Controlling E:D with voice - for free

Flavio

F
Cmdr Pli55ken said:
I had this problem: Voice Command is a neat tool, but it uses the locale settings of your computer for recognition (i.e. it would only recognize german pronunciation in my case). Since I wanted to speak to E : D in english I had to 'roll my own' software (Speech2Keys) which is now done.
It's free (as in 'beer') if anyone else wants to try it out (headphones with attached microphone strongly recommended!).

It can be found on youtube by searching for "Speech2Keys Tutorial # 1: Controlling Games with Your Voice for Free"
Link to the sources and executables is provided in the video description.

I would really love to get some feedback on this (and I have already some nice macros going like auto-docking request by just pointing at a station, etc.)

See you in the void.
Click to expand...

I am sure someone else did the same but cannot remember who or where it is now as it was on the forums some time last year. Anyway I would love to try out your software but since my PC is in the living room I do not think my wife wants to hear me say random words while she is watching something (and need to get a mic) :)
 

Archigo

A
Right now you can set finishing phrases, but i find that i don't really use those, where i would use "initial phrases", e.g. with request docking, i don't want it to tell me after it's done, but if i could add "Requesting docking permission" as something it says while doing it, that would be cool, and i think i would use that a lot more.
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Zadkiel343 said:
I recommend you go 2 tabs left before exiting the nav panel - that way if for any reason the docking request is denied (all pads full at an outpost, too far away, whatever) then you can trigger the macro again and it'll work to send another docking request
Click to expand...
Good call. I added it in. works like a charm

Second tutorial is online now: serach youtube for "Speech2Keys Tutorial # 2: Key Sequences, Pauses and Standard Responses"

Here are some other macros I find fun:

- "Battlestations" (raise hardponts and shift energy balance to full engines and one pip in shields and weapons. (Your prefernces may vary. But since I'm still on the sidewinder I'm always prepared to run.)
- "Full engines" (full shields and full wepaons similar)
- "maximum sensor range" (or "minimum sensor range")
- "Lock destination" when hovering over a selection in the contact view: select, up, up, select, UI focus. this will lock the destination while you are in supercruise, or engage SC or hyperdrive as appropriate and go back to cockpit view.
- "escape": lower hardpoints, boost, full engines, supercruise (this fails hilariously/catastrophicallly if your hardpoints were not raised initially)...maybe add a chaff eject to this.
- "launch": panel back (a couple of times), down, down select. will launch you no matter how deep in the menu tree you are.
- "greeting": target, open comms, type "hello commander how are you" (similar "bye bye": which types "see you in the void" and then UI focus)
- "go dark": just a sequence of down, select, down, select, etc. when you are in the systems view to shut everything down fast (or turn everything on fast if issued again).
- "life support only": like the above but leaves life support functioning.
 
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khaoste

K
Cmdr Pli55ken said:
I would have gladly paid the 8 dollars...but I don't want to speak to E : D in german - and have the replies enunciated in german. The translation is OK, but nowhere near the 'feel' of the original.
You can only change the language of Windows if you own the Ultimate edition (which I don't) or using some semi-illegal tools (like vistalizator - which nearly broke my system).
It was a fun programming excercise, in any case :D
Click to expand...

This was my problem. I have win 7 home and I can't change system language (italian) without that horrible program called
Vistalizator.
If your program works without changing nothing in the OS, you're my hero of the day, and finally I can use voice commands!
 

[VR]tailgunner30uk

V
It sounds interesting, I have to admit though, I do not want to disturb my wife in the evening which puts me off a little, however, Have some +Rep. for your efforts.
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Archigo said:
Right now you can set finishing phrases, but i find that i don't really use those, where i would use "initial phrases", e.g. with request docking, i don't want it to tell me after it's done, but if i could add "Requesting docking permission" as something it says while doing it, that would be cool, and i think i would use that a lot more.
Click to expand...
Done. You can find the new version as usual on github.

https://github.com/antialias-github/Speech2Keys_

It will also not break any profiles you have already created (and you can add this option to any already created commands)

Responses afterwards are the default. but you now have a checkbox in the responses form that lets you select to start playing the response as soon as the command is started (e.g. I set the docking request to play "sending docking request" as soon as it starts sending keys. also for the "greetings" command I am instructing it now to say "opening hailing frequencies" while it starts typing :D).
There is no noticeable loss of speed because this is an asynchronous task. So this should even be viable for 'battle critical' commands.

It's probably not useful to have options to play different responses before/during AND afterwards, because the timing would mean that often the second babble would start before the first one had finished.
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Final entry for the youtube tutorials is now online (including changes suggested by Archigo!)

