Voice control?

[SpencerH]

I've been playing MTW for a few days and my fingers are protesting. What I'd like to see is the ability to control the units in the tactical screen with voice commands. Obviously, one wouldnt have the precise control as with the mouse but it sure would save my overworked finger tendons and joints.

"Unit 15, advance 100m"

"Unit 15, Right wheel 45 degrees"

"Unit 15, Charge"

"Run for the hills, they have screaming women"

Given how good voice recognition is now, it should be do-able.

[A.Saturnus]

I doubt very much that such a feature would not be broken beyond recognition.

[Zenicetus]

Sure, it should work if you get good voice recognition software and use a headset mic (for consistency and ambient isolation). I've seen people use voice control for all sorts of things.... never as a game controller, but there's no reason it shouldn't work.

Unfortunately I haven't kept up with the field that much, and I don't know what the current best bang-for-buck software is. The good stuff used to be pretty expensive (I think IBM was one of the early outfits offering this), but maybe it's cheaper now.

Check out this video I ran across recently -- it's a demo of a touchscreen table with voice command, running a Warcraft III game:
http://media.gear.ign.com/articles/698/698241/vids_1.html

I could see that being a lot of fun with a game like MTW or RTW.

[anti_strunt]

I have vague memories of the possibility of voice control existing for some old vector-based robot fighting game for the early ninties, so the technology has been around for some time.

[SpencerH]

I've used dragon voice recognition products for years (with a good headset microphone). While it may not happen, there's no reason why we couldnt have at least some of the commands issued by voice (and I'd like to see it). I think it would add a new level of immersion to the tactical game.

"Scots Greys will advance at the walk"

[DimeBagHo]

Unreal Tournament has voice control in single player (had it in 2004 I think - haven't played since then). It was for pretty basic stuff like telling the bots to defend here, attack, turn over weapons, follow, and so on. It worked fine. The recognition was quite reliable, although obviously the more commands you add the less reliable it gets, because there is more potential for confusion between similar sounding commands.

It would be a nice touch if rallying troops actually required shouting abuse at them.

[Orda Khan]

Game voice supposedly had this facility, though only certain games are recognised. I strongly suspect voice commands would soon annoy the family anyway

.......Orda

[Forward Observer]

There are several voice control programs available that are specifically designed for gaming.

One is "Game Commander" and it works pretty well, although it is kind of expensive. It's like $70 or so for the latest version. I had a "lite" version of it that came bundled with a Creative sound card I bought a few years back.

Here is a link: Game Commander (http://www.mindmaker.com/index.html)

For the total war games, you could use it for any keyboard commands that the game comes with, but that is it. The game has nothing to do with the ability of the program nor are any games designed for it that I am aware of.

Their new version of the software will recognize mouse patterns, but I have no idea how that works or if it would even be applicable to the TW games

The software will work with about any game because all it really does is associate a particular voice (Pattern)command with a specific key stroke or even a series of strokes. You have to set up profiles for each game you want to use it with and teach it the commands, which can be time consuming, although there are pre-configured profiles for many popular games that can be downloaded. Even with this you still have to teach it your particular voice patterns

It was great for simulations that had multiple keyboard commands, like a flight sim for example. It was absolutely perfect for Silent Hunter II since you are the captain of a Uboat giving orders to your crew. I even learned and then taught the program all the commands in German for total immersion.

Unfortunately, I can't use my "lite" version now with SH 3, since this older version will not work with WindowsXP--only ME or 98 and earlier, and I'm not sure I want to spend what they want for the latest version just to use it for one or two games.

There is also a free program out there, but i have lost the link. If I can find it I will post it.

Cheers

What one really needs is a holodec like they had on the Startrek, but then you'd probably have to put up with those horrible medieval smells--gag.

[Divinus Arma]

I played SoCom with voice recognition. It made it much easier and helped with immersion.

My wife thought I had just become the biggest computer geek in the world after seeing me talk to that game. I could feel the household respect level decline. :laugh4:

[DimeBagHo]

I think my wife would regard it as welcome relief from the kind of stuff that I usually yell at the computer while playing online games. :furious3:

[Forward Observer]

I totally forgot about Edimensional. They sell the Track IR for flight simmers and what are supposed to be pretty good 3 D gaming glasses.

The track IR device allows one to pan around the cockpit of their game by simply moving their head. All the hardcore flight simmers swear by it.

Anyway, they also have a voice recognition software program for games called Voice Buddy that, at a price of about $40, is much more reasonable than Game Commander.

I've read some good reviews about their 3D glasses too, but the few people who I know who bought a pair thought they were neat at first but then tired of them pretty quickly, either from excessive eye strain or the fact that there is usually some degredation of the picture quality.

Here the link:E-Dimensional ( https://edimensional.com/index.php?cPath=23&osCsid=8cea79a4f62969416049bec93522a128)

Cheers

[SpencerH]

Like I said before, I already have the best voice recognition software available (Dragon Naturally Speaking). So that's really not the issue (for me). The question is whether CA could include code that would make the commands on the tactical map "recognition friendly". I think they could, that it might not require too much effort, and that the effect might be innovative and a lot of fun. Personally, I think it could be an interesting improvement to the TW games.