Radio Comms not all broken
 

Was working a bit with Voice Activated Commands software. Works great with the simple commands (gear up/down, flaps up/down, etc). It's true worth is when you need to keep your eyes on the action rather than hunting & pecking on a keyboard. HOTAS real estate is dear - there are only so many buttons on stick 'n throttle to assign.

As we know, radio commands were largely borked with the intro of CoD and the last patch shaved 'em down to the ones that work. Not many! Nonetheless, it's difficult to peck on the keyboard and try to keep quarry in sight (or a runway lined up, etc). I found this software (http://www.dwvac.com/) works great with CoD, easy to program, and is very accurate on the voice recognition aspect.

Have a look at some basic formation commands I issue to my flight of Spits. Although (strangely) CoD does not have a "Break Formation" command, you'll see that CoD's "Space Far" radio command works very well. The only problem is that it takes a string of 5 key presses to issue this command......any 109's will have done their damage on a well-executed bounce before you could realistically take your eye off the screen to look down and bang out the key presses. There's a small pause here between issuing the "break" command and it actually going out, but better than nuthin'! Take a look:




http://vimeo.com/27409250

Wow.....I gotta have this....Thanx Mucho....
Nicely done vid...it seems to work very well,
I didn't hear you cuss one time....:cool:

Hey folks...it's only $18.00 U.S.
Well done Snapper...

That looks really good.

It's been a long time since I've tried any voice recognition software. How long does it take to train to get the results in your video? Did you have any issues with the install?

Have you been using it in campaign mode? How did it go?

Have you been using it in conjunction with other programs like TeamSpeak?

Thanks for posting this, $18.00 is fairly cheep, definitely worth downloading the evaluation.

Cheers!

Very cool!!
I think I'd like this...

Does teamspeak interfere with the vrc program?

Can you upload your vac profile for Cod? would like to try it out:)

Very nice Snapper that looks really good.

Now THAT looks fantastic! Can you programme the software to have a male voice? Sounds a bit weird to have a female voice repeating your commands!

Nice Vid Snapper, thanks for posting it.

I used dwvac for several years in the old IL2 games. Always worked really well, and the downloadable profile for the older IL2 games was good (I used that as a base and eventually made minor profile modifications to my own preferences). I haven't yet built a profile for CoD (waiting for the voice comms to be fixed/fully implemented in game first), but will do so eventually.

...But to add my 2c, if you don't mind the fee, its a great piece of software. The guy that runs/sells it was very helpful when I had any queries as well.

hey that's cool stuff.

is there any free software which is capable of doing this?would be cool if this feature were included directly in cod!

Thanks, Pudfark.

I still have 28 days left of the free evaluation period, but I'm definitely laying out the $18 for this.

Thanks, S.T. No training at all - accurate right off the bat! Install was easy.

Haven't tried it in Campaign mode yet, just Single Missions, but shouldn't be an issue.

Haven't tried it with Teamspeak or Ventrillo yet. You can assign a key to turn VAC on or off, so unless there is some kind of conflict it's just a matter of remembering which key activates VAC and which one Teamspeak or Ventrillo.

Hi Doc,

Would be pleased to. It's a work-in-process and I'm just gettin' warmed up! :-P
I'll take a look this morning, I think you can export profiles. If so, I'll try a copy 'n paste back here.

I want Darth Vader's voice! :)

Seriously though, this is really something. It's always been one of my bugbears with sims...the keyboard is just too clunky in intense situatons.

This is definitely worth the asking price, imo.

Certainly you'd want to turn one off while you use the other. You can probably assign one HOTAS button each to toggle on/off, or possibly just one button which toggles one off at the same time as toggling the other on.

What, you no like "Bitchin' Betty"? LOL

OK, this software only comes with one built-in voice (female). However, there are a couple of options:

1. No confirming voice at all, or
2. You can assign a different .wav file to confirm each command. Ie. You could record a "Roger that" with your own voice, or, if you're really ambitious, record each voice command in your own voice and assign each specific .wav recording to each specific voice command. Or, more practically, a Windows-like "ding" just to confirm your command was heard.
3. Anyone else here have a suggestion? :)

Fair question. Before I stumbled on DWVAC I tried to resurrect my old Voice Buddy program, but that kinda disappeared about three PC's ago (I always pull the hard drives and hammer 'em before taking the defunct PC to the recyclers. Guess my Voice Buddy got "hammered". Next I tried the built-in voice recognition software that comes with Win7. Couldn't get it to work in the background with CoD running. :(

Maybe someone else knows?

