Voice command for SH4

[suitednate]

Anyone use sh4speech? Or anything else? This looks/sounds so cool. The thread over on the mods board seems to be "in the weeds". I just posted there as well but the previous post was a year ago. Am hoping that someone here uses this (or any other voice command input) and can help out.

Having trouble getting this to work. The program is recognizing my commands but they are NOT being input/transmitted into the game. Followed all the instructions. Can anyone out there please help? Would love to get this working. Thanks.

[Simmy]

I use sh4speech.
I used it back on my old computer which was running on XP.
When I got my new computer I had a hell of time trying to
get it to work. The fix was very simple. Just turn off "run as
administrator". Runs great every since.
Now the computer I'm talking about is a Windows 7 Home version.

Be sure to take the time to set up the mic and do the training, it pays
off big time. SH4speech works much better with 7 than it did with XP.
I'm assuming thats because 7's speech program is that much better
than XP's was.

Once you get the thing running correctly you won't want to play without
it.

[suitednate]

Originally Posted by Simmy

I use sh4speech.
I used it back on my old computer which was running on XP.
When I got my new computer I had a hell of time trying to
get it to work. The fix was very simple. Just turn off "run as
administrator". Runs great every since.
Now the computer I'm talking about is a Windows 7 Home version.

Be sure to take the time to set up the mic and do the training, it pays
off big time. SH4speech works much better with 7 than it did with XP.
I'm assuming thats because 7's speech program is that much better
than XP's was.

Once you get the thing running correctly you won't want to play without
it.

Yeah I had already done everything you stated. I have win 7 myself and have "run as admin" turned off for this program. I am using the laptop's built in mic next to the webcam. The batch file log says it is hearing me and doing the concurrent key commands but they aren't being transmitted to the game itself.

[Simmy]

I've never heard of anyone using sh4speech on a laptop, but I suppose
it can be done.
Make sure you set the resolution of your screen in the bat.file. Are you using the stock version or the TMO version of sh4speech?

[suitednate]

Originally Posted by Simmy

I've never heard of anyone using sh4speech on a laptop, but I suppose
it can be done.
Make sure you set the resolution of your screen in the bat.file. Are you using the stock version or the TMO version of sh4speech?

Well I'm actually playing RFB and using the stock version. I know the files are gonna need some tweaking but a lot of the buttons on RFB are the same as stock. And I'm testing those and nothin.....

To change the resolution of the .bat file do I just edit it with notepad? (If so I've done that already but please let me know if that's the correct method)

Also when exactly do I say "I have 10 tubes" and reset dials, reset tubes"?

[Simmy]

Originally Posted by suitednate

Well I'm actually playing RFB and using the stock version. I know the files are gonna need some tweaking but a lot of the buttons on RFB are the same as stock. And I'm testing those and nothin.....

To change the resolution of the .bat file do I just edit it with notepad? (If so I've done that already but please let me know if that's the correct method)

Also when exactly do I say "I have 10 tubes" and reset dials, reset tubes"?

Well theres your problem.
sh4speech "Only" works with pure stock game, or with TMO. Those are the only two games it works with, simple as that.
Now some have fooled around and gotten it to work with other version on their own, I think. But the mod out of the box only works with stock/TMO.

To change resolution: open the folder for sh4speech. There should be 4 different bat files there. Highlite the one you want and right click on it, then hit run, it will open a list, second down from the top will be "edit", hit that and it opens a notepad where you simply replace whatever resolution there with the res of your screen. That makes sure that the pointer goes to the right place on the screen. Save it and close. When you double left click on it, it will run the program and you will see your resolution at the top.

After you start the game and are in your sub, in the control room, say "setup 8/10 tubes - whatever the number of total tubes you have.
Then say "reset all dials".
That's how I do it anyway and it works great. If when you tell it next tube and it doesn't change to the next tube, just repeat the command to setup X tubes.

[suitednate]

Originally Posted by Simmy

Well theres your problem.
sh4speech "Only" works with pure stock game, or with TMO. Those are the only two games it works with, simple as that.
Now some have fooled around and gotten it to work with other version on their own, I think. But the mod out of the box only works with stock/TMO.

To change resolution: open the folder for sh4speech. There should be 4 different bat files there. Highlite the one you want and right click on it, then hit run, it will open a list, second down from the top will be "edit", hit that and it opens a notepad where you simply replace whatever resolution there with the res of your screen. That makes sure that the pointer goes to the right place on the screen. Save it and close. When you double left click on it, it will run the program and you will see your resolution at the top.

After you start the game and are in your sub, in the control room, say "setup 8/10 tubes - whatever the number of total tubes you have.
Then say "reset all dials".
That's how I do it anyway and it works great. If when you tell it next tube and it doesn't change to the next tube, just repeat the command to setup X tubes.

