Voice Attack Window Fails To Display Anything

[Bannor]

Got another weird issue with Voice Attack. After having used it for quite a while, I recently bought the Gravity addon (or whatever it is) for Elite Dangerous. I also downloaded and installed updates for the 3 voice packs I own.
Everything seemed to work fine for several hours in-game - and then suddenly I noticed that the little VA window (which I keep open on a separate monitor) was not updating. Whatever text was there, stayed visible. VA continued to work - commands were acknowledged and performed, responses given, etc - but the window would not update. Even the 'Close' button in the top-right corner was unresponsive. The program appears to have crashed, but it has not.
The weird part is that if I hover my mouse over the window, whatever message happens to appear under my pointer shows up in the little pop-up that always appears when you hover over the window. These messages appear to update as new messages appear at the top of the window. The VA icon in the notification area on the taskbar is still responsive and appears to work properly - I can close VA, for example. The rest of VA appears to function as it should.
I have tried running VA both as an Administrator and with all plugins disabled, but this does not help. I have also verified the app files from within Steam.
This window is important to me as I like to keep watch on what it says about my game and the recognition of my commands.
Suggestions?

[gmagenheimer]

That's a very strange issue - when you say, 'the little VA window', are you talking about a window that's not the main VA display? If so, could you provide a screen shot of that?

[Bannor]

I'm probably talking about the main VA display - where all start-up messages are displayed when the app is launched. Where it tells you what VA thinks you just said.
This little window becomes completely unresponsive, and cannot be moved, resized or closed. Except for right-clicking the icon in the system tray, which still works fine.

[gmagenheimer]

Hmmm - that's not something I've ever heard of happening with VA before.

You had mentioned in another post that you were running Windows 7. I have no other Windows 7 machines available to attempt to reproduce the issue, and I'm not able to reproduce this issue on Windows 11 (VA paints and behaves fine on my second monitor). I'm under the belief that it's going to be a local system issue, as again - this problem hasn't been brought up before. I'll be on the lookout for more instances of this and try to drum up a way to reproduce the problem - if I can reproduce the problem I can generally resolve it (sometimes even if it's a Windows issue).

In the meantime, maybe somebody might come along with some additional info that could be helpful.

[Bannor]

My system is the same as it ever was (Win 7 x64 Ultimate) - the only change is my purchase of 'Gravity'. Which seemed to install just fine. Even after Gravity, VA seemed quite happy for a few hours.
VA ran fine for MANY hours on my 2nd monitor before Gravity.

[gmagenheimer]

I will keep my eye open for others having this same or similar issue. Once I can gather enough information, I'll make sure to see what can be done (I don't have quite enough to go by, atm).

Have you tried running without, 'Gravity' to see if it changes anything?

[Bannor]

Originally posted by gmagenheimer:

I will keep my eye open for others having this same or similar issue. Once I can gather enough information, I'll make sure to see what can be done (I don't have quite enough to go by, atm).

Have you tried running without, 'Gravity' to see if it changes anything?

Is this as simple as just removing the Gravity folder?

[gmagenheimer]

No, you should not have to delete the folder. I would start by just changing to another profile other than Gravity to see if anything improves. Then, try disabling plugin support and restarting VA. To disable plugin support, go into Options > General tab, then uncheck the box, 'Enable Plugin Support'. See if that makes a difference. If either of those suggestions make the issue cease, try enabling plugin support again (and select the Gravity profile) to see if the problem reappears.

[Bannor]

OK. I have changed profiles, it did not help.
I cannot see the 'Option' button - the display window fails to display anything. I had previously disabled plugins, and not (because I cannot see the Options button) re-enable them. Now when I start VA, I can copy the text below (even though I cannot actually see it):

10:14:45.421 Stopped command, '((Init))'
10:14:45.420 Stop running commands
10:14:45.360 Profile halted
10:14:45.360 Plugins are disabled. You must enable them in the VoiceAttack options for this profile to operate correctly.
10:14:45.360 Listening suspended
10:14:44.818 UNABLE TO INVOKE PLUGIN. PLUGIN SUPPORT NOT ENABLED.
10:14:44.817 VoiceAttack profile - (c) 2017-2021 HCS VoicePacks Ltd
10:14:44.817 Singularity v3.13 - VoiceAttack v1.10.3

I also remember now that I had changed to 'Dark Mode' (using Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Enter). However, these keys no longer invoke the settings window they should.

I found the button to edit profiles, so I can do this. Not that it helps.... Also found the Options button.