Many a Battle of Britain pilot was shot down with his head buried in the cockpit typing away on his keyboard! LOL Well, maybe not in 1940, but I bet it's true with modern combat flight sims.

I next want to figure out the best way of configuring the gun sight using voice commands - including dimming the reticule in early dawn/late dusk!

Using an IL2 profile as a base is a great idea. DWVAC is really easy to edit anyway, so an established profile is a good place to start rather than beginning from scratch.

What I like about DWVAC is that you can change the voice command to anything you want. For instance, if "Spacing Far" doesn't come easily to mind, it's dead easy to simply change the spoken command to "Spread Out Guys"

Voice activation would probably be a immersion killer for me, feels like it fits better in a sci-fi game.

Best not to use it then.

In WW2 they didn't press a series of keys to tell their flight to change formation or break, they said the command out loud over the radio...
Voice activation for wingman commands is more realistic, not less.

i think it adds a lot immersion, when used for radio commands.much more realistic than using keystrokes.but i wouldnt use it to control the aircraft or changing view.

Agreed - I used VAC with IL2 classic on my long SP DCG campaigns, only for formation orders - and "Help!" - worked well. For new users probably best to start with a preprogrammed template and only use a few simple orders until it feels more natural.

Ordering your aeroplane to lower it's gear, however, is just wierd.

Lol, how do you think they did it in real life?

Well, that was my thinking. LOL

What a few folks have missed is that voice/sound confirmation doesn't HAVE to be activated. You say the command and your flight or wingman either does what you say or, if they don't - repeat the command. Don't see what is so science fiction about that! :rolleyes:

OK, let me know if this works. Copy and paste this as a Notepad text file to your hardrive.

Start up VACBuilder 2.6.0

Go to Files

Go to Import

Select Text File (txt)

Then point to the saved Notepad text file you've copied from below. I think that will then show up as a profile in your own VACSystem.

Good luck!

Action: Wheels Up
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - g
Phrase 1: Wheels Up
Action: Wheels down
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - g
Phrase 1: Wheels down
Action: Flaps up
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - f
Phrase 1: Flaps up
Action: flaps down
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - f
Phrase 1: flaps down
Action: Two
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 2
Phrase 1: Two
Action: Three
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 3
Phrase 1: Three
Action: Four
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 4
Phrase 1: Four
Action: Five
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 5
Phrase 1: Five
Action: Six
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 6
Phrase 1: Six
Action: Seven
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 7
Phrase 1: Seven
Action: Eight
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 8
Phrase 1: Eight
Action: Nine
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 9
Phrase 1: Nine
Action: Zero
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 0
Phrase 1: Zero
Action: Near View
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE -
Phrase 1: Near View
Action: Middle View
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE -
Phrase 1: Middle View
Action: Wide view
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE -
Phrase 1: Wide View
Action: Tab
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Phrase 1: Tab
Action: One
Cmds 1: NONE - NONE - 1
Phrase 1: One
Action: Ready for take off
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 0
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 5
Phrase 1: Ready for take off
Action: Echelon Right
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 1
Phrase 1: Echelon Right
Action: Echelon left
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 2
Phrase 1: Echelon left
Action: Vic Formation
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 3
Phrase 1: Vic Formation
Action: Finger Four
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 4
Phrase 1: Finger Four
Action: Diamond Formation
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 5
Phrase 1: Diamond Formation
Action: Line Abreast
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 6
Phrase 1: Line Abreast
Action: Line Astern
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 7
Phrase 1: Line Astern
Action: Spacing Close
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 8
Cmds 5: NONE - NONE - 1
Phrase 1: Spacing Close
Action: Spacing Near
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 8
Cmds 5: NONE - NONE - 2
Phrase 1: Spacing Near
Action: Spacing Middle
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 8
Cmds 5: NONE - NONE - 3
Phrase 1: Spacing Middle
Action: Spacing Far
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 8
Cmds 5: NONE - NONE - 4
Phrase 1: Spacing Far
Action: Break Break Break
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 4
Cmds 3: NONE - NONE - 1
Cmds 4: NONE - NONE - 8
Cmds 5: NONE - NONE - 4
Phrase 1: Break Break Break
Action: Help Me
Cmds 1: NONE - TAB -
Cmds 2: NONE - NONE - 2
Phrase 1: Help Me

+1

Also, I wonder if it would be possible to record a series of phrases to type into the chat box:

"Chatbox"--> send ` key
"Landing Manston Damaged" ---> send phrase keys into chatbox
"RedChannel" ----> send change of recipient keys
"Enter"---> send Enter key

Klem, certainly three of the functions above are possible (Chatbox, RedChannel, Enter). Not sure about the Landing Manston Damaged function. If I understand you correctly, that involves actively changing speech to text on the fly which I don't think DWVAC can do as you describe. Hopefully I'm wrong on that -- what a fantastic function that would be. It's so hard typing with one hand while trying to hold the stick steady and watching the screen with peripheral vision.