Yeah I know there isn't one made for RFB but I have been trying to use the stock .bat file with RFB since a lot of the keyboard shortcut commands are the same between stock and RFB. If the program is just pressing the key, shouldn't it work then? The black dialog box indicates that it hears my commands and is doing the requisite key sequence but they just aren't happening within the game.....

[Simmy]

Well like I said, turning off the run as administrator fixed that for me.
If you want to try and set this thing up for RFB do a search for sh4speech.
There is a big long running thread all about the ins and out of the mod.

Never mind I see you have been there.
Sorry I can't be of more help, but I have never fooled with trying to change the thing.

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by Simmy

Well theres your problem.
sh4speech "Only" works with pure stock game, or with TMO. Those are the only two games it works with, simple as that.

This is not quite a correct statement. SH4Speech as downloaded, does not work completely with any version of SH4 currently available. Apparently, some of the scaling of dial controls has changed since the last release of SH4Speech. Some changes to the .csv control files are necessary even for stock SH4 and TMO.

To the extent that RFB uses the same keybindings and button commands as stock SH4, it can be used with SH4Speech "out of the box." RFB does mostly use the same key commands, unlike TMO, which IIRC converted the keybindingd to an "SH3-like" layout.

You certainly can use SH4Speech on a laptop. I haven't owned a breadbox computer in years. But all of the voice command programs, including SHSpeech and the voice command for SH5 should only be used with a headset with boom mic. The area mic in a laptop is OK for Skype, but not for voice recognition. It simply captures too much background noise. A trip to the local Shack and $15 will get you a wired headset that works perfectly well. Or you can spend 5 times that for a spiffy wireless version. YMMV. But don't plan to use the built-in on your laptop.

@suitednate: If your software is set up properly, then keypress commands will work just fine. For some reason, the SH4Speech software is not passing keypresses to the keyboard handler. Do you have any other programs running which interact with the keyboard handler? Like a keyboard macro program? Because anything like that will interfere. Obviously, the voice rec portion of SH4Speech is working properly since you see the commands interpreted properly in the dialog box. Does the dialog indicate that the correct key sequence is being sent? SH4Speech should be run as administrator. I don't know whether it will work otherwise. And, BTW, I use SH4Speech and SH3Speech (same program, different csv files) under Windows 7 Home Prem, using the built-in voice rec front end software.

I find the most convenient time to give the SH4Speech setup commands ("I have X Tubes." etc.) is after starting SH4Speech and before starting SH4. Those commands only set up control tables in SH4Speech, so SH4 isn't needed.

The dial setting portion of SH4Speech (dials.csv) needs to be modified to work properly, regardless of your screen resolution. I'm pretty sure that the button bar (command_bar.csv) needs fixup, too. This is not hard, but it does involve working with the csv files. You can get screen locations by taking screenies and opening them in a pixel-graphics program - Paint.NET is a good free one. Perhaps the simplest way to get going quickly is just to add a lot of key commands to commands.cfg and let SH4Speech do the keymashing for you.

If anyone is interested, PM me and I can provide complete sets of working csv files for RFB and TMO. Both work with a standardized (MY standard!) keyboard layout, so there's a commands.cfg file included.

[suitednate]

Thank you for your reply BigWalleye. I will be looking into my computer at the end of the work day and using your advice. And I would probably look it up later but, what is a keyboard macro program?

[Azgrim]

Hey there.
I've just installed the sh4speech on Win7 and found no problems with it.
The only thing I fiddled with a bit was Tube management and Crash dive command.

If you have any questions about it - please ask, I'll share what I know.

For me it's a revelation mod, really. Commanding your sub by voice, and hearing 'Yes sir, CRASH DIVE!!!' in reply - just amazing.

[suitednate]

Originally Posted by Azgrim

Hey there.
I've just installed the sh4speech on Win7 and found no problems with it.
The only thing I fiddled with a bit was Tube management and Crash dive command.

If you have any questions about it - please ask, I'll share what I know.

For me it's a revelation mod, really. Commanding your sub by voice, and hearing 'Yes sir, CRASH DIVE!!!' in reply - just amazing.

The windows speech engine (Win7) for me would just never transfer those commands to the game. If you can help with this I'd surely appreciate it.

[Staunch]

Originally Posted by suitednate

The windows speech engine (Win7) for me would just never transfer those commands to the game. If you can help with this I'd surely appreciate it.

Try making sure both sh4speech and silent hunter both have the property of starting in Win 7 compatibility mode.

[Skyraptor]

I use Voice Attack and have the all the reference card commands set up and it works just great. voiceattack.com $8 bucks for the full version.

[Simmy]

I have used sh4speech and it works pretty well.
And then Skyraptor mentioned Voice Attack. I used that program for Elite Dangerous and it works great. It never dawned on me to try and use it for SH4.
I tried it and can get it to work with most commands but it doesn't work with a few. Like, raise and lower the periscope, view to heading, heading to view.
Is there a simple answer to this to make it work, or at least an answer?

thanks much,
Simmy