Voice Commander - Voice recognition

[Scribbler]

Link to the software:
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/7605/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Dt215PuQew

Gonna give this a go once I find a mic for my second PC.

[Ellay]

Interesting stuff :) Always new ways of controlling.

[Xzin]

X-Keys makes foot pedals :) 3 Keys. Useful for vent/TS and or critical macros?

A bit heavy on the springiness but something that could be modified.

[Steph]

Interesting yes. But you can hardly mash a voice command as much as a key. I have no /stopcasting in my macros so I can press them again. With the x-perl unit frames I get casting bars on the party interface, due to that I know that I am at times not starting the cast on one char since it was still considered to be in motion or casting something else.

With keys, I simply press the button again, with voice I would have to repeat myself over and over. Not so bad, but I bet I can hit '1' faster that each of you can say 'kill' so there would be less delay.

Still, interesting =]

[Steph]

Link to the software:
http://wow-en.curse-gaming.com/downloads/details/7605/

[tizwaz]

I agree with the gen consensus that delays capabilities in a 3rd party program seems to be a problem with blizz....
nontheless...
wrote a polite email with links to voice commanders forum and download asking if it was gonna get me banned?...l..got the eula response for 3rd party unfair advantage being illegal usage...
wrote another with a polite..HUH? what about voice commander as i asked?
got a response saying ..ummm.did ya mean vent????if not its prolly bad...
so...
called support for their opinion...
they are looking into it at legal dept.
lowdown from conversation
if the prog doent exceed the limitations of in game macro..should be okay
...suspensions on things like this are generally temporary and reversible if good intent can be shown unless coupled with other violations...
some Blizz employees like to dual box and
In my opinion
they, like many of us, enjoy the added challenge of keeping up with the increased button pressing demands and doubled action...
So..if interested viocers can come up with one command one button or (alt ctrl shift ) buttoned files for the support classes and get em where they can see em...It'll prolly help a bit
Back to a blizz supports opinion...
post on suggestions board at their site...
thats where they look for interest in products and gather demographic information from....
Keep it simple...keep it pure...

[mmcookies]

I haven't tried out this particular program yet, so confirmation of the following would be appreciated.

The main problem I can think of is the interval at which it'll recognize discrete voice commands. This would mean that you can only have one keystroke translated every few seconds.

In the video, when the guy started saying consecutive heals, I believe it sometimes confused the software, which failed to recognize the pattern because it was hearing "heal-heal."

There's probably a way to remedy this, but it would depend on how much flexibility there is in creating the keystroke macros. In theory we could create a "spam-heal" command that would repeat the heal keystroke for 6 seconds or so, but that would bring whole concept into the likely-non-EULA-compliant territory.

[Mannyman]

Voice control programs have already been certified by many GM's as legal. I use one myself for my priest. Voice commander allows for macros and scripting, and is more complicated to use than other programs, so I stay away from it. It does allow you to send voice commands to multiple WoW windows though, which is nice.

[mmcookies]

Yes, I imagine that Blizzard would have to allow voice recognition accessibility since it would touch upon the rights of impaired movement folks.

But something with scriptable macros is a little iffy...

Regardless, this method of input has a lot of potential, even if it is not spammable. Perhaps it'd be more suitable for a support class that doesn't require spamming?

Personally, I think I can comfortably control 2 classes with keyboard, and a third with voice command (maybe healer).

[Bradster]

Sounds like a great idea, but I can tell you right now I’d get a swift kick in the arse from my wife if I woke her up screaming “Divine shield” Hearthstone” Hearrrrthh stonnneeee!!!!” Might look like that youtube German kid clip lol

[Mannyman]

My bedroom is 30' x 30', so my wife has no chance of hearing me when I tell my priest to heal. Plus, I use a headset with the mic right up to my face. I can just about whisper the command and it'll go through.

[hapiguy314]

Dang guys - is it really that much easier to say Heal than to press a button :shock:

[Xzin]

IMHO no :) But hey, what works for me does not work for everybody else.

