Best voice command software or profile?
-
I believe there is a Voice Attack profile available for DCS that incorporates all possible own-flight callsigns and other-flight callsigns so that the user can use proper phraseology and it will work with DCS. I say “I believe” because I don’t really have much experience with it nor with DCS.
However, knowing how much of a pain in the butt DCS comms can be, I think doing the same for BMS would be so much easier. Does something like that exist for DCS?
Any suggestions or advice appreciated! Cheers!
-
@Atlas
I can’t speak for DCS, but of course there are numerous voice activation programs availabe and many gorgeous profiles.
Take a look into the “Joysticks & Input Devices” section:
https://forum.falcon-bms.com/category/28/voice-controlI use SemlerPDX’s profile for VoiceAttack, which contains all available callsigns used in BMS… and can be used not only for radio comms, but also for doing lots of other stuff.
Never want to do without it again. -
@Atlas you should also give foxvox a try…
The author is around on the forums and it is free
-
Thanks both for your reply! I ask because sim time and free time is extremely limited (I work 7 days a week sometimes) so less fiddling about and more flying = bigger smile on my face.
I don’t mind free but I also don’t mind paying for someone’s hard work for this hobby if it makes my enjoyment more… enjoyable.
Cheers!
-
If you already have Voice Attack (even plus Vaicom) for DCS, @SemlerPDX’s profile is the way to go. It works with all the callsigns and a lot of other features. You can also make your own catchphrases.
FoxVox is good though and glad to see it as an option.
-
@Snake122 Thanks but like I said, I don’t mind getting a new program and paying for it if it means it performs better.
-
@Atlas said in Best voice command software or profile?:
@Snake122 Thanks but like I said, I don’t mind getting a new program and paying for it if it means it performs better.
VoiceAttack (or any voice software) requires a quiet room and a bit of training, but is so absolutely worth it, you’ll be happy no matter which program you decide to go with.
Being essentially a framework/GUI to create groups of commands (called “profiles”) makes VoiceAttack my program of choice, started making profiles for each of the games/sims I play, but then not content to hog the precious for myself, I started releasing them publicly.
There were very few options when I started with this stuff in 2015 including starting from scratch like foxvox has with his own base program, and at the time, VoiceAttack had the most active user base and forums, with new updates coming out quite regularly. Rather than reinvent the wheel and make my own base program + command sets for games, I went with VoiceAttack and never looked back. Best part is, when a bug is not due to my own work, I can pass the buck up to the VoiceAttack dev/moderators to help
-
@SemlerPDX I’ve only heard great things about your profiles and only and ignoramus or complete fool (probably both) would deign to start from scratch…but, you know, options are always good I suppose Reminds me of that Austin Powers trailer back when the first Star Wars prequel was coming out in 1999… ‘If you see only 1 movie this year, make it Star Wars, but if you see 2 movies…’. Same goes here I suppose, ha ha ha!
-
@foxster said in Best voice command software or profile?:
@SemlerPDX I’ve only heard great things about your profiles and only and ignoramus or complete fool (probably both) would deign to start from scratch…but, you know, options are always good I suppose Reminds me of that Austin Powers trailer back when the first Star Wars prequel was coming out in 1999… ‘If you see only 1 movie this year, make it Star Wars, but if you see 2 movies…’. Same goes here I suppose, ha ha ha!
I’m equally impressed with your work, maybe more given the extra workload where in my case, VA has ready-to-use frameworks. I also love (but don’t own) that VIACOM profile for VoiceAttack (and DCS), as well. It all impresses me when someone makes the effort to turn something complex into something accessible by standard users and the general public, whether free, donationware, or paid software worthy of the cost.
It will be fun to look back at this era in 10-15 years time when voice processing will be so much more intuitive and capable, things we do now will be laughable compared to where this is headed with AI speech processing and other fancy tricks to come in the near future. We’re on the edge now of what will soon be much more mainstream, much more tolerant of even other voices in the room, and way more accessible to even more users than it is now. The future is pretty awesome for this kid here who grew up with an Atari and Commodore64
-
@SemlerPDX Yep, you’re absolutely spot on. I’m sure future recognition will incorporate tonal inflections to identify a voice in a crowded room so that the recognition is keyed to an individual. It could also incorporate visual identifiers of mouth movements also to improve accuracy. So many things that will still be advancing…but for today we have some pretty cool things as a start compared to yesterday. Always fun to speculate about the future though. My real sci-fi game changer bet is on nano-computing with atomic based memory/ram. Just imagine a computer that would trounce anything we have today that’s smaller than the size of a pinhead…
-
@foxster can I ask what made you start from scratch? Perhaps what was it about Voice Attack or other available programs that still did not fit your need? Not really trying to compare here but just to understand the pros and cons. Thanks!
-
@Atlas When I got interested in doing BMS, I was looking for something to do with my boys (I’ve got 3, so we can make a perfect 4-ship). That meant 4 head-trackers, 4 joysticks, and 4 voice-control software licenses. I needed to do it on a budget so my wife wouldn’t kill me. We got 4 used PS3/PS4 TM Hotas controllers at $25/ea, ($100 total) and I built 4 IR head trackers out of rechargeable USB flashlights and my 3d printer using PS3 eyecams with IR filters for another $100 total. I was trying to stay within $200 so I just decided to do my own voice control - that way I could modify it however I needed without being constrained by 3rd party software (partly due to my experiences with joystick mapping software). I considered just writing my own joystick mapping software also, but figured on keeping it simple - (thanks to @hoover and others needing push-to-talk, I ended up including joystick mapping anyway - and thanks to @airtex2019 who gave me a boost with RawInput api integration). I was unaware of VoiceMacro at the time, so my ignorance also played a part, coupled with the fact that I didn’t think it would be very hard to do (I wrote the base program in a couple weeks - the trickiest part was integrating the speech engine with custom recognition as I didn’t like how it worked by default).
Unfortunately my boys left after just a short while as BMS was a bit more than they were ready to take on, so I’m glad I didn’t break the bank - but I loved it and stuck around. (That just means I’ll get to upgrade my own setup going foward without having to worry about them ) FoxVox stuck with me and I use it regularly now, so I have no real need anymore for VoiceAttack. I figured I’d share it with anyone else who maybe wanted an alternative. VoiceAttack certainly isn’t expensive but with BMS multiplayer as awesome as it is, a whole squadron can now have access to voice control for free with the option at their discretion to upgrade to pro software. I think I inadvertently ticked off some VoiceAttack die-hards though
Edit: As for pros/cons, besides price, I tried to make FoxVox simple to configure, flexible to fit different users’ styles, and easy to share within the community. It’s easy to add new keys and adapt to changes without having to wait on updates (it’s not coupled to BMS at all and is stand-alone). It also implements the MS Recognition in a very different way to enhance (I hope) the recognition for a little bit more flexibility. It’s not supported by a team of programmers though and has a limited set of features that are certainly not as expansive as VA.
-
@foxster Thanks for sharing! I guess when you have the skills + time, it’s amazing what talented folks in this community can do.