Virtual crew chief
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This is a pretty awesome Voice Attack profile that adds a virtual crew chief to the DCS F-16. It’s made by Bogey Dope, who has a good YouTube channel with DCS and BMS videos and tutorials. He was also a real crew chief in the US Airforce.
If this is too off-topic because it’s for DCS, my apologies. But it’s such a great idea, I loved seeing it work. And maybe I’ll get in touch with Bogey Dope about a BMS version.
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@SemlerPDX a Collab or something similar in your profile?
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@Ricky Enlightening demonstration by a real crew chief. Well done.
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And maybe I’ll get in touch with Bogey Dope about a BMS version.
Unless I’m missing something crucial, this could already be used in BMS, no?
It’s not linked to any BMS specific item AFAIK. It’s just a series of audio auto-replies on sentences you say.
If you activate this in your VA and say the same sentences during BMS ramp start, you get the same replies.
According to VA FAQ’s you can even import another profile into yours. So I assume you could merge your own BMS VA profile (for ATC comms etc) into the vCrewchief profile and go. -
@Focaldesign I think, I didn’t watch the install closely. I would prefer it merged instead of standalone so I didn’t have to switch profiles, or maybe at to the pull chocks command or something similar a natural phrase that would switch profiles if that’s possible in VA. Unless the profile switch was something he did and I missed? I’ll rewatch more closely today.
I know he mentioned Vaicom at one point which is a pretty heavy DCS Voice Attack plugin/profile, but it seemed a standard Voice Attack profile edit with the merge. Since I use @SemlerPDX’s excellent profile with a lot of scripting, I would definitely like his opinion on the merge.
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@Snake122 Me too.
Incidentally that cockpit is sooo beautiful- dare I say?
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@danster yeah it is but it’s interesting it never hold my interest that long. Also the hooks he talked about on the canopy rails was something I didn’t know.
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@Focaldesign said in Virtual crew chief:
And maybe I’ll get in touch with Bogey Dope about a BMS version.
Unless I’m missing something crucial, this could already be used in BMS, no?
I think for most of the functionality you are right. But isn’t he also reading some states of the plane? Like the position of the control surfaces, the brakes, the nozzle, etc.
Also, if I want to modify the profile, I’ll ask him anyway as a matter of courtesy.
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@Ricky said in Virtual crew chief:
But isn’t he also reading some states of the plane? Like the position of the control surfaces, the brakes, the nozzle, etc.
Nope, I downloaded the profile and looked at the sound files.
If anything goes wrong on the ramp start (i.e. hot start & engine fire) or you don’t follow his exact order (wiggling brakes and stopping, or the trim check order), the respons won’t match what you are experiencing or doing
So it can be used in BMS as well, as long as you don’t mess up the startup and follow brakes/trim checks in the same order as the crew chief replies. -
Holy shite @DCS graphics…!!. Wowser.
I have DCS (+Viper) but have never started the sim up.
That little video shows QUITE the 'pit. Wow.
Pivotal point = Seeing those HUMANS on the base (my long time dream for Falcon; the ghost-town bases having always killed immersion) almost tempts me to tread the path of darkness.
Crew on bases. The god of Falcon, I implore even 2D pictures of crews added onto building skins. Like the crew of the famous Ara’ Chinook skin.
Ahhhh… come home, 'Gorn. Come back from the thrilling temptation of crew on bases which shrill like pert-bosomed harpies on the rocks of the game-sim which juts from graphics-whore waters.
pr0n
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@Focaldesign its not just calls and answear. They use quite a few callbacks from the sim. When he checks the trimm the chief response what trimming he see on the jet for exampel
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@Nightflyer Nah they’re cleverly timed .mp3 voice files. For the “Ready for Start 2” command it plays two voice files 75 seconds apart. Sounds great!
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@Nightflyer said in Virtual crew chief:
When he checks the trimm the chief response what trimming he see on the jet for exampel
I highly doubt that.
As far as I can see it’s just one sound file for trim, playing in sync with what he’s doing in his pit. If he would do the order differently or slower/faster; the audio would just be out of sync; no sign of any link between DCS logic and VA responses.@Kavelenko said in Virtual crew chief:
Nah they’re cleverly timed .mp3 voice files. For the “Ready for Start 2” command it plays two voice files 75 seconds apart. Sounds great!
This.
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@Aragorn i think janhas models have crew
https://www.janhas.net/obm.html -
@Snake122 I’m not collaborating with anyone and there is nothing similar in my profile(s) for VoiceAttack. If I built such a thing, it would be a smart system which accesses BMS Shared Memory in order to react appropriately to the state of these systems rather than merely based on assumed timing of actions or assumed following of those actions by the pilot. I’m also not learned enough to understand interactions between a pilot and crew in any combat aircraft to design such a system.
The most recent project I completed for VoiceAttack was the OpenAI (and ChatGPT) integration through my OpenAI API Plugin for VoiceAttack and my AVCS CHAT profile which allows vocal conversations with ChatGPT where responses are spoken using text-to-speech in our chosen TTS voice.
