triger by speech. Sounds easy.

Issue:
The Hornet has about 1000 commands that can be bound to keys, but only about 240 have default key sequences defined. In simple words, only about 25% of the possible commands have default key sequences. For all other commands (the ones I'm interested in), I have to decide which key sequence I want to use, and enter them in Options/Controls, before I can do anything in Voice Attack.
That's a huge task being dumped on the individual users. And there is a fair chance that over time ED will define default keyboard bindings for some of the commands and use key sequences that we have already used for other commands. The potential for confusion is great. And a lot of duplicated effort across the user community. Because, the problem I'm having with Voice attack is the same for users of TARGET or any other software that generate keyboard key sequences.

My request is that ED should provide complete sets of keyboard default bindings early on in the life of a new module.

Edited December 12, 2021 by LeCuvier

[cfrag]

While I appreciate the idea, and think that it has some merit (for the sake of user comfort), I believe that the issue itself is rather minor.

As a fellow VA (what a GREAT tool!!!) user (with VR - VR allows no keyboard access, so any key that's not bound to HOTAS or in direct view of your HMD is not accessible at all. Cold-starting the Hornet with you having to pressing the BIT key while operating the OSD is a real joy in VR...) I think that the actual number of keys you'll end up 'wiring' up to VA is rather small, and most of those that you do are already assigned to keyboard. So is it annoying that you need to come up with your own keypress in DCS before you can assign it in VA? Yes. Is it a big problem? I think it's marginally worse than coming up with your own HOTAS configurations, and entirely manageable. Now, "better" is always "good"'s worst enemy, I agree, and if ED goes the extra mile, I'd applaud them as much as you. In the meantime, I'd consider this a low-priority item.

Just out of curiosity (because I'm always in search of better VA sets for my modules) - which commands have you assigned to VA for your Hornet, and what is your experience with it so far?

-ch

Edited December 12, 2021 by cfrag

[Bailey]

I like this idea. 

11 minutes ago, cfrag said:

which commands have you assigned to VA for your Hornet...

All of them  (Not actually all, but most that make sense.)
It also makes things like controller and VA profiles easier to share with others when all of the keyboard binds are uniform by default. 

[cfrag]

1 minute ago, Bailey said:

All of them  (Not actually all, but most that make sense.)

Ok, now I feel really bad. I only have a hand full, and even with those have difficulties remembering their VA designation under duress. Do you have some good VA naming scheme that I can emulate? I mean, I forget their correct designation quickly, making it very difficult to come up with the correct VA phrase, so I might as well not have assigned them at all...  

[LeCuvier]

5 hours ago, cfrag said:

Just out of curiosity (because I'm always in search of better VA sets for my modules) - which commands have you assigned to VA for your Hornet, and what is your experience with it so far?

-ch

 

So far I have only created the voice commands for communication with wingmen, as they have default bindings and they are good for all aircrafts.
When I looked at Hornet-specific commands I found that none of those I wanted to start with had default key bindings. So I will now start with figuring out a good approach for defining sets of key combinations that make some sense and that don't conflict with the few ED has provided. I'm not going to try and get a few commands in quickly; I want to do it right.

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, LeCuvier said:

and they are good for all aircrafts.

FYI the plural for “aircraft” in English is “aircraft” not “aircrafts”

[LeCuvier]

1 hour ago, SharpeXB said:

FYI the plural for “aircraft” in English is “aircraft” not “aircrafts”

Yes I know, it's a very inconsistent language.

[Bailey]

10 hours ago, cfrag said:

Ok, now I feel really bad. I only have a hand full, and even with those have difficulties remembering their VA designation under duress. Do you have some good VA naming scheme that I can emulate? I mean, I forget their correct designation quickly, making it very difficult to come up with the correct VA phrase, so I might as well not have assigned them at all...  

My VA profiles that I have made should be in my signature if you’d like to take a look. My naming scheme is typically [object] [action]. For example: Battery on. Wings fold. Etc. For more complex things I use a simple command but call multiple commands within. An easy example is how to tune radios. Instead of saying “Twist knob 1 left, twist knob two right, twist knob two right, twist knob three left…” I say “tune frequency 246” and in the code it does all of the correct actions. That may be an obvious example, but expanding that to other kinds of command is crucial for remembering the least number of commands. For most of the aircraft I have VA’ed I can simply say “Give me [weapon]”. If I said “Give me guns” VA will configure the entire aircraft such that when I pull the trigger bullets come out. Same for rockets, bombs, etc. In essence, a whole mission could be the following commands, in order: “Autostart”, “clean up”, “give me bombs”, “prepare for landing”, and done. The only button I pressed ingame for the mission was the bomb release (but I still have a “bombs away!” command just for fun too.)

[LeCuvier]

Yes, consistency in structure and wording is key to make VA usable at a large scale. Plus, I discovered you have to use correct English. Example:
I had commands starting with "Wingman" (I'm German and tend to join nouns), and I pronounced them loud and clear. But VA never recognized them. Reason: The Windows speech recognition would return "wing man" (which is correct English I believe) while VA expected "wingman", and VA is not smart enough to understand that these are equivalent.

Edited December 13, 2021 by LeCuvier

[MAXsenna]

@LeCuvier

While VoiceAttack is nice for cockpit controls. I'd highly recommend you to have a look at VAICOMPRO, as it pretty much solves all the communication "issues" in VA, with shifting menus in DCS. 

VAICOM uses VA as a gateway to the Microsoft Speech Recognition engine, but doesn't send keybinds nor uses the communication menu at all. 

As for missing keybinds in modules, I support the OP. I have several Razer RGB macro keyboards with individual key lighting. Which is a very simplistic and cheap alternative for button boxes. 

Cheers!