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On Integrating Voice Commands Into Videogames
Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing ways future videogames can use the player's voice more creatively. The writer notes of Rainbow Six 3 on Xbox: "It's the headset that really roped me into this one. While it's often easier to key in your commands from the controller, that's just a lot less fun", and goes on to suggest: "I'd like to be able to have my own macros of my own entry patterns. Heck, it might be cool if they laughed at a joke I cracked. I want a game where I can get in a shouting match with a character in the game - real Gene Hackman or Al Pacino business is what I'm talking about here." How would you like to see voice control in videogames evolve, going forward?
What do you do when your girlfriend comes home and finds you yelling at yourself in front of the tv??
The / in
Don't forget Konami's Lifeline which is coming in march in the US. It's a game where you "control" another person by having conversations with them.
Looks really interesting.
Please send all UCE to scally@devolution.com so I can f
I played a demo of this game for the Xbox the other day, but damned if I can remember what it was called. The premise is that you're a commander of a rebel squad in alternate future US.
You command your team alternately to guard, follow, attack, etc. I found it difficult to switch to the correct screen to call my group while in the middle of a firefight. It would have been a lot easier if I could've Just issued voice commands.
Myself, if a game is complicated enough control wise to require this sort of voice-control, at least for basic commands, then the game might very well be TOO complicated.
In this case, they should start thinking hard at putting a bit more focus into their game.
However, voice is very cool for games, mainly for multiplayer games communicating with your teammates. The Half-Life engine was built with this in mind. It works for the more team based games. I've been playing a lot of Day of Defeat/Natural Selection, and people in those games rely on the voice communication. It works a lot faster than typing things in.
Then again, in Subspace/Continnuum, Chat Macros are easy enough that voice never took off. Sooo..whatever.
"I want a game where I can get in a shouting match with a character in the game - real Gene Hackman or Al Pacino business is what I'm talking about here."
Are you certain you want to lose arguments to video game characters? They'll have scriptwriters. You won't.
-Carolyn
Like Daddy always said: if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit.
TeamSpeak
RogerWilco
Both work swimmingly with most MMORPGs (I play Shadowbane). Go with God.
El riesgo vive siempre!
I tried voice command with the Starfleet Academy game, and decided to revert to keyboard when it decided "one half impulse" = "shields down" repeatedly. Or "fire photons" = "all stop". Perhaps the recognition is better today, but that combined with my cell phone's continual "please repeat the name" on voice dial just don't give me a lot of faith in voice recognition.
I did get good recognition rates out of the Dragon Dictate program, or whatever it was called. I suspect stress changes voices enough to make it a harder challenge to recognize the same command when it was recorded originally in an unstressed environment.
Sig under construction since 1998.
I would love to see a game based around magic and spellcraft where you speak the words. It would be very simple, and with the addition of a peripheral like the eye-cam on the PS2, using hand gestures in addition to vocal commands would be quite engaging.
Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about....
I have misplaced my pants.
Some sort of intelligent voice-recognition work would allow (for example) a Karaoke version of Dance Dance Revolution where the console tracks how well you stay on key while singing along to various tracks? Hmm...
I've played SOCOM 1 (not two yet), and had great fun yelling into the microphone in an American accent (it didn't understand my Kiwi accent). My flatmates would come home to find me talking to myself "Bravo attack at will" "Bravo ATTACK at will" "Damn it Bravo ATTACK AT WILL!!!" Good fun though once I got the accent right...
While this is a generic utility, I've found that Shoot, by Martin Traverso provides an excellent way to add voice control to any Windows game, and it's free. Once trained, the accuracy is phenomenal.
--
Freelook - A Free Headtracker for Games and Disabled Access
Consider the most common, vulgar single word utterance made by most gamers, usually when they are killed.