With a little work and some proompting skillz, it might be possible to create an interactive chat session with this LLM AI to act as a crew chief, though it would take a fair bit of design and testing.
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@Focaldesign I wanted to comment on that note about importing another profile into our own profiles: It is always best to keep profiles separate when logically appropriate, and this would be one of those cases. Rather than importing the entire profile and its commands into an existing one, the wiser choice would be to include the profile commands in that other profile either through the Profile Options menu, or set as a Global Profile in VoiceAttack Options. This maintains a separation of concerns, and makes it easier to keep something like Bogey Dope’s profile updated (if he releases an update).
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@SemlerPDX I get it, the ChatGPT scripting looks cool. Part of what I like though is Bogey Dope’s voice honestly. He sounds authentic because he was a crew chief. One of the few DCS YouTubers I’ll watch partly because of his knowledge and style.
Apparently profile switching via voice is possible with VA, but is there a way I can switch to your profile with adding natural wildcarded voice command like “* flight push Uniform 2” in Bogey Dope’s profile? That would make the two coexist better then including it in yours would.
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Very interesting stuff. I really like Semler’s comment about linking it with shared memory values for accuracy, but realistically that’s highly improbable to ever happen. If it is just timed mp3 playback, (spoiler alert ) the upcoming release of FoxVox would allow playback to coincide with the joystick/button actuation of the appropriate system so the timing would be tied to it that way. Of course it wouldn’t be truly validated for actual functionality, just timed to play with the input actuation which would be much better than a just clock. It would also be possible to have it enabled only during the ground checks phase or at the appropriate time. All this assuming Bogey Dope would be willing to share his hard work for use in an alternative system. I’ll be sure to include some info on how this could be accomplished in the 2.0 update tutorial.
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@Snake122 As I said above in my reply, the proper way to use two VoiceAttack profiles at the same time would be to “include” profile commands from the first profile into the second profile through the Profile Options menu of the second profile OR by setting the first profile as a Global Profile in the main VoiceAttack Options menu. In the case of my AVCS4 profile (including AVCS CORE and the game profile itself), the AVCS4 BMS profile would need to be this “second” profile, and could have commands from another profile included into it but cannot do this the other way around since AVCS4 BMS must be the active profile to function.
This is also how AVCS CORE voice commands are available from within the AVCS4 BMS profile, for example:
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EDIT 2: As an additional real-world example, this is my ‘everything’ profile that runs all the time when I’m not using some game-specific profile for VoiceAttack. I have several “utility” profiles from calculations to sensors and weather to voice typing and now ChatGPT, and rather than literally copy their commands into this personal profile (I call him Malcolm), instead I include those profiles entirely through the Profile Options Menu. This helps to keep things modular, and very easy to adjust for new versions or testing development versions, and generally helps with organization. I don’t always create a new profile just for some game, especially when it is just a few commands, but rather just check inside the top of each of those commands if that game is running and do nothing if it is not (and the command was recognized).
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@Snake122 ,
I have been successful at including the Virtual Crew Chief (VCC)profile/sounds in Voice Attack (as recommended by @SemlerPDX above) with @SemlerPDX 's outstanding Core/Profiles, and it is working fine in VA. I have not tested it in game yet, but I have no reason to believe they will not function together. I took the liberty of making a few minor corrections/additions to the Virtual Crew Chief profile to allow for some additional phraseology (I’m Navy so the lingo might be slightly different), and also to send the Remove/Reinstall EPU Safety Pin command (“t 1”) just before the Virtual Crew Chief reports that he has done so. I also changed the timing pause on speedbrake check for closing from 4 seconds to 7 seconds, which is what BMS uses for time to close the speedbrakes, IIRC.As @SemlerPDX indicated above, I would LOVE to see the VCC and VA react based on either a callback initiation or reading memory for equipment position, rather than just rote timing. Nevertheless this is an outstanding immersion improvement for me.
Sure would like to see a mod that adds ground crew and preflight equipment to BMS. I know some JanHas models have ladders and such, so I am betting that it is not impossible.
Many thanks to the originators (Bogey Dope and BIWI) for making this cool VA profile and to @Ricky for alerting the BMS community to it.
Regards,
Tomcattwo
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@Tomcattwo There’s another issue you may want to verify where you clear the Crew Chief “You’re Cleared Off”, Voice Attack stops listening. This interferes with @SemlerPDX 's profile but you can simply delete that instruction in that specific CrewChief command so VA keeps listening. I also turned off the “say again” phrase because it gets triggered by noise in the pit, its a little too sensitive.
I do love the idea of actually removing the EPU safety pin once you tell the Crew Chief, “You are cleared to pull the EPU pin”.
I’ve never bothered with all the bit tests, trim, sec tests etc but now I may have to revisit all that for fun. Great stuff! Kudos to BogeyDope & @SemlerPDX too!