So I’ve always used “simple” radios in DCS, and just press the "" key and then usually press the corresponding key to use the radio. Sometimes lately, I’ll click the radio command I want with the mouse if I feel like that’s easier.
However, with the need now to “call the ball” in the groove, I don’t like the thought of taking my hand off the stick or throttle during such a critical phase of flight. I haven’t delved into some of the other functionalities of the hornet that require comms while maneuvering, but I could see this being an issue other places as well (communicating with JTAC, etc…).
As of today with vaicom pro and voice attack, after I ruined a perfectly good landing yesterday because I had to reach for the keyboard for the ball call. Avid voice activation user in bms, but for DCS still have to test further to recommend however, first impressions are good
Voice Attack/Vaicom Pro/Airio is a must have, especially for VR in my opinion. They’re going to be coming out with a Supercarrier ATC module soon and I’ll pick that up as well for a few bucks.
“The Realistic ATC plugin extension enables dynamic menu-free communications for the DCS: Supercarrier module.
The license also includes future support for ED’s planned upgraded Ground ATC communications.
A PRO plugin license is required to use this extension.”
Voice Attack is a must really, but I never got VAICOM to work well. A combination of my accent and bad memory I think. I can never get the commands right, and it just seems more of a hassle than a help.
With plain VoiceAttack, I just have the radio commands set as Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 etc. with only a few commands spoken as they are written, Inbound for landing for example.
Works a charm, and handsfree.
Yeah it was a bit more work to get it all going for myself as well:
Configuring my HOTAS mapping as @chipwich shows above; some platforms have different radio setups too, so one 4/8-way hat dedicated to VA/VC. COMMS is just another complication in the real world that directly translates to complications in the virtual one, if you so choose. I’m a glutton for punishment
Remembering the correct calls, i.e.; at first I kept forgetting the phraseology for approaching the tanker. There is a way to create aliases (for any command); make one for a command it/you are having a hard time with? I haven’t needed this yet but have seen others mention it.
The UI isn’t ‘tight’; is sort of a direct mapping of the database, all displayed there for you to play with. Not a big deal to me but it does take some clicking to get things done.
The doc’s are, errr… ‘prolific’.
I did an online flight about 2 months ago, ‘auditioning’ for a squadron. I did fine til it came time to use the radios: I had to un-map my VA/VC buttons temporarily, requiring me to use the menu’s again. What mess! It had been so long since I used menu’s it threw me off for a bit.
In the end, in VR especially, I feel it’s a must have.
Yeah, I found the primary focus became getting the VAICOM radio commands to actually work, instead of flying. And when my success rate remained around 20%, I kind of shelved the project.
Anyway, the simple, more direct VA way works something like 99,9% for me, so all is good.
Looking forward to the day, voice recognition AI makes it possible to speak to your computer, and have it actually understand what you mean.
Thanks for the responses folks! So it sounds like it’s feasible to start with the free version of VoiceAttack and make a simple profile where one HOTAS button brings up the radio menu and then I can just say “selection 1, selection 2, etc…” for the command or submenu that I want?
Then, if I want to get more complex I could buy the Voice Attack license and maybe look at Viacom even later (although it sounds to complex for me for now)…?
Yep, pretty much, I think you will see VA is worth the 10$ in no time
I can send you my universal DCS profile if you want, to get you started, though I don’t know how it will work with the 20 command limit on the free version.
Just picked up the ATC package for Vaicom- I’ll reinstall and re-enable tonight, or tomorrow, or whenever I have time, and let’s see if it fixes some of the Tomcat stuff.
I retried VA/VAICOM and it borked my DCS install. Decided today is no day for hassle, so dug up an old wireless keyboard. It works flawlessly! And that’s despite having had the status of kids’ toy for a year or two! Bravo Zulu Logitech!
It’s pretty good on the sc, calls like “Marshall 301, marking mom’s 120 for 40, angels 6, lowest state 5.5” are picked up and it’s great for immersion that you can mute the ownship ui voicecalls; however the calls without prefix (in this case, Marshall) are problematic when using tailnumbers, typical speech recognition problem areas… Same as ball which needs to be pronounced as baal; but “hornet ball” on the other hand is much better.
Gonna try to put in some trail number aliases tonight…
