14 DAY TRIAL // In case you're not one of the lucky backers of Elite: Dangerous, you're going to be clawing your eyes out with envy when you see this video of a user employing voice commands to control his spaceship.
Although third-party voice over IP programs have become widespread, especially in multiplayer games, they have rarely been utilized in such an experience-altering manner as in the way VoiceAttack has managed to do with Elite: Dangerous.
Using VOIP is very useful when coordinating with your guild mates or squad members in any online encounter, and it's even fun in single-player games, but this is taking things to a whole different level.
Imagine shouting "go cold" and having your ship trigger its silent running mode, becoming less detectable on enemies' heat detection instruments.
This is possible because VoiceAttack is able to convert vocal commands into keyboard and mouse interactions, making it the perfect tool to use during space flight, at least until somebody develops a proper AI that hopefully isn't bent on purging us from the Universe.
The video comes courtesy of Elite: Dangerous alpha backer and YouTube user Spriggs, that points out – as if it were still needed – that voice commands can make a real difference when engaging in battles in the vast nothingness of space.
He notes that voice commands are also great to use to streamline various mundane tasks such as landing and power management, not only in the heat of battle, when you want to be able to quickly drop shields and switch your main drives on and off in order to sneak by undetected, hiding in a nearby asteroid field.
That being said, whether you dig voice commands or not, if you're a beta-tier backer of Elite: Dangerous, there's more good news for you.
The premium beta of the space opera sim is going live tomorrow, allowing a whole new batch of players to join the hyperdrive craze and sail across the stars.
Elite: Dangerous is an upcoming space trading and combat simulator, which is boring speak for Han Solo simulator, crowdfunded by developer Frontier Developments in order to achieve the dream of recreating the ancient computer game Elite.
The upcoming game aims to open a world of legal or illegal trading, piracy, assassination, bounty hunting and whatever else happens in a space sandbox to a whole new generation of players, with all the modern features that the cult classic Elite lacked.
The game is set in a massively multiplayer online persistent universe, and the cumulated actions of players will have a great effect on the game world, shaping the history of the galaxy everything is taking place in.
