The Voiceattack Discussion Thread

Spiggs · Mar 5, 2014

Hello Folks.

I've read a lot of comments regarding the amount of buttons there are in Elite and what joystick will be needed to cope with all the furious mashing of said buttons that will ensue one everyone gets their mitts on it after release.

I've seen some really great threads and videos from the community, notibly from Commander Flack, The Wombat and Iain M Norman extolling the virtues of Voice Attack Speech recognition software as a way of augmenting this expected mad manipulation of our digits.

Using their guides below I've managed to get some decent results. However they've inspired me to make this video which i hope will be of some help to those of us who dont have the twitch skills of a cockroach on 5 cans of Red Bull. Enjoy..

(Video) Elite Dangerous: Voice Attack System Commands

These really are required reading for anyone who wants to have a crack at using voice commands to control their Ship in Elite Dangerous.

Commander Flacks Thread (Alpha only, sorry)

The Wombats Guide to Voice attack (Also Alpha Only)

Happy hunting, Spiggs

KickahasTier · Mar 5, 2014

Awesome, am liking this a lot.

Kroy · Mar 5, 2014

"set phasers to malky"

Awesome video. Well done. Hopefully give people some motivation to try out the excellent voice attack software.

Globusdiablo · Mar 5, 2014

Great stuff commander! Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to get my hands on the beta.

Blue_Skunk · Mar 5, 2014

Voiceattack is fantastic, I fully recommend it for things like moving power between systems, opening the cargo scoop, lights etc... and the TTS voice feedback is great fun

huwthomas · Mar 5, 2014

Voice control fans might also be interested in looking at GlovePIE's VC features.

Perseus · Mar 5, 2014

Blue_Skunk said:
Voiceattack is fantastic, I fully recommend it for things like moving power between systems, opening the cargo scoop, lights etc... and the TTS voice feedback is great fun

The TSS is brilliant. If I download and install will it work without any additional messing around?

Lee Storm · Mar 5, 2014

huwthomas said:
Voice control fans might also be interested in looking at GlovePIE's VC features.

This ^^
Because its free

Spiggs · Mar 5, 2014

Perseus said:
The TSS is brilliant. If I download and install will it work without any additional messing around?

I just used the default MS Voice that came with windows. Now if MS release "Cortana" on TTS, that would be cool!

huwthomas said:
Voice control fans might also be interested in looking at GlovePIE's VC features.

In the interests of inpartiallity, other voice control software is available and free, as opposed to under a fiver. :smilie:

huwthomas · Mar 5, 2014

Spiggs said:
In the interests of inpartiallity, other voice control software is available and free, as opposed to under a fiver. :smilie:

Well I donated the same amount to the maker of GlovePIE as I paid for Voice Attack ... the labourer is worth his hire and all that

About quality voice output, have a listen to this.

Perseus · Mar 5, 2014

Spiggs said:
I just used the default MS Voice that came with windows. . .

Sweet!
How do I get it to speak back to me in ED?

Spiggs · Mar 5, 2014

Perseus said:
Sweet!
How do I get it to speak back to me in ED?

Using the Voice Attack software, you just type in what you want the TTS response to be in the area in red and put it in the sequence of commands where you want it.

The links in the OP will give you all you need to know about using the software. They're excellent guides.

Perseus · Mar 5, 2014

Thank you, Spiggs!

Spiggs · Mar 5, 2014

huwthomas said:
Well I donated the same amount to the maker of GlovePIE as I paid for Voice Attack ... the labourer is worth his hire and all that

Agreed, TBH the amout of ear to ear grinning pleasure this has given me over the last week, a fivers more than worth it!

huwthomas said:
About quality voice output, have a listen to this.

I've heard these and the're brilliant. I tried to use other TTS voices, but there are real problems getting them to work in a 64 bit windows environment. So I eventually gave up and went for the default just to get it working.

Perseus said:
Thank you, Spiggs!

Np fella. :smilie:

Hellhawk666 · Mar 6, 2014

Spiggs said:
Using the Voice Attack software, you just type in what you want the TTS response to be in the area in red and put it in the sequence of commands where you want it.

