DCS Newsletter Discussion 13th October 2023 - Voice Chat | Data Link Development Report | MAD Black Shark Campaign

[BIGNEWY]

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,

An interesting aspect of the DCS 2.9 update coming soon is a substantial improvement to Voice Chat, and we think you will enjoy it. We would like to extend a special thanks to our Closed Beta testers who have provided valuable feedback to help tune this great feature. 

DCS 2.9 will also see a dramatic improvement in the realism and detail of datalinks in the DCS: F/A-18C, DCS: F-16C Viper, DCS: A-10C II Tank Killer and DCS: AH-64D. Currently, player aircraft are limited to exchanging data within a Mission Editor aircraft group. With 2.9, each aircraft type is assigned a unique identification that is used to create a network. This allows the creation and editing of datalink networks whilst on a mission. 

Get ready for DCS: MAD Black Shark Campaign by Stone Sky. This upcoming campaign will include 12 narrative missions for DCS: Black Shark 3, custom liveries, and missions from Special Operations Forces close air support and combat search and rescue. Stay tuned for the release!

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely,
Eagle Dynamics

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/newsletters/22b02d6863b818e597ecfeecccecd777/

[Tom Kazansky]

From the newsletter:

"We are also working on a separate voice chat program, which will allow you to communicate with units in multiplayer servers without having to actually run the simulator."

[Gunfreak]

Can you make to so the voice effects also apply to the AI voice? So we get some ww2 style coms in singleplayer?

[dawgie79]

And at some point I hope we can use Voice Chat to talk to AI in singleplayer. 

[sthompson]

8 hours ago, dawgie79 said:

And at some point I hope we can use Voice Chat to talk to AI in singleplayer. 

You can do that already with VAICOM PRO Community Edition.

[Blackfyre]

Is there still no Combined Arms support for Voice Chat? It is a pretty essential function for voice communication.

[Pride37]

null

The holly Graal!! 

 

But any idea what this option is?? "Screen Space Something"??

Edited October 18, 2023 by Pride37

[Hiob]

Some kind of sharpening? Screen Space Sharpening….

I hope they give us an equally thorough explanation of the new graphics settings later.

Something else that came to my mind earlier when flying: It would be so cool if the volume levels (not only radios, but in-cockpit and so on) would be on a per aircraft basis. 

[AdrianL]

16 minutes ago, Pride37 said:

But any idea what this option is

Likely to be 'Screen Space Shadows'. Basically adds shadows using objects visible on the screen for additional fidelity, as it can add shadows to places that shadow maps cannot.

[BIGNEWY]

null

Screen Space Shadows. SSS improves environmental shadow casting basically.

[NRG-Vampire]

2 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

null

Screen Space Shadows. SSS improves environmental shadow casting basically.

SSS - Is that for NVidia users only, or for AMD users as well ?
TY

[Pride37]

15 minutes ago, BIGNEWY said:

null

Screen Space Shadows. SSS improves environmental shadow casting basically.

Thanks for clarification BIGNEWY, can't wait to try that out!

[Dragon1-1]

@BIGNEWY, I have a question about voice chat. Is the UI the only way to enable encryption, or will operating the Have Quick controls in the cockpit work, as well? 

On 10/14/2023 at 6:57 AM, sthompson said:

You can do that already with VAICOM PRO Community Edition.

The problem is that VAICOM doesn't use voice chat, but its own PTTs, which are not configurable per aircraft. This is an issue for setups with wildly different radio configurations.

[sthompson]

52 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

The problem is that VAICOM doesn't use voice chat, but its own PTTs, which are not configurable per aircraft. This is an issue for setups with wildly different radio configurations.

That's only a problem if you insist on mapping different PTT buttons per aircraft. And if you must do that then there are workarounds via more sophisticated programming within VoiceAttack. Many of us have been using VAICOM alongside SRS for years without any problems to enable both voice chat and voice interaction with the AI. ED has some catching up to do. I'm encouraged, however, by a Wags video posted today that closes with a hint that the new DCS voice chat will (perhaps not right away) enable a variety of user-created options.

[westr]

2 hours ago, Pride37 said:

null

The holly Graal!! 

 

But any idea what this option is?? "Screen Space Something"??

 

Will this have an effect on VR though? 

