Friday, July 01, 2011

Hi there
Thanks to everyone on CreaturesCaves for keeping up the spirit of Creatures. Here are some instructions on how to use these speech macros. I'm basically cutting and pasting from the forum I started on the topic:

Forum:
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http://creaturescaves.com/forum/viewTopic.php?ID=3357


Here are the basics for running speech recognition:
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1) Download and install Microsoft's WSRMacros (Windows Speech Recognition Macros)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=13045
2) Put the zipped macro files in this zip into your documents/Speech Macros folder
3) Wear a headset mic
4) Start speech recognition in the windows control panel and set it up once if you need to
5) Run C3DS under Vista windowed preferably, so that you can add macros. I think it also works full screen.
6) When you say something, only the macro's in your folder that match with what you say, are typed into the Creatures speech bubble.



Here are the basic macro creation instructions:
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1) right click windows speech recognition macros tray icon (blue bubble icon)
2) select new speech macro
3) select "send keystrokes"
4) enter the word phrase that you want that triggers the macro
5) type the keystrokes that you want to send and paste the following keys to the end of it: s{BS}
6) click "next"
7) click "create" (use digital signing if you want)
8) Create macros to other key presses in Creatures such as "ok" which presses {enter} key


Explanation of word phrase syntax:
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The word list is not complete but good enough for the basics. An important end word that you have to say is:
Phrase eg) norn push button ok

where "ok" is a macro that executes:
{enter}

The other words end in s{BS} which tells Creatures to put a space after the word and then move the cursor back one. This is how spaces between words are transmitted to creatures.

So if you want a word phrase to be entered into Creatures at the end of the sentence, say "ok" and the enter key will be pressed.


Other points to note:
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1) WSRMacro creates a "Speech Macros" folder under documents. That is where you put your macros
2) There is something about "digital signing" macros that Microsoft thinks is important for security. I personally do not digitally sign my macros and hope that none in this zip are digitally signed.
3) You can add new macros on the fly while Creatures is running
4) Make sure your environment is quiet. The voice recognition software is great, but it does not respond well to background noise.
5) Setup your mouse so that you can use the wheel and buttons to scroll Creatures in a window.
6) Try not to select speech recognition and macros to run on window's startup. I find that it is a pain if it loads automatically. I just start it and stop them when needed.



Enjoy Creatures, one of the truly great games of all time!
HarryO