Meet Crew Chief: talk to Aces High by voice (preview)

[hitech]

We've been building something new for Aces High III: Crew Chief, a voice assistant that rides along with you, from the main menu to the cockpit.

Please note: this is our first draft working from end to end. What Crew Chief can do, which commands it understands, and its voice may all change before it ships.

Hold R and just talk:

• Ask how the game works: "What is offline practice?" or "How do I take off?" Crew Chief looks it up in the help pages and answers out loud. When it names a key, it's your key from your key map.
• Give quick commands: "Gear up", "Flaps down", "Start engines", "Autopilot level". They run right away, just like pressing the key.
• Get set up: "Set a course to A12" and the autopilot takes it from there.

Crew Chief only speaks when you ask. It never flies or fights for you, and it knows only what you could find out yourself.

Watch it in a test build: https://dload.hitechcreations.com/dales/crewchief-demo.mp4

Behind the scenes: programming from the cockpit

There's a second voice in the video. In my development builds, anything I say that starts with "Claude" doesn't go to Crew Chief. It goes to Claude, the AI programmer I'm building this with, which is working on the game's code on my PC while I fly. I can test, notice something, and say it right there:

• "Claude, we need to be able to raise the clipboard by voice." By the time I landed, the voice command was in the code, ready for the next build.
• "Claude, later let's add context-sensitive help..." It goes straight onto my work list, and Claude confirms out loud in the game.
• I can ask it questions too, and the answer comes back on screen and spoken.

So testing and building happen at the same time: fly, find it, say it, keep flying. This is only in my test builds. In the game you'll get Crew Chief.

What's next (most of it said from the cockpit in that video):

• Context-sensitive help: ask "how do I take off?" in the hangar and it just says "click Launch".
• Navigation: with a distance, it also gives your time en route and heading.
• Lessons: it coaches new players through their first landings.
• Shortcuts: it can start offline practice for you.
• Films: Crew Chief's lines will be saved in films, so playback includes them.

It's early and changing every day. Tell us what you'd want to ask it.

HiTech

[Dadtallica]

Hell ya! 

[GOODBYE]

Crew Chief, why do I suck so much
Sounds like an awesome addition and hopefully super helpful, thanks HiTech!

[MDStampf93]

Ooooh that’s super cool… so it can be used as a voice command as well? That should be super helpful for VR pilots. 

[steely07]

That is very cool indeed!, I think I know how Dale is feeling, I started a new job in Feb of this year and was asked to automate a bunch of stuff, after about a week, I couldn't stop having new ideas about how to do and solve things, it feels like a bit of a new world of opportunities opening up!

[Max]

"Claude, can you help me hit something with the 50 cals so I land land a kill someday?"

[hitech]

"Claude, can you help me hit something with the 50 cals so I land land a kill someday?"

Sorry I'm the best AI on the planet, but even I can not do the impossible.

HiTech

[8thJinx]

What questions to ask? Basically every query/action that one of the dot commands can launch, or you can find in the clipboard, and then some.

How many guns left in ## town
How many buildings are down in ## town
How many minutes left on the ord bunkers/vehicle hanger/fighter hangers
Set salvo to 10
Set auto climb speed to 180
Set Gamma to 1.4
How many minutes of fuel left
How many minutes until this fleet reaches the end of its course plot
...

[Grayeagle]

*Verra Nass* I read somewhere that you can Coad AI kinda blows my mind now an then .. don't need Photoshop at all anymore .. I just tell ChatGP to restore, enlarge and then tweak anything that doesn't look 'right' Just amazing what it can do to an old photograph.

[Busher]

I wonder if Airbus has built anything like this?

[Morpheus]

Sorry, but even I can not do the impossible.

HiTech

Yo, you kept my arse here ready to die for 24, going on 25 years now. The cost wasn't sht! NOT COMPARED to all of the one of a kind real life experiences I've had the opportunity to do and learn after... Not to mention the one-of-a-kind, real-life friendships I've developed because I got hooked on this Drug you've developed!!!!

[captain1ma]

Sorry I'm the best AI on the planet, but even I can not do the impossible.

HiTech

I know that feeling!!

[Randy1]

Our electric power companies are struggling in some states.  Data centers are consuming power that we have not seen since the collapse of USA manufacturing in the 70s-early 80s.  Back then manufacturing dominated power demand before the China and the EPA took control.  Add to the problem, very few power plants were built in recent years as EPA restrictions pushed mega power plants out of full cost recovery.

AI is just not worth the near-future power grid problems.  I promise you when brown outs come, it will not involve Data centers.  Hard to talk  to Crew Chief when your home is in a brown out.     What about charging your future Electric car?

I am not totally against data centers, but some of these AI offerings are just petty when balanced against excessive power demands.

[nrshida]

"Claude, can you enable A1, A2 and A3 in the MPA while Dale is having lunch? Thanks".

[AKIron]

Our electric power companies are struggling in some states.  Data centers are consuming power that we have not seen since the collapse of USA manufacturing in the 70s-early 80s.  Back then manufacturing dominated power demand before the China and the EPA took control.  Add to the problem, very few power plants were built in recent years as EPA restrictions pushed mega power plants out of full cost recovery.

AI is just not worth the near-future power grid problems.  I promise you when brown outs come, it will not involve Data centers.  Hard to talk  to Crew Chief when your home is in a brown out.     What about charging your future Electric car?

I am not totally against data centers, but some of these AI offerings are just petty when balanced against excessive power demands.

There's plenty of coal in them thar hills.