[Dragon1-1]

33 minutes ago, sthompson said:

That's only a problem if you insist on mapping different PTT buttons per aircraft. 

I do, in fact, like to configure PTT buttons roughly as they are on the real thing. Though TBH, it seems VAICOM just plain doesn't like my accent, and no amount of training seems to fix that. It's also more restricted than I thought it would be. Often you have to say a command like it is given in DCS, not like it'd be said by a real pilot, which irks me a bit (nobody I know in aviation says "wheelchocks", for example, but it looks for that exact word). While VAICOM is a nice idea, but I found it clunky and gamey in its implementation. You can control the AI with your voice, but it doesn't feel like talking to a virtual wingman. Some of that is general crappyness of DCS AI comms, but part of it is on VAICOM. An integrated system would hopefully support a more natural way of talking.

Speaking of comms, an interesting idea came to my mind: since we can now simulate radio distortion effects for human voices, why not apply it to voice actors for AI? Have them record in the clear, then apply appropriate effects based on what radio they're talking on. This would add some variety and distinctiveness to AI comms.

[Dr_Pavelheer]

@NRG-Vampire It works on anything, just a trick games use to have small objects cast shadows without tanking performance

[MAXsenna]

@Dragon1-1
Apologies, but I need to correct you on certain points.
(Aaaand, did you read the manual? You should, it's very good).
 

42 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

I do, in fact, like to configure PTT buttons roughly as they are on the real thing.

Same with me, that's why I have different mappings for each modules. My main issue is that VoiceAttack only supports four peripherals.
You need to use exposed variables though. But that's also cool for ordinary VoiceAttack commands.

My PTTs

Example for bringing up the kneeboard.

 

44 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

Though TBH, it seems VAICOM just plain doesn't like my accent, and no amount of training seems to fix that.

Which training? The VAICOM one? Or the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine, guess what, which actually does the recognition opposed to popular belief.
VoiceAttack recommends doing it at least three times, I've done it twenty. The VAICOM training does work, but it also trains the MS Speech Recognition Engine, which works way better with longer sentences. If you wanna do some hardcore training, start dictating in Microsoft Word, which is sort of what the VAICOM training does. It actually uses dictation tool. Which has it's own flaws and is cumbersome...

1 hour ago, Dragon1-1 said:

It's also more restricted than I thought it would be. Often you have to say a command like it is given in DCS, not like it'd be said by a real pilot, which irks me a bit (nobody I know in aviation says "wheelchocks", for example, but it looks for that exact word).

You can change the commands to whatever you like. Just add an alias. What Hollywood did, was just reusing the commands, (the text really), in the radio menu. Which you are well aware often differ very much from what the pilot voice over actually says. I've changed most of the commands to my needs, and to what the voice over says. I do love the fact though, that I can suppress the voice overs and I'd love know what pilots actually say. But for now " Texaco, Colt one one, request rejoin", works for me, as I don't know any better.

1 hour ago, Dragon1-1 said:

While VAICOM is a nice idea, but I found it clunky and gamey in its implementation. You can control the AI with your voice, but it doesn't feel like talking to a virtual wingman. Some of that is general crappyness of DCS AI comms, but part of it is on VAICOM. An integrated system would hopefully support a more natural way of talking.

Well, YMMV of course, but this is the current limitation of VoiceAttack, and not of VAICOM really. In the VAICOM VoiceAttack profile you have defined your PTTs, which when pressed basically unmutes your mike and VoiceAttack records the command, passes the recorded sound to Microsoft Speech Recognition, which then does a speech-to-text guesstimate, then passes that text back to VoiceAttack which then compares it to the keywords in the profile which you pasted from the VAICOM Keywords Editor. If it finds an expression that fits, it then passes it to VACIOM which then sends the command to DCS. Phew... 

Now, it will be very interesting to see what a new ATC implementation in DCS will be like. And after seeing what BeyondATC has accomplished in another sim, I fully agree with you. This is what we need in DCS, and it should be an inhouse module/part of the core, and would solve the PTT issue, if only ED could disable the pilots voice overs in MP that is...
BTW, BeyondATC does also use Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine, which DCS also should use. No need to reinvent the wheel. Which means the more you use BeyondATC, the better VACIOM/"future core implementation" gets. See now how we can actually have the cake and eat it too?

