Voice Activated Commands

[StrongHarm]

I find that giving voice commands in Blackshark for the radio calls immerses me more in the sim. I use the app VAC (http://www.dwvac.com/download.html) which is WELL worth the $20, but has a trial period. I use it mostly for radio calls, but I have some views programmed in as well. I didn't want to put in all the switches etc, because having to reach for the key to close the gate on a target is part of the experience I think. Adding commands is really simple. You just type it in, give it a key assignment, or long line of assignments, then you can say it and it will happen. For instance, if I say 'Flight, StrongHarm. Go formation Pincer Right' it does the key commands: \ F1 F2 F1, and my flight responds.

 

Attached is a spreadsheet with all the commands I use, and an XML that you can import into VAC. You have to replace the confirmation sound (mine says 'go ahead StrongHarm') and also replace the word StrongHarm in the commands with your own name. Other than that, the radio and some view commands, and the PVI switches (couldn't resist) are there and ready to take voice commands.

 

edit: btw.. in my setup you say 'open channel' to make it start taking commands and 'close channel' to stop input, so if your wife comes jabbering at your shoulder she won't make your flight RTB when she's bitching about the garbage.

edit: I added a video to Post12 of this thread

 

UPDATE 09.07.14: The menus have changed a lot in the last four years. I've updated the VAC .xml and spreadsheet to reflect the changes. I've also eliminated the need to "Wingman One" (pause) "Engage Target" (pause) "Data Link Target" (pause) "Multiple Targets". Now you can simply say "Wingman One Engage Data Link Multiple Targets". All voice command strings have been consolidated into flight or wingman specific strings with up to five commands taking place from a single sentence.

 

UPDATE 11.16.14: NEW VERSION ATTACHED TO THIS POST:

Further refinement of the profile. Added a string of commands that clears the radio menu before each ATC command. There were contextual issues (F2 means something else if you're inbound landing FI) that this resolves. I made this a standalone command as well, just say 'Clear Coms' if you need to reset the radio menu. Also added Ground Crew commands and reformatted the reference and added PNG and XLS to the ZIP.

 

UPDATE 09.24.16: NEW VERSION ATTACHED TO THIS POST:

Made some corrections and additions. Added kneeboard reference. Just drop the KA-50 folder from the zip file into your SavedGames\DCS\Kneeboard folder (may have to create it). This will provide you with a voice command reference on your kneeboard while in flight. Updated full pic and spreadsheet also included in zip.

 

BlackSharkVACcommands.zip

Edited September 24, 2016 by StrongHarm

[Boberro]

How good VAC is in speak recognition?

[StrongHarm]

I've noticed that it takes the commands even if I'm yawning.. which is pretty good. One thing to note is that 'Go Formation Cruise' will be received easier than just saying 'Cruise'. If you have two words in your command set that are similar, it's good to mix in some other words or change the phrase.

 

edit: take note that with VAC you don't have to train the voice command with your voice.. it's good enough that you can just type it in and it will recognize you saying it.. or anyone.

Edited January 21, 2010 by StrongHarm

[EtherealN]

Sounds like it has matured quite a bit, I'll have to try it out sometime.

 

I had some fun with that Xbox strategy game by Clancy (End War?) that had that as it's main feature. Was funny, but the VAC was a bit flaky and there had been so many design concessions to it in the control of units (only worked with respect to pre-defined points and so on) that I never went beyond the demo.

 

But for radio comms with AI in BS... That'll be awesome. :)

[ZaltysZ]

edit: take note that with VAC you don't have to train the voice command with your voice.. it's good enough that you can just type it in and it will recognize you saying it.. or anyone.

 

Not exactly :) VAC only generates keystrokes, manages profiles and etc., but does not do speech recognition. It uses Microsoft Speech Recognition, which is automatically included with Vista/Win7 and can be also installed into XP. Speech training could be done via Speech applet in Control Panel. It is good idea to train it, if you are not native English speaker, so that "accidents" could be avoided.

 

I use VAC with Falcon and despite my English is awful, Speech API does very good job, however it should be remembered that the more distinct are the commands, the more accurate recognition will be.

 

There is one culprit. If you have localized Windows version and it has native speech recognition pack (i.e. German), VAC will use it. So with German version, VAC won't accept English commands. It may be problem for lower edition of Windows, which do not allow multilingual packs and speech recognition is fixed to one language only.

[Chizzy101]

I use VAC for my AI radio comms, and I find it very good. It adds a lot to the immersion for me and was well worth the price. You can use it to send any keystrokes to the sim, but personally I just use it for radio stuff. You can see it in action in this vid:

 

There was another voice command package that I tried out (I forget the name now), which was free, but I couldn't get it to work well in any of my sims.

