The Voice-Activated Commands (VAC) system is a powerful tool that enables you to control games by using words or phrases. This is especially interesting for people who can't move their hands in order to issue game controls via the keyboard.

VAC was built with the user in mind. It comes with a profile builder so that everybody can build profiles exactly the way he needs them to be. There is no need to wait for a company to create profiles for games. Building profiles is as easy as winking and even complex schemes can be created easily.

Fans of flight simulators can order their wingmen by issuing realistic commands. For example, just create the phrase “wingman attack my target” and assign the key that the game control scheme demands. This way you can talk to your wingman as you would in real life, which intensifies the gaming experience significantly.

You can take realism to another level if you let VAC respond not only by doing what you say but by giving an answer such as “Roger, I'm going to attack“. VAC can do that by utilizing text-to-speech.

But it can be even better: This software also contains a simple audio recorder. Imagine how your games could profit from that. Let your wingmen answer whatever you like. Give him another voice and let your friend record his response for you.

The possibilities are infinite.

But what if a command needs a series of key presses? That's no problem either because you can add as many keys you like. You can even build complex commands such as pushing down a key and holding it, and then pushing and releasing another key, and after that releasing the first one.

Some games want you to enter a name, e.g. character name. Just create a new phrase and enter your name in the character key textbox. Now you can say “enter name” or whatever your phrase might be and VAC types it in the active textbox.

It is possible to create a phrase like “left click” and let VAC issue a click of the left mouse button. If you want to double-click just add another click. Don't worry about: how long the mouse button will be pushed down before it is released again. Default duration is 200 (one fifth of a second) but you don't have to rely on that because VAC allows to manipulate the duration of a key-press in thousandth of a second steps, so if you needed five seconds, you'd use the value of 5000.

What else does VAC offer?

You can start programs by voice. You can switch to another profile by voice, even when you're playing a game. Teamspeak, [a popular solution for in game communication] and VAC do not necessarily expel each other. You can assign a hardware button, e.g. the middle mouse button, which you have to hold down while you issue a VAC command. Using that method requires a little bit of discipline for you have to hold down the button until the command has been spoken completely because otherwise your phrases will be crippled and VAC can't understand you.

Have you ever lost track of the keys that are used in a game? That's an easy one because many games nowadays support more than 20 keys to control what's happening on screen. VAC contains a virtual keyboard that shows which keys have already been assigned and which are left.

VAC works in most games. There are some games that don't recognize keystrokes sent by external applications for anti-cheat reasons but I have never found one that didn't work. It is not restricted to games. You can use it in any application that uses keys/shortcuts so it is no problem to navigate the Internet, control your 3-D application, etc., if you want to. You only have to create a profile

VAC cannot control the mouse arrow by itself. There are other programs that would in combination make that possible, though it would be a bit complicated.

If you're looking for dictation tools that might make your daily office work easier or offer methods for entirely controlling your mouse, you should take a look at Dragon NaturallySpeaking, ViaVoice or the likes. Compared to VAC those are quite expensive but brilliant in what they are meant for.

For gaming, VAC is the application of choice because it offers a truck load of useful features and is extremely easy to use. You can't get more value for 18 bucks.

Interested? Go to www.dwvac.com and get the 30 days trial that has no restrictions of functionality. You'll love it!