Jester Menu QOL improvements from a single-player perspective

[Nealius]

I almost exclusively play single player due to life circumstances that prevent much multiplayer availability, and the only thing really keeping me from enjoying the Tomcat on the game side is the Jester menu. I use VoiceAttack to mitigate some issues, but there are four major ones remaining despite voice commands:

1. Menu is too big: reduces SA

I can only use the Jester menu when it's safe for me to go blind for however long I need the menu up. That really precludes combat, where I'm going to be needing Jester the most with the radar commands. VoiceAttack shortens the duration that the menu is on screen, but it's still on screen long enough to cause problems by blocking my view. One concrete example that regularly happens to me is when tanking. I tell Jester to shut up so I don't get the joke loops, then when plugged in I need to take the duct tape off his mouth so I can get the fuel state callouts. VoiceAttack opens the menu, cycles through Crew Contract, closes the menu, great now I've disconnected because the Jester menu blocked my visual cues to maintain position at the tanker.

It would be great to have an option for a smaller menu, or even direct keybinds to more Jester functions so we can program those through VoiceAttack without having to pay for another piece of software on top of VoiceAttack (Viacom), and without having the menu open at all.

2. Radar elevation: low/mid/high is too nebulous

"Low/Mid/High" doesn't mean anything when on brain-stem power (which is me 24/7), so a notation with altitude blocks for each would be awesome. If the elevation is 6,000~22,000ft notate as "06 ~ 22" for example.

3. Break lock command

I could have sworn this was implemented, but when I flew last night I couldn't find it anywhere. Jester was stubbornly locked onto a contact and wouldn't lock onto anything else. I could not find a "break lock" command anywhere.

4. Reset radar command

For those times when Jester just won't do what you want, a "reset" command that puts the radar back into default mission-start settings would be useful.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Nealius

[IronMike]

4 minutes ago, Nealius said:

I almost exclusively play single player due to life circumstances that prevent much multiplayer availability, and the only thing really keeping me from enjoying the Tomcat on the game side is the Jester menu. I use VoiceAttack to mitigate some issues, but there are three major ones remaining despite voice commands:

1. Menu is too big: reduces SA

I can only use the Jester menu when it's safe for me to go blind for however long I need the menu up. That really precludes combat, where I'm going to be needing Jester the most with the radar commands. VoiceAttack shortens the duration that the menu is on screen, but it's still on screen long enough to cause problems by blocking my view. One concrete example that regularly happens to me is when tanking. I tell Jester to shut up so I don't get the joke loops, then when plugged in I need to take the duct tape off his mouth so I can get the fuel state callouts. VoiceAttack opens the menu, cycles through Crew Contract, closes the menu, great now I've disconnected because the Jester menu blocked my visual cues to maintain position at the tanker.

It would be great to have an option for a smaller menu, or even direct keybinds to more Jester functions so we can program those through VoiceAttack without having to pay for another piece of software on top of VoiceAttack (Viacom), and without having the menu open at all.

2. Radar elevation: low/mid/high is too nebulous

"Low/Mid/High" doesn't mean anything when on brain-stem power (which is me 24/7), so a notation with altitude blocks for each would be awesome. If the elevation is 6,000~22,000ft notate as "06 ~ 22" for example.

3. Break lock command

I could have sworn this was implemented, but when I flew last night I couldn't find it anywhere. Jester was stubbornly locked onto a contact and wouldn't lock onto anything else. I could not find a "break lock" command anywhere.

4. Reset radar command

For those times when Jester just won't do what you want, a "reset" command that puts it back into default mission-start settings would be useful.

Thank you, these are great suggestions. He already uses a reset command in the Lantirn menu, so I doubt it would be a big deal to implement it generally. We will look into everything else!

[iantron]

You need VAICOM Pro for Voice Attack.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

[near_blind]

30 minutes ago, Nealius said:

3. Break lock command

 

30 minutes ago, Nealius said:

4. Reset radar command

In the interim, momentarily pressing PLM for any contact not on your ADL within 5 miles will effectively accomplish both tasks. 

[Nealius]

21 minutes ago, iantron said:

You need VAICOM Pro for Voice Attack.