[tizwaz]

Lol...this addon is very slow n laid back...
takes commands from the tv in the next room so its good to keep an on..off command on your file
Still...I did n xperiment run last night with priest.supporting my pally n lock..n 2nice puggers
while it was slower than leaping around on the adhock setup i have for 3boxing...
It was alot less work..kinda enjoyable to vocally boss around a priest...I'd never do that in real life..heh
Id say the delay on commands is about 1/2 sec
the voice recognition is about 80% after 2 simple training session with microsofts trainer...(I have a thick accent)
Downside...Studio ears from headset after long play session
My gf going HUH? What djya say Hon? often
and inability to communicate with other players as both sides of brain are lightly simmering on speech command and button pushing
So overall..this is not a suitable pvp program or for the more invested boxers...
But for the curious n frugal it seemed to help me in new ways

[Runiat]

I've got 1 major issue with this.. it seems that my voice changes drastically whenever I drink something, so after teaching microsoft how my voice sounds when I'm thirsty I went and had a glass of milk, came back, 10% of what I said triggered a command, and what command it was had nothing to do with what was said.

[Xzin]

I have also noticed the more sloshed I get the worse computers and people alike are at recognizing my voice :)

[mmcookies]

May have something to do with where you're speaking "from."

Major spots are nose, mouth (front part), throat, and belly.

I remember the older voice recognition softwares required people to pay particular attention to this. I also remember reading something that says it's supposedly resolved in the current generation of voice recognition technology.

[coldcrew]

being a complete newbie at dualboxing (just started last week) and doing it with 2 keyboards I found this program particular interesting.

You see before I got hooked on WoW, I was hooked on LOMAC, a flight simulator with a ridiculous amount of keyboard commands it forced me to code a program just like the one mentioned above.

so last night I reinstalled my compiler and source code, see what wow does to you? and voila I got voice commands to macros working in no time.

There's nothing magical about it tho, you map voice commands to 1 button keys, like F1, F2. In my case I created a macro like

/target angrytoilet
/cast lesser healing wave
/follow angrytoilet

I say "heal" it sends F1 to wow which runs the macro. My own personal healbot haha.

watch out for angrytoilet (warrior) and nragedtoilet (druid) coming to a youtube near you :twisted:

[Arthemas]

I don't see any problem spamming heals with this application, if you can
make two commands for the same button (or just bind the two buttons in
WoW to the same spell). Then there's no way the application will think that
you accidently said it twice.

"Heal. Spam. Heal. Spam. Heal. Spam."

Or whatever. Wouldn't that work?

Never tried this software out, but I'm definitely going to do so, looks really
cool and relaxed for doing instances, especially if you're boxing the same
class :) Way too slow for PvP of course, but for levelling up - ace. Never
have to take your eyes of the screen to search your keyboard for that button
either :D

[SoulSeekerUSA]

I use Game Commander 2 for a lot of my games but mostly for wow and my dual-boxing setup. I love it and have no problems that can't be delt with. Game Commander 2 does a great job and is the best out there for voice control.

[kcin]

If anyone using Vista tried this and found out it doesn't work, you're partially right. It seems that something the software does when it loads a new script messes things up. Rename your desired script default.txt and it will load properly when VC first starts. Do not try to load another script or it will stop working.

[deis]

[thread necromancy]

Sorry to bring this back, but just thought I would post some thoughts.

I recently started up a dual-box setup, want to three box but lack a third account ATM. Doing a Paladin/Mage combo. And Voice Commander saves me so much time and frustration for controlling the Mage.

A good trick to use is to make compound commands that are unique but easy to say quickly. So its better to use two word commands or longer single word commands. I would also suggest training the speech recognizer at least twice to give it a bit more recognizability of your voice.

