Text to speech MP radio option

[draconus]

What if we could write a text and send it as an audio message (text to speech*) through choosen radio in MP?

• We could "talk" to others using keyboard - solution for those that has to keep silence in the room or have other reasons. Maybe add some common text** like "Roger", "Wilco" or "Unable" and have it bindable.
• We could "hear" others that way, even if they used a keyboard.
• Compared to just a chat it's more realistic to use actual cockpit radios and correct settings, and actually hear others rather than reading the chat.
• Can be a part of current VoiceChat.

*Preferably two voice actors to choose from (male/female).

**The examples are NATO based as it's the most common use in DCS but could also include some redfor or WW2 (Allies/Axis) brevity.

Edited March 7, 2024 by draconus

[cfrag]

2 hours ago, draconus said:

What if we could write a text and send it as an audio message (text to speech*) through choosen radio in MP?

While this is straight out for me (and anyone else flying VR) I'm wondering if this would really be a step up from the existing chat -- plus we'd need to solve the difficulty that usually, the entire keyboard is populated with commands for your aircraft, so this would have to be somehow overridden (since chat already solves this, I think definitely doable).

I'm using elevenLabs' very fine text to speech service - be aware that unless you have some good service, whatever tts service you use, there will be a noticeable delay, and the quality of tzhe resulting audio will not be where you would expect it. But I think it should be doable. All you then need to solve is to pipe that audio stream from your tts system to your input so it can be sent to the server so it can be sent to the radio. So - IMHO doable, but seems expensive for something that built in chat already solves to a high degree (>90%?).