On Integrating Voice Commands Into Videogames 78
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?
Yelling at yourself? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yelling at yourself? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't think I want to have to talk to a game. It might be fun in some instances, but yelling at the game a la Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men would definitely raise eyebrows if anyone else was home.
Re:Yelling at yourself? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yelling at yourself? (Score:3, Funny)
I mean, how else are you going to get it to be interactive?
Re:Yelling at yourself? (Score:5, Funny)
Ask her who the hell she is and how she got in my house?
Re:Yelling at yourself? (Score:4, Funny)
Isn't that how penthouse letters start??
Re:Yelling at yourself? (Score:2)
LifeLine (Score:5, Interesting)
Looks really interesting.
Re:LifeLine (Score:4, Informative)
Re:LifeLine (Score:1)
Re:LifeLine (Score:2, Funny)
You have shot yourself in the head. Insert 2 credits to continue.
Re:LifeLine (Score:2)
Seems like more of a novelty, but it might have some interesting scenarios built in.
You: "Shoot him!"
Her: "Who?"
You: "F**K!"
Her: "Ok."
(Porn music begins.)
LifeLine is nothing compared to the latest NFS (Score:2)
from the website
"Unlike ordinary driving games where the player controls the car with a game pad or steering wheel, BSD-players use voice command to control the car. With Logitech, EA has developed a new controller for the game: a headrest with force-feedback and a built-in microphone."
I love bbspot.
Commanding other characters (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Commanding other characters (Score:2)
voice communication between players not commands (Score:2)
Re:voice communication between players not command (Score:2, Informative)
RogerWilco [gamespy.com]
Both work swimmingly with most MMORPGs (I play Shadowbane). Go with God.
Re:voice communication between players not command (Score:2)
Re:voice communication between players not command (Score:2)
I definitely prefer 3rd party vvoice over an MMO using up even more bandwidth and being even more laggy than they already are. Not to mention that its hard to write good voice comm software, I'd rather game devs concentrated on the game.
Being too complicated? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Being too complicated? (Score:2, Interesting)
"Private, take point."
"Hold your fire!"
"Take cover!"
"Be quiet."
"Retreat!"
"Fall back to checkpoint Bravo."
"Call for an airstrike."
"Delta team, go to point Foxtrot via waypoint Echo."
"Call for reinforcements!"
All of this could be made
Re:Being too complicated? (Score:1)
Re:Being too complicated? (Score:1, Interesting)
The voice comms in Half-Life are a fairly recent addition, but I get the impression that it's been extremely well integrated. Some friends were talking about how impressive some Xbox Live thing was, and I couldn't help but laugh - I'd been using something similar in Half-Life for ages.
Probably the best use I've seen (heard?) is in Natural Selection, playing as a marine when the commander has a microphone. No silly typing getting in the way of the commandi
Re:Being too complicated? (Score:2)
Natural Selection is great for voice mod, as people tend to get into it
Are you sure? (Score:5, Funny)
Are you certain you want to lose arguments to video game characters? They'll have scriptwriters. You won't.
-Carolyn
Re:Are you sure? (Score:2, Informative)
Shields down (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Shields down (Score:2, Informative)
Dragon's program was called Naturally Speaking (IIRC). There's also ViaVoice (from IBM) and a few others. My wife works in this field, so I know far too much about it for my own
Re:Shields down (Score:1)
Spellcasting... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Spellcasting... (Score:2)
A simple light spell at 1st level could be done by tracing a simple circle above your head for example while saying a couple m
Black & White (Score:1)
For instance, you cast a shield by drawing a circle around the area you want to shield.
Apparantly, the more perfect your circle, the stronger your shield, though I haven't been able to notice a large difference.
Re:Spellcasting... (Score:2)
I doubt it's been thought of before, and a well-made game with elements like that would be awesome.
Re:Spellcasting... (Score:1)
Re:Spellcasting... (Score:1)
It will be fun to watch.
I've been waiting for voice commands in a RTS (Score:2)
What I think would finally immerse me in an RTS would be the ability issue voice commands to a virtual lieutenant, set waypoints with the mouse, but otherwise have him control the squad. It would also be nice to just station a squa
Glengarry Glen Ross: The Game (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Glengarry Glen Ross: The Game (Score:1)
Re:Glengarry Glen Ross: The Game (Score:1)
Sing Sing Revolution? (Score:2)
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...
Re:Sing Sing Revolution? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sing Sing Revolution? (Score:1)
Re:Sing Sing Revolution? (Score:2)
SOCOM voice activation (Score:4, Funny)
Re:SOCOM voice activation (Score:2)
voice command in games (Score:1)
Jainith
Re:voice command in games (Score:2)
And then they made the XBox controller.
Shoot (Score:4, Informative)
--
Freelook [freelook.org] - A Free Headtracker for Games and Disabled Access
Re:Shoot (Score:1)
All shoot does is take an already parsed string of what you said, compare it to an xml file, and execute a number of keystrokes. So, as long as you have some kind of voice rec software (there's stuff somewhat built into WinXP, but I can't promise for other OSes), and a game that isn't too reliant on a mouse for commands, and you've got a great solution to binding (but mostly remembering) lots of keys.
I currently use SHOOT for
One word problem for voice control (Score:2, Funny)
Now, do you REALLY want your game to be voice controlled?
Of Accents and Multiplayer (Score:3, Insightful)
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.)
Re:Of Accents and Multiplayer (Score:2)
That's okay--then you could only play as the bad guys. Everyone knows that the bad guys have accents.
Think of the possibilities--terrorists, nazis, Japanese jungle troopers...
"Ve heff vays of makink you talk, Doktah Chones"...
Or for commands..."Klaus, take zis man outside and BEAT HIM!"
Or you could be like the guy in the movie "Midway" who runs up behind James Shigeta on the Japanese carrier, yelling "DIVE BOMBA! ENEMY DIVE BOMBA!"
Man, the possibilities are endless.
If you made allowance for the Brit
SOCOM (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
What I don't like about the current trend (Score:2, Interesting)
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,
Well... (Score:3, Funny)
Natural language processors kinda suck.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
Spock... we seem to have stumbled... upon... a nebulous... galaxy which has no apparent reason... for existing... at all.
Microsoft Game Voice (Score:3, Informative)
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. [microsoft.com] Good luck!
Manhunt (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Manhunt (Score:2)
You know those games where you're trapped somewhere, and there's somebody on a radio guiding you through puzzles, giving you advice, and what not?
There's a PS2 game, I think it's called Lifeline, coming out, where you play the guy on the radio, via the headset, and try to help out somebody trapped on the space station after the Terrible Accident.
Moving forward (Score:1)
Personally, I'd prefer slightly to the side. If that's all okay with you.
Seaman for DC (Score:1)
First things first (Score:2)
First, how about we expand the average gamer's vocabulary beyond the words; f***, s*** or homosexual terms. Then I'll consider wearing a headset with some stranger online talking to me in a game.
Otherwise I'll just stick to talking on the phone and playing with someone I know. Or better yet, play at a LAN party.
Desperate? (Score:2)
He just wants to be loved!
Yeah great (Score:2)
The moral of the story? Voice recognition makes the terrorists win. Or something.
Operating System (Score:1)
But as far as gaming is concerned, people can't organize with each other very well what makes us think we can do it with a computer.
Finally! (Score:4, Funny)
"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!"
pikachu! (Score:1)
All I have to say is ... (Score:1)