The only downside I have run into is the very short about half second delay due to the voice processing that needs to take place, but it is really not much of a problem. Especially for when voice controlling a mage. About 0.5 seconds or so before my last command is finished executing, like 3/4 or more into the cast bar, I go ahead and speak my next command so that once started there is almost no real delay. I have learned to work with the delay and also using a bit of intelligent prediction from observation I barely notice any issues with it. I have a long history with healing classes and predicting mob damage and actions is in my blood, and I think anyone with that knowledge could effectively voice command a healing class through any 5 man or higher challenge provided your setup for it.

P.S - A fun thing to do is make up your own commands completely, as in make up the words from nothing. Things you can say quickly but really do not match most other word combinations. Or even use other fictional languages such as... Elven/Klingon or dead languages such as latin. It just adds a bit more fun and uniqueness.

[dniem]

It's pretty interesting, I'm gonna try it, not that I think I'll keep it.

Edit: I gave it a try last night, it was pretty interesting but I don't think I'd use it for combat. I used it mostly for Autorun, QuestLog, Character Sheet, Map and stuff like that. Eventually I think I'll use it too for Bloodlust with 5 shaman instead of pressing those keys.

[d0z3rr]

I cannot wait to try this when I get home. Sounds awesome.

[Tehtsuo]

*Thread necromancy*

I tried this out yesterday in Tanaris, and I gotta say I'm very happy with it. The reason I looked into it was that I noticed I was leaving out some spells to save key space. Example - Since I play a paladin and 4 shaman team, my shamans don't get hit a lot. Therefore, I said "Well, lightning shield won't help too much so I might as well not use it." That started to eat on me, because I felt like I wasn't playing my classes as efficiently as I'd like.

I set up Voice Commander, which turned out to be a pretty easy process. Then I went through my action bars and moved things to a new action bar for voice commands. All my seldom-used commands now go there. I have lightning shield, my train macro for cities to have my team form a line, my /dance macro, a ghost wolf macro, and many others tied to voice commands now. I don't lose reliability because all combat commands are still keybinds to my n52.

I think I'll probably use it even when I'm not multiboxing. I can't count the times I've had a spell that I don't use often enough to justify putting on a keybind. Example - On my paladin, I have keybinds for just about everything, but I leave a few out because I run out, like Judgement of Justice. Justice is a fabulous spell for using on rogues so they can't sprint, and druids so they can't travel form. (Among others) However, I just can't fit it into my keybindings. With voice commands, I can use Justice and not have it take up a keybind. Another example - Fear Beast on my hunter. It's situational, so I can't keybind it, I just don't have enough keys! But when I see a druid in animal form, I start wishing I could use it. Sometimes I even find it in my spellbook and click it from there!

I think voice commander can be a useful tool if people incorporate it's flaws instead of trying to twist its arm. Don't use it to control healing, or nuking. Use it for things that you want to be able to do but don't use in combat when it really counts, or for abilities you rarely use. If you try to rely on it, you will end up screaming at your computer "HEAL! HEAL! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HEAL!" but if you just want your guys to /dance in orgrimmar you're hardly going to sweat if it takes a few trys to get it to listen to you. (Although it's been 100% accurate for me so far. I have a very good microphone.)

[zanthor]

Sounds like a viable buffing tool as well. I currently have hotkeys for Fort, Spirit, Shadow, Arcane Int, and Mage Armor... may have to toy with this.

[Tehtsuo]

I've created the page for Voice Commander on the Wiki, you can visit it here:

http://www.dual-boxing.com/wiki/index.php/Voice_Commander

Feel free to make changes and corrections!

[The IT Monkey]

Wow, very nice write up.

[boxer]

The problem i have with voice command input is that I play using muscle memory, and just go through the motions when im killing mobs etc, and only half paying attention. voice recognition would have me give 100% attention to the game.

[Binaryzero]

For vista I tested http://www.codeplex.com/KeySimVoiceCommander this tool, once I got the debug DLLs in place and got the XML setup it worked well over all...

[Teejayv]

correct me wrong if i have this statement incorrect.

