VA still stops responding, again, again & again!! - fixed

[Assimilator1]

I've been struggling with this s/w for sometime now (over a year, I forget how long), I've had the same problem on & off all long (re title). I have created 2 threads previously.

I was told windows needed to be retrained, I eventually did that & it worked well for a short time (a few months maybe?), then due to an unrelated problem I had to re-install OBS. This somehow altered the mic setting, ever since then I haven't been able to get VA to work reliably, no mater what mic setting I choose, low or high it grinds to a halt after about 20-30 mins, usually it dies more quickly if I'm quiet for a while, but just now it did it whilst I was constantly using it, in the middle of an extended battle!! (which VA dieing made a whole lot harder!) (Elite Dangerous).

I've also read that it could be a dodgy mike, well guess what, I changed mike (due to the old one's wire suddenly breaking up), and.......... it made no difference whatsoever!
On the rare occasions I speak to people they usually say I'm too quiet, so it's not like it's the mic vol is too high!
I thought maybe (after turning it up yesterday for a player), that cranking it up would help, but nope! It fell asleep again!

I really am getting sick to death of this unreliable s/w , if mic volume really is the key then why isn't there some sort of in program vol test/level setting?
And is it possible to have some sort of in program audio quality assessment?

[Gary]

You'll want to take a look at this thread:

http://voiceattack.com/SMF/index.php?topic=1635.0

There's some additional help in there (it'a a pretty new thread).  Try out the suggestion near the top regarding the disabling of the acoustic echo cancellation first and then work from there.  You've definitely got something going on with your system that is interfering with the speech engine, and that thread is going to outline pretty much anything we've covered here over the last several years.

[Assimilator1]

I've already disabled that (in VA).

3 other things that are happening, 1, just now it failed to recognise (at all) a command I gave, 3 times in a row! (with a gap), I then gave a different command which it recognised straight away, I then gave the original command & it recognised it 1st time at 95% confidence! wth??

The 2nd thing that happens (although rarely) is that it alters some of the keybindings! Usually it's the return button I notice not working, to fix it I shut down VA & restart it.

The 3rd thing occasionally happens is that sometimes it ignores commands it shouldn't do, e.g if it ignores the command 'engage supercruise', I hit the supercruise button & it goes straight into (charging up) SC.

Thanks for the reply anyway, if that thread is less than a few months old then I probably haven't read it, I'll check it out, thanks

[Gary]

You've probably got some line noise going on at some level.  Did you try a USB headset or did you just plug another headset into your current sound card?

Not sure what's up with your key bindings, as VA doesn't just up and change stuff (unless you tell it to).  Might want to review your profiles and/or plugins.  May even start with a new profile and see what kind of results you get.

As far as where to direct you from this point (outside of that thread I mentioned) is uncertain, as I'm confident there's something up with your system that is making the software not work right.  Short of being there and fixing it for you or calling Geek Squad, I have no other suggestions :(   

Anybody else out there have any thoughts?

[Gangrel]

for the 3rd one, if you are using the Singularity profile (or one of the ED 2.3+ HCS compatible voice packs), then there is the journal reader, which gets used to parse game states and prevent actions from happening when they shouldn't press buttons.

ie if in supercruise, then giving the "engage supercruise" command will NOT run the command, because engaging supercruise whilst in supercruise would actually disable supercruise. However, if you said "disengage supercruise" whilst in supercruise, then the command would run as expected.

Now what happens, is that if you restart VA in the middle of a session (ie between times when the game writes to the journal, then it might actually have the "incorrect" game state to hand. which then causes the "command will not run when it should run" issue )

However, either restarting the game OR docking/undocking/entering supercruise/exiting supercruise/jumping between systems would force the reload.

[iceblast]

I just wanted to add, it's not VoiceAttack you're having a problem with. There is a issue with your system, I, and a great many other people use VA all the time with no issue. VA has no control over what other software you're running, or if you have a faulty sound card, or usb port. If people are having a hard time hearing you, then that's either your mic, or sound card. I would guess sound card, but if you get a good USB mic, it basically has it's own build in sound card for the mic. Yet, some motherboards have electrical interference on 1 or all usb ports. So, if you have issues with a usb mic, try moving it to a different set of usb's on the motherboard, it could clear up the issue, if it's on all the usb ports, then you might have to switch to another pc. Any kind of noise on the line, can cause VA not to hear you correctly.

