Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
Karaoke Revolution, you mean :)
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
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.