I will assume that this program will work in conjunction with a program such as keyclone, and will be able to broadcast the voice command (keyclick) to multiple boxes (3 specifically). for my purposes i just want to be able to buff on my off chars (mage int buff, etc). Also i would like to be able to utilize some utility spells on my mage other than the constant fireball/fireblast spam that i always press. Dragon's Breath, cone of cold, frost nova, etc and all that.

For my shamans i would like to be able to drop more specific totems without having to worry about where they are on teh keyboard. Poison cleanse, disease cleanse come to mind, as well as possibly being able to speak Earth/Fire Elementals into existence in collaboration with the /castsequence macro :)

Will this work with 5 accounts on 3 computers with keyclone? PLS SAY YES!

thanks

[shaeman]

If keyclone works with your 5 accounts on 3 computers then the voice recognition would.

Lets say one of your machines is the master - this is the one you play on. Keyclone sends the key presses and the others pick up on those transmitted keys.

Voice recognition only adds one more step in that process. You would run the voice recognition software on the master computer. The software would in turn trigger a keypress which keyclone would then transmit to the other computers.

[Teejayv]

ahh i see, as long as a voice command is considered a keypress, than for sure i'm safe.

i guess this could change how i do things.. might make me a little more efficient in instances. Does anyone have advice on certain things i could use as voice commands other than

-buffs (self & group)
-misc totems
-extra pally stuff (all those judgements and blessings i dont' even know of cuz i've never used em once)

uhh.. the /follow and stuff that i've gotten used to pressing on the keyboard for 67 levels i'll probably have a hard time moving over to voice recognition. For sure healing, attacking, and those repetitive things i would never put on voice command as it would be too much and i've already committed to memory on my keyboard over the millions of times that i've pressed them.

I'm open to ideas as to what else you guys use voice commands for.

thanks

[Anozireth]

It's not entirely true that keyclone will pick up any simulated key press. There's at least 3 different ways to simulate key presses, and I am quite sure keyclone won't pick them all up. I'm working on a voice recognition program (see my sig) that currently can handle broadcasting to all clients on the same machine, but it won't get picked up by keyclone to send it over the network with the way I have it now.

Basically the problem is that the way of simulating the keystrokes that is most efficient and reliably picked up by WoW, is the one way that keyclone can't pick it up. I can change my code so it will, but in doing it that way I found that I have frequent problems if I'm actually using the keyboard for movement and such. Single-key commands usually work ok, but macros tend to fail.

[Ludi]

Having a hard time gathering data on how to tweak keyclone to function smoothly w/ GameCommander2. Perhaps the software is outdated, or incapable of doing that which i please. =P I would like to have 2 regions via maximizer. 1 of which (rogue) i control directly, the other (caster dps) i control skills via GameCommander2, and movement via keycopy. I am running into a spot of trouble. GC2 will not send keystrokes to an "inactive application" i.e. if i am main control on the rogue, it wants to send its keypresses to that instance of WOW, and not the background version (caster dps). I am running 2 seperate installations, off of 2 partitions (perhaps the problem?... im playing w/ that aspect atm....was hoping someone could save me some time).

Yes. I did read the FAQ. =D
and searched senselessly for GC2 information, to the length of opening a ticket in game... (pointless btw).

Of note -
I have tried renaming one of the wow.exe processes (modules rather...) no no avail. Windows Vista. Administrator Rights have no effect.

Any help? Is there a way, via keycopy, to "trick" GC2 into thinking the background copy of wow is the active application? "Keep this window on top" has no effect (which i figured.)

Sincerely awaiting some help.

Thanks.

***EDIT***

When both installations of wow are on the same partition as keyclone, and GC2, keystrokes are sent via keyclone to both installations properly, and GC2 (voice activated keystrokes) are sent to both running installations....hmm... suppose i could could alleviate my problems by having both toons on completely separate bindings, however i feel that will hinder me once i get beyond these intial tweaks. ah well..

[Fleecy]

It would be advisable to create a new topic instead of replying in a thread of no relevance.

If I'm reading your e-mail correctly, you don't appear to be using Keyclone to its fullest potential.