Hi all

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the ATC might in future leverage some Azure capability to render accents other than the default. At the moment the controller voices seem identical to the pilot voices...it would be nice to hear both some variety in tone to distinguish these - and also some non-American voices. If I'm flying from Liverpool to Glasgow, for example, the current rendition seems a little unlikely, although perhaps more universally intelligible 🙂

I appreciate that the content here is more important than the delivery - but is anyone aware of the roadmap in this area? I'm personally not interested in VATSIM etc.

Thanks in advance!

Well I know MS has the voices (accents), and I know it's not rocket science to make it happen...but whether or not they tend to do it is another story, I suppose.

But in any case I do like that idea very much!

Edited August 9, 20205 yr by hangar

9 minutes ago, hangar said:

Well I know MS has the voices (accents), and I know it's not rocket science to make it happen...but whether or not they tend to do it is another story, I suppose.

But in any case I do like that idea very much!

I wonder whether this wasn't really a concern for Asobo - as a French speaking company it probably seems sufficient that the ATC is rendered in the correct global language of ATC - and the nuance & variety of spoken english across the globe perhaps isn't as apparent to them as it would be to a native english speaker. And if MS are driving the decision, it makes sense that they'd take a US centric view of things 🙂

Edited August 9, 20205 yr by Nate1

If people know how english spoken ATC sounds in many countries they wouldn't ask that feature in the simulator! 😆

🙂

I do know that (& there are some hilarious videos) - but I think it is realism - which is surely what we are aiming for, or hoping for here.

It's hard to explain just how implausible an American ATC accent sounds if one is flying in the UK. It doesn't sound like "no accent". It sounds as though ATC has been invaded by a foreign country.

And as Asobo have taken the trouble to (for example) include visible female pilots, it's a bit odd if they all have the exact same voice as the male air traffic controller...

They should have gone with the good old Mid-Atlantic accent. 

 

 

I'm sure that MS has voices readily available from all the major English speaking countries,  and I'm sure they have a large amount of voices from other nations as well... speaking their own native languages.  What I'm pretty sure they don't have ready to go is lots of voices of other nationalities speaking English,  which is what you would need for true worldwide ATC voice packs.  I'd love to see it happen.  I mean, I'm an American,  but it is definitely weird and wrong to hear that everywhere.  It is more of a immersion item than a functional one though.  I suppose I could be bothered that my computerized Oval racing spotter in iRacing is Australian, but he's still my spotter, even though I can actually have the real Chad Knaus swear at me now instead if I wanted.

MS or not, I think - technically - this could be implemented rather easily: Just take the functionality of this website: https://ttsdemo.com/ and integrate in the flight sim (or ATC add-on). Try it for yourself: Switch to French, Bernhard, turn on the bullhorn effect (which doesn't seem to have been implemented for every voice), ignore the facecards (or imagine a normal face sitting next to you as FO in your favorite airliner), put in an ATC request (just spell out the numbers) and imagine it with the engine and wind sounds. Pronunciation of course isn't perfect when using a language other than English, but I think that's realistic.

6 hours ago, Nate1 said:

I wonder whether this wasn't really a concern for Asobo - as a French speaking company it probably seems sufficient that the ATC is rendered in the correct global language of ATC - and the nuance & variety of spoken english across the globe perhaps isn't as apparent to them as it would be to a native english speaker. 

As a non-native english speaker I can tell you that it is easy to distinguish between American and British speakers, let alone for example Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Eastern European or Asian accents. I am not able to recognize American or British regional accents like a native speaker would but being from Europe I might even be able to distinguish between different European accents which an American might just recognize as "European".

 

Don't get me wrong, this is not about who is better in recognizing different accents. I just want to make clear that having different accents in ATC is equally important for non native English speakers to enhance the immersion.

7 hours ago, Nate1 said:

Hi all

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the ATC might in future leverage some Azure capability to render accents other than the default. At the moment the controller voices seem identical to the pilot voices...it would be nice to hear both some variety in tone to distinguish these - and also some non-American voices. If I'm flying from Liverpool to Glasgow, for example, the current rendition seems a little unlikely, although perhaps more universally intelligible 🙂

I appreciate that the content here is more important than the delivery - but is anyone aware of the roadmap in this area? I'm personally not interested in VATSIM etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

A story about ATC in France. I was once in an AFB tower watching a simulated attack by two Mirages followed by an Touch and Go of the same. To my surprise, the ATC petty officer and the pilots were speaking in English with a strong French accent. I asked why and she told me that they needed to practice their English to be able to converse with  NATO allies aircraft. Loved it. 

 

12 hours ago, Slides said:

They should have gone with the good old Mid-Atlantic accent. 

Um, his accent was taught in acting schools.  

Hook

9 hours ago, d.tsakiris said:

MS or not, I think - technically - this could be implemented rather easily: Just take the functionality of this website: https://ttsdemo.com/ and integrate in the flight sim (or ATC add-on).

That is pretty awesome! I had a ball listening to the different "voices." Some of the more obscure ones however struggled with the actual text.

As I'm installing this, I note that there's a message that the sim will use the locally installed speech packs for ATC voices...

"Microsoft Flight Simulator uses the language packs - both text and voice - installed on your device to create Air Traffic Controller speech"

At the current download rate I will be able to confirm this by early October 🙂

 

There is much better TTS under active development using neural networks, indeed it's already available:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/services/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/

At some point this tech will be added to FS, without doubt.

Edited August 17, 20205 yr by viz