Search for: "Speech2Keys Tutorial # 3: Launching External Programs and Special Commands"

(The launching of external programs is a hack of the program capabilities that a friend came up with just now. So now you can launch and control as many applications at once as you like with a bit of Key-Fu :D )
 
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khaoste

K
Unfortunately seems to not work for me.
Like voice attack, it gives me some JIT errors, when I try to speak to ... And I really don't know what it means. For sure is something always related to the OS language, that I can't change in my win7 edition.
 

Archigo

A
I often talk with other people while using this, and it will often pick up some command or other even though i'm not trying to give it one. A "push to capture" button would fix this issue nicely.

Another cool thing would be different voices, more specifically, having a female alternative to the current male on. (maybe it's just me, but as i man, i much prefer at female voice over a male one for things like this)

@khaoste: it does indeed seem like it won't work on some OS languages. It crashes for me in my native language too (Danish).
OP: if you would like the crash report, i'll try and provoke it again, but i'm guessing you'll have trouble looking into this, since you can't swap your own language.
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Archigo said:
I often talk with other people while using this, and it will often pick up some command or other even though i'm not trying to give it one. A "push to capture" button would fix this issue nicely.

Another cool thing would be different voices, more specifically, having a female alternative to the current male on. (maybe it's just me, but as i man, i much prefer at female voice over a male one for things like this)

@khaoste: it does indeed seem like it won't work on some OS languages. It crashes for me in my native language too (Danish).
OP: if you would like the crash report, i'll try and provoke it again, but i'm guessing you'll have trouble looking into this, since you can't swap your own language.
Click to expand...

It uses the native windows voice - so it should be able to work with any commercially available voice pack (Ivona, etc. ). You can select the voice in your system's text-to-speech settings.
The voice you hear inthe tutorial si the voice that comes with windows (Anna)
I have just placed an order eith Ivona for the voice most everyone seems to be using ("British Amy") and will try this out as soon as they ship.

Re the crashes: Maybe check if you set the system speech support to english? Does that crash, too?
It's weird i've tried this on several (german) systems now and have had no problems...and I can't really think where there is anything language specific in the code :( . I'll keep looking.

If you like to chat with others then you need to give the pause speech recognition command. That should keep you safe. I'll try to see if I can make a hotkey for deactivating it. But since it's not the foreground window (and the Input manager.dll isn't by me) that might take a bit of work. I'll see if I can spend some time on this over the coming weekend.
 

khaoste

K
Archigo said:
I often talk with other people while using this, and it will often pick up some command or other even though i'm not trying to give it one. A "push to capture" button would fix this issue nicely.

Another cool thing would be different voices, more specifically, having a female alternative to the current male on. (maybe it's just me, but as i man, i much prefer at female voice over a male one for things like this)

@khaoste: it does indeed seem like it won't work on some OS languages. It crashes for me in my native language too (Danish).
OP: if you would like the crash report, i'll try and provoke it again, but i'm guessing you'll have trouble looking into this, since you can't swap your own language.
Click to expand...

yes, the problem in Italian version of windows 7 homes**t premium is that I can't use voice recognition. It doesn't exists in my language and with this OS version I can't change the language of Win 7 to another (english, german, spanish, french, etc...) that supports voice recognition. So this option is here in my PC, but I simply can't use it.

In other words, I (for the pleasure of microsoft) had to upgrade to another version of win 7 (ultimate, for example) that will give me the possibility of change languages packs for this OS.

I don't want to tell you what I think, I could be banned for the words that are now in my mind about Mr Gates.

P.S.: however I would thank Pli55ken for the private support he tried to give to me today. It is very much appreciated. All the best for you and the future of Speech2keys ;)
 
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Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Hi Jao, nice to hear that it's working for somebody :D

could you give some details on your system (home, premium, professional, ultimate, language)? maybe we can narrow down the problem and get this working for the others.
 

jao

J
I use win 8.1 pro, S2K recognition language en, OS system language de.

The response language text2speech seems to use the german settings, which doesn't matter for me since I only use OK :)
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
Wondering if anyone would be interested in the addition of an audio "Captain's log" feature?
Something along these lines:
Start recording a message when you speak the command "log entry" or "captain's log"
then speak your message until you say "sign off" (or make a long pause or whatever)
keep only the last 5 messages or so and replay them with the voice commands:
"replay first message"
"replay last message"
"replay previous message"
"replay next message"

Might be useful as an alternative to pen and paper or having to alt/tab out of the game to check on current mission parameters? what do you guys think?
 
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wolverine2710

Tutorial & Guide Writer
wolverine2710
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