[Arach]

I'm half way though Freespace 2 for the Nth time. The SCP is a spectacular success in my eyes. All of the contributers should be extremely proud, it really makes me wish that LucasArts would open up the source to the X-Wing series in the hopes that the same could be achieved for it.

Now I finally got around to picking up a proper Headset Microphone for myself, mostly so I can finally shout insulting things at people in UT2k4. Now just ordering the Bots in UT was awfully fun. For those who havn't heard this in action this page should illuminate you a bit. Essentially this feature request is to bring that level of hands free interaction with the AI to Freespace. For Coders, UT2k4 uses Microsoft's Speech SDK. While I'm no programmer, I can only assume that it can be integrated much like Text to Speech was into the SCP using the Speech SDK.

Where would we use Voice Communication in Freespace? To command our squad of course! Identify then order. "Alpha Wing. Defend (my target)". Using that it's pretty easy to break down the amount of commands that would be ever actually used.

1: Identify.
a) Individual Ship. "Wing Name #" / "Alpha 1"
b) Wing "Wing Name" / "Beta Wing"
c) All Ships "All Ships"

All Possible Wing Names: http://www.ancientscripts.com/greek.html

2: Order.
 a) Destroy (my target)
[ect]
 i) Depart

The combination of those two alone takes care of 90% of ingame communication.Wing names are however not hard coded, nor are they guaranteed to match up with the communication menu numbers. I'm not quite sure if saying "Beta" can always translate to Friendly Wing #2. I'm not as familiar with the internal workings as the rest of you are, so I can only really speculate. I can only imagine if the above can be acomplished that it would be a fairly trivial matter to bind game controls to voice commands, because who wouldn't want to hark out "Activate Jump Drive!" in a dramatic voice rather than plucking Alt+J .

I suppose the easiest way to implement something like this is to dictate what the player has said and convert that into Communication System order number ie, [C , 3 , 5]. Open - All - Protect. One of the great things however is feedback is already there, AI Squad mates generally report back an affirmative and remind the player what they've ordered "Yes Sir, targeting Weapon systems now". So, there you have it. I thought I'd chuck the idea out there in the hopes that others might just think it's as cool as I do. Either way, please keep up the good work FS:SCP, you're making one of the greatest PC games ever made even better and that's no easy feat.

Edit: If there is a dedicated Feature Request thread, I didn't see it before posting this

[[$$$] Money]

For those who can't wait for these features to be directly implemented into SCP, there is an existing software Game Commander, over at www.gamecommander.com that can duplicate these features.

They also have a command set for FS2 uploaded, but I suppose you would want to configure your own.

[WMCoolmon]

Best person to ask is RT, who did the speech stuff. He'll probably see this thread in a bit, so don't nag him with PMs.

[kasperl]

Do a search for something called shoot in this forum. I'd try adding speech as a search term, though.

[Taristin]

I have a version of FS1 that's voice activated... Quite annoying. So I uninstalled it and used the standard version.

[Bobboau]

I think we're useing that speech sdk already

[jdjtcagle]

we are, he wants to be able to speak commands to the wingman through a microphone.

[Goober5000]

Shh!

[Flipside]

LOL It would be nice but I have bad experiences of voice recognition software

Me : 'I said DISABLE!!! not destroy!! You bastard!'
Alpha 2 : Roger that, heading home!
Me : Gnnnnghgnghgn!!!

[jdjtcagle]

[Falcon]

Alpha 1: Beta 1 destroy my target!
Beta 1: Roger that sir humping you target now.....
Alpha 1:

Yep I got the 'special' version from Interplay

[mrduckman]

I used Game commander with Bridge commander and rocked!

[kasperl]

I tried to use Shoot. Still, "all units, destory my target" was always taken as "return to base". "Support ship, rearm me" was always taken as "all units, protect my target".

But if this is properly implemented, things might turn out OK.

[[$$$] Money]

My experience with Game Commander is that you need to avoid using certain words or combinations of words to increase recognition accuracy. The longer the phrase, the more likely it is going to detect it correctly. Avoid single words or single syllable words as these tend to get picked up incorrectly.

Also, there is a tiny delay inbetween the speech and the actual command being processed, so don't try to use it for anything really time critical (like fire primary guns).

[Arach]

I havn't used Game Commander, but it's pretty old. The Speech SDK in UT2k4 has been quite accurate in my experience, that is to say I've also been using it without Training my profile in Control Panel and it's fair to say my Australian accent has caused hell in other Dictation programs like Dragon.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by [$$$] Money
Also, there is a tiny delay inbetween the speech and the actual command being processed, so don't try to use it for anything really time critical (like fire primary guns).

Or ze missiles!

I tried to use Shoot. Still, "all units, destory my target" was always taken as "return to base".

I use Keyboard, and every time I try for "All units, Engage Enemy" they "Return to Base".