If anyone knows, please pass it the "how-to"!

I was hoping that as a text string can be sent I could send some long ones :)

You've asked an intriguing question. To a certain degree I think you can with some standard text comms.

Example: you say "Returning to base!" DWVAC is then programmed to enter "rtb" in the text window without you having to hit the keyboard at all.
This is how it could be programmed (I think):

Text phrase: Returning to Base (this is what you actually say)

Command 1: `
Command 2: r
Command 3: t
Command 4: b
Command 5: ENTER

Gonna have to try this out! :)

Theres a free prog called shoot that is quite good, it is old and hasn't been updated for some time.....been on version 1.6.4 for years but it does work on my win 7 64 bit machine, very simple to use....and free.....did I mention that?

I would use it for SP control of AI, getting headings, etc. Just wondering how much RAM it uses and wether my duel core could handle another process in the background. But with a trial period I guess the only way to find out is DL it and try. Thanks for the post, very interesting!

nice! Here's the link: http://clans.gameclubcentral.com/shoot/

That makes sense. I haven't checked to see what, if any, performance hit DWVAC puts on my system. i doubt that it's very much - I agree it's worth a try with the free trial.

i also found shoot in the net, and downloaded it....unfortunately i cannot tell how good it works, as im not able to make a profile whatsoever.i found a profile for il2 and downloaded it.tried it and sometimes it recognizes the correct orders, and sometimes not...dont know if one can train the program to understand one better.
its also frustrating that there is no readme how to use it, or how to make a profile.

but today i downloaded VAC and after some annoying installing problems were solved...i was able to download again a il2 profile.this is a profile with approximately 200 commands, also commanding aircraft controls and so on.im really not interested to control my aircraft with my voice but to give orders to my swarm.
well i have to say, altough im no english native speaker, the downloaded profile worked perfect.it really understood every command first try and quick.even commands like "green flight attack flak" is recognized very precisely and without problems.the program does not get confused and offers a different command like "blue flight attack flak".it really uses the right command every time.
so i tried to make my own profile with german commands.after some minor problems to get the functions to work, it works perfectly.
if you program a function, vac understands every command and writes it down without mistakes.it works just perfect.

so if i dont find a alternative which is free to use and as effective as VAC i will definitely buy this piece of software, once my trial time passed and cliffs of dover has actually functional commands and ai!
certainly worth the 18$


Edit:though it would be really cool, if the devs would include this ability directly into the game....

You know Windows 7 has built in Voice Reconition software

Yes. Have you been able to get it to work within CoD?

hey cheesehawk!
you can make a profile very easy by yourself.
just type in the action description, then by default the action phrase will be the same.this is the command you have to say to activate the following keystrokes.
then for each action you have on the left side of the vac builder the command list.
in il2 1946 or clod you always have to push several keystrokes to give orders like tab,1,2 and so on.
lets take the above example:
if you already have made an action description, then in the command list the first command will show up automatically.you just have to select in the "extended key" section the TAB button
then click on add, and the second command will show up in the command list window.now type in the character key(s) field 1
then again click on add, the third command will show up, and you type in the character key(s) field 2
...thats all and you have your first command.
then you can test it directly in vac builder or go in clod to try it out.

Ps:the activation phrase does not have to be the same as the command description.you can either edit it with just typing in another command, or speak in your mic and it will recognize your words.

hey cheesehawk.
while testing the profile, will there show up something in the field of test results?
i ask, because the first time tried my profile, the program recognized my words and wrote them exactly at the bottom of the program, but for some reason, the test result field stayed empty.i looked if i did something wrong, but couldnt find any mistake.so i deleted the profile and made the exact same profile again and then everything suddenly worked.

there was also a profile on the site of VAC which i downloaded.i looked at it to understand how to make my own profile.it really contains everything.....have a look.

mhh interesting...i dont find a box called "arm"...where is it supposed to be??
btw, are you confident that attack targets does work in game?i knew that the formations and help command are working, but not tried the attack command.

ah now i found it...i didnt see it first, because its not highlghted in my profile, as i have set all profile activation keys to NONE.so i dont have to push or hold any button to speak.