If you are looking at VA, you can see the mic meter bounce when it hears sound. If you are in a quiet room, and you constantly see that meter jump without any noise from you, then you have some kind of interference in the line. I use a desk lamp, and a desk mic, and the lamp was to close, and it was adding interference, so I had to move the lamp.

Dealing with the speech recognition engine on windows can be touchy. Multiple things have to line up properly in order to get the best use out of it. VA can only work with what the windows engine feeds it, so you have to do your best to make sure it's hearing you cleanly, and at a proper volume.

Microsoft Speech Platform 11 engine is great, you don't have to train it, it just works. VA understands me the majority of the time.

[Assimilator1]

Thanks for the reply guys, I didn't know anyone had replied as for some reason my email subs aren't working for this forum.

It was indeed my onboard sound chip that was messing things up (even though it was an expensive m/brd, Asus P9 X79 Pro), once I plugged in my shiny new USB headset I instantly noticed the mic meter going much higher than it used to (no one had told me before hand how high it should go ).
It seems that the onboard audio mic wasn't so much a 'dirty' sound but extremely quiet, judging by the videos I made before & after on OBS (which clearly showed my voice was much louder with my new USB headset).

Gangrel
Re shutting off VA mid session, ah ok, understood, well I rarely need to shut it off now, so hopefully won't be much of an issue anymore .

[Bill1949]

Hi Folks.
1st time here.
My issue is that after working fine for a while (maybe 30 mins...) VA (which I love) will randomly stop responding to the keypress (to start listening). It'll, like, sulk for a while - then it starts responding to the key-press again maybe 30secs or so after it stopped responding, but it then has trouble getting my commands. All this AFTER working fine for a while at the start of the session.
Any ideas?
NOTE: After reading another post I checked & saw that I had 5 or 6 commands where "Allow other commands....." was NOT checked. Might ths be the cause of VA not responding to my 'Listen' key for a while.....?

[Pfeil]

After reading another post I checked & saw that I had 5 or 6 commands where "Allow other commands....." was NOT checked. Might ths be the cause of VA not responding to my 'Listen' key for a while.....?

It shouldn't be, no.

VoiceAttack should listen to what you're saying and will display a message in the log if it recognizes a command that can't be executed because another one is running.

[Bill1949]

OK. Thx for that Pfeil, (Sry - a long time since I checked this forum.... tho' I LOVE VA, I kinda gave up trying to get the issue sorted.)

I can understand that mic level (too high OR too low), speech engine, command weight, acoustic echo cancellation,  ........& a host of other things, might mess up how VA functions - so I've dealt with all that.

But main query here is why might this happen only after about 30mins...?

I find that it will run FINE for about 30mins - then it will incorrectly recognise my commads (eg - Even the command 'Returning' might be picked up as 'Please call for assistance' or 'Follow me'.... Wha....?

If I then close VA & re-open it, my commands will be recognised faultlesly for another ~30 mins (but that's not very practicable, and shouldn't be necessary).

Any ideas?

[Pfeil]

If you've already tried "Disable Adaptive Recognition", there's not much I can say; When I had pretty much that exact issue turning that on is what solved it for me.


It's more of a workaround, but you could try using Speech Platform 11 instead of the built-in speech recognition engine.

[Gary]

Have you tried establishing a new speech profile?  Sometimes that's what it may take:  http://voiceattack.com/SMF/index.php?topic=64.0  (ignore the title)

[Assimilator1]

Hi folks.

Bill
Sounds like a similar issue to the issue I had, in my case it turned out to be the onboard audio 'mic in' was too feeble (& possibly a bit muffled), I had to put the mic vol to 100% AND boost it by +20db (IIRC).
Although it got it working initially, after about 20+mins VA would gradually stop responding, sometimes minimising the game & then issuing a command got it going again for a short time (with all the previous commands bunched up into 1 line!), but it wouldn't last as long as restarting VA.
I believe the problem was due to the volume being boosted so much that it was bringing in a load of noise, possibly internally (not that you could hear it on video, nor was it indicated by VAs mic volume bar).