The links in the OP will give you all you need to know about using the software. They're excellent guides.

One thing I'd add - sometimes it pays to spell words unusually to correct for problems with the MS text-to-voice app. eg "sheelds full" sounds better than "shields full". If pronunciation or cadence seems wrong in places you can often overcome it this way.

Spiggs · Mar 6, 2014

Hellhawk666 said:
One thing I'd add - sometimes it pays to spell words unusually to correct for problems with the MS text-to-voice app. eg "sheelds full" sounds better than "shields full". If pronunciation or cadence seems wrong in places you can often overcome it this way.

Really good call on the phonetic (Or should that be foenetik) spellings, I'll try it out in my growing list of commands, thanks a lot.

Ian Phillips · Mar 6, 2014

Right then - I have a question about which voice recognition system would be best to use.

Living in holland my PC came with windows installed - the dutch version naturally! BUT this brings with it a problem, which is that the standard windows voice recognition software is only supported for a few languages, mainly english and chinese, but most definitely NOT DUTCH

This means that I cannot use Voice Attack.

So, I am looking for alternatives. Anyone have any suggestions? (the system must be able to work without windows voice recognition).

Blue_Skunk · Mar 6, 2014

Spiggs said:
I've heard these and the're brilliant. I tried to use other TTS voices, but there are real problems getting them to work in a 64 bit windows environment. So I eventually gave up and went for the default just to get it working.

The windows 64bit TTS is a mess

I followed these instructions

0. Pre-requisite: Download and Install Speech Platform Runtime Languages from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224 and the Speech Platform v11 from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27225. There are many voices to choose from, although en-US ZiraPro and en-GB Hazel are both good English options. Once you have selected voices, installed the Platform and voices proceed to making them work:

1. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices Click the Tokens folder and export. Save this file to your desktop as voices1.reg so it will be easy to find and line up with later steps.

2. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices select Tokens and again export it, again to the desktop. Call it voices2.reg.

3. EDIT (right click, select edit) voices1.reg. In notepad use the Replace function and replace \Speech Server\v11.0\ with \Speech\ (Just replace that section, the rest will remain intact and entries with "[ ]" around them should read as such: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\*[*= some entries WILL be nested in folders below this. The key is making sure that the patch is \Speech\ and not \Speech Server\v11.0\). Save and close.

4. EDIT (right click, select edit) voices2.reg. In notepad use the Replace function and replace \Speech Server\v11.0\ with \Speech\ (Just replace that section, the rest will remain intact and entries with "[ ]" around them should read as such: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\*[*= some entries WILL be nested in folders below this. The key is making sure that the patch is \Speech\ and not \Speech Server\v11.0\). Save and close.

5. Merge both of the files we just edited into the registry by double-clicking them and answering yes when prompted.

6. Reboot computer and enjoy it's new voices.

Tested this on my laptop as well, slightly easier since its x86, it only involves the first registry file as Wow6432Node only exists on x64 architecture.

DISCLAIMER: This method works with the MS Speech Platform Server v11.0 voices available for download. The method is likely similar for adding purchased and third-party voices as well, but locating the voice tokens that you need to copy into the MS default tokens will be up to you.

and was able to get GB-Hazel as the default voice in windows-7 64bit... not for the feint-hearted

I'm tempted to try the Australian and Canadian voices

Patrick_68000 · Mar 6, 2014

It will give an ease and a speed of additional execution to use the voice command. It will also be the grail for the lazy people...

smsKONG · Mar 6, 2014

I haven't used it since I got an x52- too busy assigning and practicing with that to switch the VA software on; there's so many buttons and spinny things to play with!

That said VA really is superb and I know it will get a lot of use in the coming weeks and beyond.
I really need to get back to using it, but the thought of having to start messing with joystick and VA assignments to get the best results (again! ) is a bit daunting - if I do it now will I wind up redoing once docking is introduced?
Repeat for trade
Repeat for beta...

I'm probably too lazy so may just wait for beta:smilie: