No Response in Keyboard Tester or In Game (UPDATED!)

[MajorV]

Shift_E:

It has been a while since I have used your excellent program, but a thread on the Pacific Fighters forum made me want to reinstall it. In the past, prior versions of VAC have worked very well on my system, although I did run into problems with sapisvr.exe running out of control at times.

I downloaded v. 1.8.5 last night (first just the core install and later the full install) and imported my prior IL2 profile, but could not get any response in the game. I tried it with a PTA (several different keys, including "n") and without, with an on/off switch and without, with FS Autostart and without (thought it might be turning off an essential service), but none of this made any difference. I always see that the VACsystem.exe is running in the tray, the profile is properly loaded and that VAC is switched on.

I even tried a new completely stripped down test profile (2 commands only) with command confimation sounds, both with and without a PTA, and with no services shut down. Before I started the game, I checked and could hear the command confirmation sounds for each command (so all the hardware is working), but once the game started, none of the key commands were being received (I manually input the keys and they all worked fine). I could hear the VAC confirmation sounds in the game, but the game would start to stutter badly and no key commands were being received.

Then I closed the game and tried the keyboard tester--although I could hear the command confirmation sounds, none of the keyboard keys lit up after I said a command phrase. Any ideas? I am using a Logitech G15 USB gaming keyboard with no standard keyboard (when I start up my system, I always get a momentary "keyboard failure" message before the USB controller fires up)--could this possibly have any effect? Thanks for your help.

Major V

[MajorV]

OK, in re-reading my own post, I may have answered my own question:

I am using a Logitech G15 USB gaming keyboard with no standard keyboard (when I start up my system, I always get a momentary "keyboard failure" message before the USB controller fires up)--could this possibly have any effect?

Hmmm ... sounds like a clue. Possibly, the keyboard failure at startup makes the computer think that there is no keyboard at all so that it ignores VAC's emulated keyboard commands. I will test this out tonight when I am home. I may have a work-around (plug in the standard keyboard at startup), but is there any way to have VAC emulate a USB keyboard command rather than a standard keyboard command? Thanks for your help.

Major V

[Shift_E]

Hi Major V,

I wished I had a quick answer for you to help you out. I can pass on what I’ve learned when I’ve encountered some of the problems you have. To answer one of your questions, VAC will work with any keyboard or no keyboard at all, it doesn’t matter because it sends the virtual keyboard commands. With that being said, there could be a conflict with the Logitech drivers and your system.

There are two main reasons that would cause the speech engine (sapisvr.exe) to go out of control. The first reason is the sound card is overloaded, playing game sounds, voice over the internet (TS) and running VAC and the PCI latency being robbed. The second is the speech engine being overloaded with ambient sounds causing VAC to stay in the recognition mode. If this happens the speech engine gets backup up trying to recognize everything it hears. The PTA and PTD do not control the microphone input, the PTD and PTA keys only control if a recognized command is being sent or not. If you want more information about the PCI latency issue look here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=951. Incorrect PCI latency is also one of the major causes of crackling and popping sounds in games.

Those are just general items to be aware of and can make a huge difference. There could also be a process on your system hogging recourses, but this is only a guess.

I’d be happy to help you one on one with this if you want to continue, just let me know.

[MajorV]

Shift_E:

Thanks very much for your very prompt reply! I really appreciate you taking the time to consider my problem. I think you are on the right track:

there could be a conflict with the Logitech drivers and your system.

After poking around the Dell support site for a bit today, I believe that the problem is most likely with the USB settings in my BIOS. I do have the latest BIOS version, but I may be able to resolve this issue by tweaking the settings. If not, I can always just plug in the PS/2 keyboard and see if that helps. I'll report back when I get this issue resolved.

I also greatly appreciate your suggestions on the sapisvr.exe issues. I was hoping to try some of those approaches as well if I enounter the same problems this time around, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. I do appreciate your assistance, through.

I have used your great program in the past and know that it works very, very well. It is by far the best speech command program I have ever come across, with an excellent GUI and many, many customizable features. It really adds to the enjoyment of flight simming. We are very lucky to have your great program (and excellent support) for such a small price! Thanks again.

Major V

[Shift_E]

Hi Major V,

Thank you for your kind words about VAC.