When I switched to a new USB headset (& retrained the speech engine), I instantly noticed my voice showed as much louder in VA & the mic was far more sensitive, it was picking up the Telly across the room! In the end I had to drop mic vol down to ~13%! Lol.

The only time I get VA going non-responsive now is if I forget to lower the mic vol back down to 13% (VA/speech engine whacks it back up to 100% everytime I start VA! :| ).
Although either VA or the speech engine (probably the latter), now has the problem of picking up breathing noises as the command 'Lights on/off', so much so I had to disable it! I use 'headlights on/off' now, but even then it still sometimes picks up nasal breathing noises as that!! Wtf???

Gary
Any idea why the speech engine (or VA?) would 'learn' nasal breathing noises as 'lights on' (very rarely anything else), they don't sound at all similar! Will I have to retrain the speech engine yet again?

Btw, VA says I have MS Speech recogniser 8, iceblast mentioned Microsoft Speech Platform 11 engine, which apparently I can d/l & install https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=27224
Could that give a major improvement? How come no one has mentioned that, if so?
Although I'm confused by this post https://superuser.com/questions/1021118/is-there-an-updated-version-of-microsoft-speech-recognition-for-windows-7 ,says their is no update! Huh?

Oh wait, is Microsoft Speech Platform 11 engine just MSs windows voice pack?

[Bill1949]

Assimilator. (Sry - only just found your reply...)

I'm using one of those 'mic-on-a-stick' desktop mics, hanging down off a cupbosrd door, aimed at my mouth & about 4 inches from it.

My feeling tho' is that surely if the mic/level/noise was the issue it would give problems right from the outset - but, as you're aware, it doesn't give problems until after about 30 mins... (). Why would it give problems only after about 30 mins, then be fine after a re-start? To me (OK, I'm not qualified) it logically smacks of a gradual build-up of something or some kind of cache overload - which is then cleared by the restart.

But - If the mic IS the answer maybe I need to look for a USB directional boom mic.... to complement my (preferred) cabled ear-buds.....

[Gary]

It works again because you are resetting the speech engine.  What is happening is the speech engine that VA is using is going out.  VA stops responding to voice commands because the speech engine stops providing any events to VA.  You've probably got a lot of ambient noise and it's overloading the speech engine over time.  You'll want to look at the other thread that you're in, and look at my last post:

Has anybody actually tried this, as Pfeil indicated earlier (ignore the title):  http://voiceattack.com/SMF/index.php?topic=64.0

In addition, I would check the boxes labeled, 'Disable adaptive recognition' AND 'Disable acoustic echo cancellation' on the options>recognition tab.

Then, try disabling plugins and any startup commands in profiles. 

Try disabling joysticks.

Make sure you are not running any third-party audio apps that may be interfering with the audio channel.

I'm thinking its a combination of the speech profile being gobbed up by adaptive recognition.  So, you'll want to try resetting your profile and turn off adaptive recognition (your tabletop mic is most likely picking up all the ambient noise).

[iceblast]

Hmm, have you tried Push to Listen on VA, instead of just having your mic on all the time. Since there seems to be something not quite right with your system somewhere, this could be a workaround for your problem.

Here's a command that will basically mute your audio, to allow you to say a command, and then return your audio back to where it was.

Code: [Select]

Set integer [Main Volume] value to the converted value of {STATE_SYSVOL}
Pause 0.1 seconds
Start Loop While :  Keyboard Key 'F22' Is Pressed
Set system audio volume to [1]
Pause 0.1 seconds
End Loop
Set system audio volume to [{INT:Main Volume}]
Write [Blue] '{INT:Main Volume}' to log

I use a Logitech 3 button mouse, VA doesn't recognize the 3rd button, but Logitech's software does, and so I gave it a key that wouldn't conflict with anything F22, and it works great. It the Logitech G600, 20 button mouse, I use mainly F13 through F24 on the mouse, since most software doesn't use those keys, yet, windows, and VA still recognizes them. No conflicts.

Anyway, that command works great, I use a desktop mic, I could be watch a movie at full volume, hit that button, instant silence, say a command, and the moment I release the button, volume returns to exactly where I had it. Never have issues with it. Just works.