[StrongHarm]

I have very good diction from the military radio discipline they crammed into my skull, so this may affect it, but I don't believe I've ever had to give a voice command to VAC twice, and I've never trained windows speech recognition (I didn't even know it used it). There was a note in the VAC setup about how important it is not to have a distorted or crappy mic. I was blown away by how well the software worked. After using Dragon Naturally Speaking and other products I wasn't expecting much. The GUI is easy as hell to use to. I put 100+ commands in my Blackshark profile in just a few hours.

[Woots]

You can see it in action in this vid:

 

The only thing unrealistic is the game voice repeating the order you just gave. I would replace those sound files with a "blank" sound file. That way when you give the command to the VAC all you will hear back is the wingmen acknowledging. Wonder how hard it would be to make that "blank" sound file.

[Shaman]

I must confess I have also purchased VAC and I don't feel like flying without it even once. Using voice commands instead of keys to talk to AI is something that comes naturally to me, like using mouse, TrackIR and HOTAS... when using keys and menus feels completely weird and unergonomic distracting me from flying and ruining my effectiveness and immersion. I find voice recognition real good even from start - however I have trained it to recognize me better using three different texts.

[Frederf]

I downloaded Shoot! a while ago in hopes of getting voice comms working for the AI radio but never managed to make heads of tails of it. I will definately try this!

[Cyb0rg]

I was a big shoot fan, but had no support :(

Using VAC for a same time now, and very happy with it. :)

[StrongHarm]

Youtube Example

 

I created a new set of commands today for designating targets and engaging my wingmen. It places several keystrokes on a single voice command. It didn't take me long because I did some preparation first.

 

The recording is pretty low quality as I used Microsoft Community Clips. Doesn't do a great job of grabbing anything DX it's free. It looks like setup is choppy or VAC doesn't respond right away. This isn't the case.. my sys pwns and VAC works in the millisecond range.

 

[HiJack]

Nice! :D Seams like it works!

[norm]

great, just is there a way to get rid of your vutural self's voice, so only you are the one saying the order?

[StrongHarm]

great, just is there a way to get rid of your vutural self's voice, so only you are the one saying the order?

 

Norm, I wish I knew, I'd like to turn it off as well. I searched through the luas and cfgs and found nothing obvious. I wasn't able to find a thread on it either. Hopefully an ED person will happen past this thread and give us the skinny.

[Sabre-TLA]

Game Commander

 

I use Game Commander and it works pretty well.

 

Here is a copy of the spreadsheet I created so I could keep track of all my voice commands. I counted 152 different commands. Try memorizing that list - lol.

DCS Black Shark Voice Commands.rar

[norm]

Norm, I wish I knew, I'd like to turn it off as well. I searched through the luas and cfgs and found nothing obvious. I wasn't able to find a thread on it either. Hopefully an ED person will happen past this thread and give us the skinny.

 

An idea I have just had is... What if you defeat the "my voice" (or what ever there called) files, so there wouldn't be any thing for your vutural self to say.

[Frederf]

Could just replace all the .wav files with blanks. A modman package could be made.

[norm]

but would that get rid of your wingie's voice as well?

[StrongHarm]

There must be a way to remove self voice through the config. I'm confident someone from ED will confirm.

[Frederf]

but would that get rid of your wingie's voice as well?

Ah, yes, there's bound to be some overlap in the sound file usage. I mean the player-pilot never says "Shack!" and the wingman never says "Go eschelon right!" but there must be a few things they have in common.

[Cp]

You can mute "yourself" by going to the folder called:

 

...\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\Sounds\EnglishVersion\USA\

 

and renaming the folder called WINGMAN1 to anything, I added a hyphen to the beginning like this: -WINGMAN1

As long as you alter it in any way the game wont recognize it and won't find the sound files and thus you wont hear "yourself" repeat what you just said into your mic.

 

There shouldn't be any overlapping and it should only affect "your" voice as all wingmen have different folders with their own sounds.

 

To "undo" all this simply rename the folder to WINGMAN1 again and everything will be back to normal.

[norm]

Excellent...

[StrongHarm]

Outstanding, Cp! Thanks very much.

[PhoenixBvo]

Thx ideed. I just tried it shortly and it removes a lot, but for some weird reason I still got the phrase "Wingman 2 Rejoin formation" from the player voice.

Can anyone confirm? Maybe some player voice files are still in another dir?