Now, do you REALLY want your game to be voice controlled?
www.eFax.com are spammers
Alright, the first thing which came to my mind was "what if a person has an accent?" What happens when the game can't understand what you're saying or, worse, misinterprets one verbal command for another? Theoretically, a stuffed up nose could turn "attack the house" into "a tank the how's," leaving the units in a strategy game to stand around looking for a tank when they should be advancing.
Joking aside, there could be (and have been) problems with voice-recognition/speech-interpretation software. Probably the only device which has the capability to correctly interpret languages through accents, slurs, and illness is the human brain... and even that fails, sometimes.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see some voice control for NPCs in computer and video games. I'm just not daydreaming of A.I. which can engage in arguments and intelligent debates, or a piece of software which can translate any accent correctly, even the accents of non-native language speakers (like Americans speaking Japanese or vice-versa).
So, in my opinion, there's a long way to go before we should make speech an integral and necessary part of controling actions in a game. And, to answer the question posed, that's an area where I'd like to see voice control progress. The other area is to simply include it in any relatively complicated game which has a multiplayer component.
Take, for example, Halo PC; it has no voice control built in, but the fast-paced nature of the game prohibits typing out instructions, observations, etc. If I take time to type out "watch left!" while driving across a bridge in a Warthog, I and my passenger(s) will be smoked or the warning will be made useless by the fact that we'll be across the bridge before they can read and react to it.
After we reach these two aspects of voice recognition/control in games, we can talk about where and how it should be implimented, and why. In the mean time, I'll go back to shaking my fist at my broken PC.
~UP
(P.S. My apologies for the grumpy tone of this message. I didn't get enough sleep, last night.)
Eat the Path.
Voice recognition works well in the SOCOM series. For the single player campaign, you can order your 3 squadmates around, telling them to hold fire, escort you to a waypoint or cover an area. It's a gimmick, but it's a fun gimmick and probably provides enough leverage to get people on the mics for the online game.
Karaoke Revolution provides a sort of inverse fun to this. It matches pitch but doesn't bother with voice recognition. This means when you're playing with your friends, you can suddenly in the position of improvising clever lyrics to a cheesy song.
Why can't I moderate something "Wrong" or at least "Grossly Misinformed"?
Here's the thing. Voice control is great if it works... and if it's not tied to simply five or even fifty commands. I think if someone's talking to you in your game, you should be able to talk back freely... and I'm sure that's where it's going. Here's my problem however:
:)
I'm playing the game with virtually the same joystick that I played the atari 2600 with. Sure, it has a couple of more buttons, but that's about it (and yes, digital and analog blah blah). In fact, with Kirby and some other new games, one button is all you need.
Voice control is about immersion. And Further Immersion into the game is a good thing... However, the industry is bad this way. The immersive controls (like those where you stand or tilt) don't sell well so they don't invest into them. Joysticks do well by default... there's nothing else. Because there's an immediate payoff with the voice features, we'll have to settle for only partial immersion... and still play with ancient controllers.
This is why I love the eyetoy. It's completely useless, sure... but could lead the way to real complete immersion into video games.
Just a rant... no point really
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
If...you...are...willing...to...yell...yell...YELL ...at ...the...game...at...about...this...speed......You ...might...be...able...to...have...an...in-game... conversation...conversation...con-ver-sation...wit h...it.
:-)
Natural language processors kinda suck.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Altogether it worked pretty well. Personally I am more of a keyboard guy, but this may be just what you are looking for.
Link Here. Good luck!
In the game, regular sounds come from the TV, but a tormentor speaks to you through your headset (if you are so equipped). Also, stealth is an important part of the game, and people who are trying to kill you hear your voice in the microphone. You can use the tactic to distract others.
A satisfying solution for all those people who already talk to the screen!
"Don't go in there! Don't go in there!"
"Hmm... I don't think I'll go in there right now."
Then again, think of all the people who insult the on-screen character whenever they're doing badly.
"Stupid @$%* Mario!"
"Oh, yeah? Let's-a see you do any better, wise-a-guy!"
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.