1 hour ago, Dragon1-1 said:

Speaking of comms, an interesting idea came to my mind: since we can now simulate radio distortion effects for human voices, why not apply it to voice actors for AI? Have them record in the clear, then apply appropriate effects based on what radio they're talking on. This would add some variety and distinctiveness to AI comms.

Very good idea! Go make a wish!

[Dragon1-1]

40 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

Just add an alias.

Yeah, for every damn command? I know very well this is fixable, but the list of commands is vast and it'd be a lot of fiddling. If I paid for it, I'd be rather miffled. Now that CE is around, a community sourced command pack would probably go a long way here. In fact, I was kind of waiting to see if the community would fix the aforementioned complaints, since I'm not the only one to bring this up.

Also, I do know it uses MSRE. I've used its built in training. Maybe I'll try the VAICOM option, whenever I feel like giving it another try. However, this is a bit bothersome in that I use the VR headset's mic for flying, so I can't train it without the headset on. Just another way in which VAICOM is cumbersome.

What we need is a built in system talking to MSRE directly, and either plenty of good voice actors or a good selection of AI-made synthetic voices. I'd prefer human voice actors (AI still sounds a bit sterile, while HB absolutely nailed Jester), but whatever they pick, it needs to be consistent and open to campaign creators, so that we don't have a pilot speaking in two different voices depending on whether it's prerecorded dialogue or comms.

Edited October 18, 2023 by Dragon1-1

[Pride37]

2 hours ago, westr said:

Will this have an effect on VR though? 

It should... Depends on the integration quality. BIGNEWY already said it worked great in VR for him, so let's hope!

[MAXsenna]

24 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

Yeah, for every damn command? I know very well this is fixable, but the list of commands is vast and it'd be a lot of fiddling.

Nah, just the ones you don't like. You mentioned "wheel chocks". Just change that command to "chief remove the chocks" or whatever you'd call'em. Again, Hollywood just took what was already in the game, and I'm sure the whole community would love if others gave their input if anything should be changed in the default commands. I'm not sure if anyone else has come forward, but I guess not as most of us ain't real pilots. All the commands are listed in the manual of course.

What's CE? 

34 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

I use the VR headset's mic for flying, so I can't train it without the headset on. Just another way in which VAICOM is cumbersome.

Again, this has nothing to do with VAICOM. MSRE wants different profiles for different microphones for better recognition.  

Absolutely agree with your last paragraph, and it would be awesome if DLC campaigns could use existing commands or an implementation with AI like BeyondATC. 

[Dragon1-1]

16 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

What's CE? 

Community Edition. Which means it's basically up to the community to supply the fixes, not just suggest them and hope Hollywood puts them in. IMO, this really shouldn't be left up to the end user to fiddle with the commands just to get something that doesn't sound stupid (seriously, who in the world says "wheelchocks"?).

I'm not a real pilot, but I do have experience with much superior (and true to RL procedures) comms from the other sim. I even used voice control with it briefly. 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Dragon1-1

[MAXsenna]

Community Edition. Which means it's basically up to the community to supply the fixes, not just suggest them and hope Hollywood puts them in. IMO, this really shouldn't be left up to the end user to fiddle with the commands just to get something that doesn't sound stupid (seriously, who in the world says "wheelchocks"?).
I'm not a real pilot, but I do have experience with much superior (and true to RL procedures) comms from the other sim. I even used voice control with it briefly. 

Duh... Of course. Thought you were talking about something else.
Well, there are two guys coding, feel free to chip in and add/change what's missing through Github. To be honest I've not heard that much complaints really. Us involved spends most of our time helping people to get it to work because people can't be bothered to follow instructions and RTFM. Hehe

Sent from my SM-A536B using Tapatalk

[westr]

10 hours ago, Pride37 said:

It should... Depends on the integration quality. BIGNEWY already said it worked great in VR for him, so let's hope!

That’s great news. I’m really looking forward to this update. I’ve spent so much £££s over the years on VR and rigs and DCS maps and modules, just want a little more performance and things looking just a little nicer. Would be great to get some VR updates. 

[Gunfreak]

If DLSS can help with the performance of cities (cities are my nr 1 fps killer graphically) that will be nice. Tho I think Vulkan will do more there.

Sadly I've not seen much effect from the MT, especially where it was needed most(Unit heavy missing with lots of AI thinking happening) there was some improvement but not a lot.