I’m not sure I was any help and sometimes I just ramble.

VAC should run on your system without problems. I have an AMD 2400 and ATI 9600 with 1GB memory and I can run IL2, VAC and TS without issues. So if you run out of things to try, let me know and I’ll be happy to help you work them out.

[MajorV]

Shift_E:

Well, I am happy to report that VAC is now working great! But I am not entirely sure why. I did go into the BIOS and make a few changes: I turned off the mouse port (I have a wireless mouse with a USB receiver) and disabled the "keyboard failure" notification, but I'm not sure these changes should have made any difference. I then plugged in my old PS/2 keyboard (so I had both that and the USB keyboard connected), and lo and behold VAC started issuing key commands in the game. Then I unplugged the old PS/2 keyboard and rebooted ... much to my surprise, VAC continued to work just fine in the game!

I did make one change to my profile that I believe made a big difference. I set the space bar as the PTA (as I had done yesterday), but this time I set it to "arm" mode rather than default. This is an awesome feature! Now I just hit the space bar once, when I am about to give the voice command, and VAC then issues the key command on its own when I speak. Your other users who are having problems with PTA should try this--as you know, they will no longer have to perfectly time the pressing of their PTA key with their voice command. This greatly increases the chances of a successful voice command recognition.

For some reason, I still cannot get any response at all on the keyboard tester. I hear the confirmation sound every time, but the keys never light up. (Is the tester supposed to be set to "keyboard inactive"? I can't find any directions in the Help.)

Also, I cannot get any response from my "F12" command (I use this to center my Track IR). VAC gives me a perfect success sound, but nothing happens in the game. I have upped the command to 400 ms. duration, but still nothing. Is there anything special I need to do to get such a command to work? All other commands (including the "fps START SHOW" script) seem to be working perfectly.

Thanks again for your excellent program and support!

Major V

[Shift_E]

Hi Major V,

That is excellent news and great work on your part. It sounds like the changes you made in BIOS with the wireless and USB is what fixed the resource drain.

There are no instructions on the keyboard tester , but the KB tester should be set to active, the green light should be lit (left-click on the green light or the text “Keyboard Inactive” to activate the tester). Also the PTA and PTD keys should be disabled in VAC when using the tester and the reason is the keyboard tester eats all keyboard key strokes when it is active. Remember to deactive the tester before trying to use your keyboard.

The key lights don’t remain lit very long on the KB tester, 10ms duration is hard to see. Just above the number pad on the tester you can use the key code, duration and pause to see if the key was sent or increase the duration time just for testing with the KB tester.

Double check your center track IR action in the profile and make sure a no other key is assigned in the action. The key code for F12 is 123 you can double check with the KB tester. Another thing to try, is to test the action F12 in another program like MS Word, that will issue the SaveAs option. If it seems that VAC is sending the F12, then maybe the F12 key is already assigned in IL2. And the last thing to try is to delete the center track IR action and recreate it in the profile. Just a few items to check out.

I hope that helps some,

[MajorV]

Shift_E:

Thanks again for taking the time to respond to my last post. Your instructions on the keyboard tester are everything I need to know:

the KB tester should be set to active, the green light should be lit (left-click on the green light or the text “Keyboard Inactive” to activate the tester). Also the PTA and PTD keys should be disabled in VAC when using the tester and the reason is the keyboard tester eats all keyboard key strokes when it is active. Remember to deactive the tester before trying to use your keyboard.

Thanks as well for the excellent suggestions on the F12 command. I will try those out and let you know when the problem is solved (confident, ain't I?).

Regards,

Major V

[MajorV]

Shift_E:

Well, I guess this is gonna be my last post in this thread ...

because VAC is working flawlessly on my system!

Followed your instructions on the keyboard tester, and now I can see the buttons light up on every command. Excellent tool!

With regard to the F12 command, I found no conflicts so I just followed your suggestion:

the last thing to try is to delete the center track IR action and recreate it in the profile.

Did that, and now it works like a charm. Thanks for all your help!

Major V

[Shift_E]

Hi Major V,

I’m happy to hear VAC is working 100% for you, that is excellent news. You did the work, so job well done!


Salute and enjoy!