Please Help - Odd Behavior with VA and MSFS 2020

[kmaulden]

I've been trying to set up MS Flight Simulator 2020 with voice commands. I have Steam/VoiceAttack, which worked perfectly with Elite Dangerous. So I started a new profile for MSFS, entered several commands, and got started. When I start the game, commands work fine, for example, Left Wing, Right Wing, Copilot Window, Lights Panel, etc.

However, about 30-40 commands in, everything goes haywire. The app shows that it hears me correctly, but it won't process the command. Many times in a row I keep repeating commands and trying other commands, but even though the app hears me, nothing happens. What's really weird is that my basic keyboard functions go haywire as well. Things like Alt-Tab initiated with the keyboard, not VA stop working. When this happens, keyboard commands stop working through MSFS even if I bypass VA. So I exit VA, and I can begin to use the keys again. Strange.

I thought maybe it was VA, so I downloaded another voice app, but it does the same thing after a few commands. Do you have any idea what's wrong? Clearly, this isn't a recognition problem, because your app understands what I say -- it just doesn't follow the command and scrambles my OS. I was going to try your standalone version of VA, but I'm not sure if the Steam version is my problem or not.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

[Pfeil]

It's unlikely Steam is the issue, but there is a demo version available on the website that you can try.


However, if another application does the exact same thing, it's not a VoiceAttack-specific issue...

Are your commands pressing any keys you haven't set up to be released afterward?

Does stopping all commands (using the button on the main window, a keyboard key you have assigned to the "Stop All Commands Hotkey" option on the "Hotkeys" tab of the VoiceAttack options window, or a "Make VoiceAttack Stop Processing All Commands" action in a spoken command) have any effect?

[kmaulden]

Are your commands pressing any keys you haven't set up to be released afterward?

Thanks for the quick response. I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean. If I have a key set up (like "Key Press") for example, do I have to tell VA to stop pressing the key? Also, yes, I did notice that when I clicked the Ear and the Lightning Bolt icon at the top right of the VA window that I regained control, but I still had a lot of problems with the keyboard in general.

[kmaulden]

Sorry, I meant "KeyDown", not Key Press.

[Pfeil]

I clicked the Ear and the Lightning Bolt icon at the top right of the VA window that I regained control

Those are not buttons on the main window. The button to stop all commands is a square inside a rounded square.

There is also no "KeyDown" action in VoiceAttack. Which application are you using?


If you are referring to the VoiceAttack Keypress action, does it look like

Code: [Select]

Press down A key
or does it look like

Code: [Select]

Press A key and hold for 0,06 seconds and release
?

[kmaulden]

Sorry, I mixed up the apps there for a bit. I've been using multiple apps just to figure out whether the problem is with my OS or the apps. Yes, when I click the 'square inside the rounded square' I get control, but it still goes crazy after a few more commands are processed. I do have several of both types of commands you mentioned:

"Press down Left Ctrl+Page Down, Next Keys"
"Press down Left Ctrl+Page Up Keys"
"Press Left Ctrl+2 keys and hold for 0.5 seconds and release"

[Pfeil]

Any keypress action that starts with "Press down" is set up to press keys, but not release them (which is what the "Press Key(s)" option of the Keypress action is intended for).

You'll end up with a bunch of keys that remain held down.
For example, if you have one action that presses Alt, and then another that presses Tab, you'll end up with Alt-Tab and the effects that produces.

VoiceAttack is doing exactly what you are instructing it to do. You need to either use the "Press And Release Key(s)" option, or make sure that each action that presses keys, has a corresponding action that releases them.


Note that VoiceAttack is not actively holding any keys down; the way the Windows keyboard system works is that pressing a key tells the system that key is held down, and releasing a key tells the system a key is released.

In-between, there is no signal constantly telling the system that a key is being held down still; it just assumes the key is held down as long as it's not told otherwise.

[kmaulden]

Well that would certainly explain weird keyboard behavior! Thanks for the patience. I'll redo my commands and see what happens. I downloaded the demo version just to test, but I'm sure I'll be downloading the whole version later.

Thanks again!