Like I said in my opening post, we shouldn't have to buy two 3rd party apps just to interact with Jester on a competent level. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Nealius

[iantron]

I agree actually, but I wouldn't anticipate Heatblur getting into voice recognition for this. If they do, more power to them. In the mean time, it's a very elegant way to interact with jester. Just a suggestion of course.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

:facepalm: I didn't even see your original specific mention of VAICOM actually.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

[Nealius]

We don't really need built-in voice recognition, just more keybinds for Jester functions. That way we can program our VoiceAttack profiles to hit the keybind directly and bypass the UI menu. With so many keybinds mapped to my HOTAS and MFDs, I can unbind the keyboard from those commands and have plenty left over to assign to Jester. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Nealius

[Biggus]

While we're at it, would it be possible to change the position of the Jester wheel and the eyeball lantirn mode circles?  The current position makes it very hard to use the bottom half of the eyeball direction circle wearing glasses. I end up with my focal point being above my glasses, and I'm quite near sighted so I struggle to use the current interface.

[Lt_Jaeger]

I disagree with you on the "no need for voice recognition". I started the Tomcat with day one VAICOM, so I actually don't even know how the Jester wheel looks (besides some little tests). Yes, it has a steep leaning curve, yes, it's an additional buy but also YES, it feels just natural to talk to jester and don't have anything popping up right in your face (vr user). It adds just a ton of immersion, but admittedly, also frustration sometimes and don't solve the problems you mentioned (exept for the wheel, it's gone). 

 

Wonder what wonders heatblur could do if they would step down this road. (voice recognition for jester) 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Lt_Jaeger

[Hoirtel]

Just on Viacom, its just a plugin for voiceattack, not another bit of software. It's a long list of loaded commands and a fair few other features - Well worth the few euros it costs especially if you are using voiceattack already. 

[Spurts]

how hard is it to learn all the commands to use viacom?  how do you learn what to say?

[Jayhawk1971]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb Spurts:

how hard is it to learn all the commands to use viacom?  how do you learn what to say?

Not that hard, as most of the voice commands are pretty straightforward and logical. For example, after about two missions I had the most common LANTIRN commands down cold. 

There's a PDF with a list of all voice commands in the manual, grouped in their respective categories (JTAC, ATC, Tanker, Flight, AIRIO). If you've trained your Windows voice recognition well and trained (some of) the VAICOM commands within the VAICOM plugin once, you're good to go. Many commands have one or more aliases, so if you can't get a specific command or recipient recognized, you often have alternative commands. 

I also copy/pasted that list to the Tomcat kneeboard for quick reference 

You also get additional, "hidden" commands in VAICOM Pro that are not accessible via the DCS menu structure in game.

Edit: I fully agree with @Lt_Jaeger: VAICOM - and especially the AIRIO extension - is a huge immersion boost, and very helpful for keeping one's SA up (not having to fiddle with the Jester wheel in the middle of something important frees up vital synapses, aka "brain RAM".  )

 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Jayhawk1971

[iantron]

In general I agree with Jayhawk, but I'll point out that it will take a long time to learn ALL the commands. Most likely you never will. However just like learning the aircraft, you'll focus on a few things at a time and gain proficiency. Pair that with a good kneeboard, ask for help when you can't figure something out, and you'll be good.

[Jayhawk1971]

Yep, most likely you won't remember each and every command available. However, I was mainly referring to the common Jester commands: just like remembering which button combination to press on the Hornet's or Warthog's HOTAS for certain tasks, the same will apply to memorizing the voice commands. Do it a couple of times, and you'll have it down pretty quick.

For the more obscure commands that are mission specific, like for example JTAC interaction, I just look up the relevant commands as part of my pre-mission planning.

Besides the occasional revisit of the Viper and Hornet, my absolute main focus in DCS is the Tomcat, so my voice command needs are mostly with Jester, and within Jester functionality mostly navigation and DL ("navigate steerpoint x", "TACAN tune Roosevelt", "Link host magic"), Jester radar micromanagement ("track single bogey ahead"), countermeasures and ordinance settings ("countermeasures manual", "flares mode pilot"; "select markeightythrees", "set fuse nosetail", "set ripple time 990") and the whole LANTIRN thing.

Outside of Jester I use the respective PTT buttons to interact with ground crew, marshal, tanker, flight, land-based ATC, and very rarely, JTAC.

In some SP missions you need to interact using the F-10 menu, which you can also do verbally ("take 10, take 1").

The VAICOM kneeboard plugin is also pretty neat, and very helpful. For example, it automatically notes Case III marshal instructions, so you don't have to remember them or write them down yourself.

Edit 2:

I forgot to mention that you can also make use of various AIRIO root commands, which then display additional options, so you don't have to memorize so many commands. For example, you can simply say "navigate", and a dialog window on the top right corner will give you all available command options related to navigation. Or TACAN tune will give you a list with available units that you can order Jester to directly tune to, or an example how to make Jester manually tune a specific frequency.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Jayhawk1971
added a lot of additional information because I'm in a blabbery mood. :)