I have verified that plugins are already disabled (first thing I did when starting to troubleshoot). I re-enabled them, restarted VA, and can copy (but still not see) the following:

10:29:18.947 Ready, waiting for you to log into Elite...
10:29:18.414 Welcome to your carrier
10:29:12.859 Checking for updates...
10:29:12.843 Reading keybinds from Elite and checking for any missing...
10:29:12.841 Setting game to Elite: Dangerous
10:29:12.833 Number One:Astra, Helm Control:Astra, Tactical:Venus, Engineering:Jazz, Operations:Jazz, Science:Venus, Srv:Jazz and Away Missions:Astra
10:29:11.639 You currently have 3 crew members aboard but you don't have the Ships Cat and vermin is rife.
10:29:11.330 Gravity expansion for Elite:Dangerous Odyssey is ready and online (v1.10)
10:29:11.218 Trigger file up to date
10:29:11.217 Beginning trigger file verification
10:29:11.175 Reading in Voice Triggers from template 'C:\Users\Philip\AppData\Roaming\VoiceAttack\HCS VoicePacks\Custom VoiceTriggers\English Singularity - Custom - Custom.hcs'...
10:29:10.234 Detecting the packs...
10:29:09.970 Running diagnostic checks...
10:29:08.355 Loading customiser settings...
10:29:08.355 Initialising, please wait...
10:29:08.355 Listening suspended
10:29:08.242 Plugin 'EDDI 4.0.1' initialized.
10:29:08.239 The EDDI plugin is fully operational.
10:29:07.664 VoiceAttack profile - (c) 2017-2021 HCS VoicePacks Ltd
10:29:07.664 Singularity v3.13 - VoiceAttack v1.10.3
10:29:06.484 Plugin 'bindED Plugin v4.2.2-alterNERDtive' initialized.
10:29:06.483 INFO | bindED: Elite binds 'HCS Custom' for layout 'en-us' loaded successfully.
10:29:06.319 Plugin 'HCS Plugin v3.8.4 - (c) 2016-2022 HCS VoicePacks Ltd' initialized.
10:28:54.356 Plugin support enabled.

This leads me to believe that it's not a plugin problem.

The VA window is not responsive - it cannot be moved or closed using the normal buttons. Resizing it makes the top window bar (the one with the min/max/close buttons on the right hand side) 'smear' across the increased window size. Some kind of graphical glitch? However the window contents appear to function correctly. Very strange.

What now?

[Pfeil]

Have you tried using Steam to "Verify integrity of software files"?


Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Enter is not a keyboard shortcut VoiceAttack itself uses, but rather is part of the third-party HCS Voice Packs products you are using. With plugins disabled, that won't work.

VoiceAttack's dark mode is enabled using the "Enable Dark Mode" checkbox on the "General" tab of the VoiceAttack options window, as (normally) opened by wrench icon on VoiceAttack's main window.

[Bannor]

Originally posted by Pfeil:

Have you tried using Steam to "Verify integrity of software files"?


Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Enter is not a keyboard shortcut VoiceAttack itself uses, but rather is part of the third-party HCS Voice Packs products you are using. With plugins disabled, that won't work.

VoiceAttack's dark mode is enabled using the "Enable Dark Mode" checkbox on the "General" tab of the VoiceAttack options window, as (normally) opened by wrench icon on VoiceAttack's main window.

1: Yes, one of the first things I did. Included in my initial post.

2: Plugins are re-enabled - Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Enter still does nothing. From what I can ascertain, the VA window doesn't even acknowledge this key combination.

3: Thanks - I've disabled/re-enabled Dark Mode, no change.

[Bannor]

I'm contemplating a complete uninstall / reinstall - but I do **NOT** want to lose my settings, custom profile, etc. How can I back them up / restore them?

[Pfeil]

Even though I know I checked it multiple times, still read over "I have also verified the app files from within Steam." somehow, heh.


Uninstalling VoiceAttack itself should not remove the profile database, nor the settings file. As long as you reinstall to the same location, that settings file should automatically be re-used.

If you'd like to back them up regardless, which would be recommended just in case, you can use the "Click here to browse VoiceAttack's data folder." link on the "System / Advanced" tab of the VoiceAttack options window to open the folder that contains the profile database and its internal backups (as well as the TTS effects database, if you created any effects).

For the settings file, you can hold the Windows key, press the R key, and after releasing both paste in

%localappdata%/VoiceAttack.com

and click "OK" to open that folder, which contains a few subdirectories and finally the "user.config" file.


However for third-party products you'd want to contact their author to confirm where their data is stored, and how it is to be backed up/restored.
HCS Voice Packs can be contacted via their forum[forum.hcsvoicepacks.com], or their Discord[discord.gg]

[Bannor]

Originally posted by Pfeil:

If you'd like to back them up regardless, which would be recommended just in case, you can use the "Click here to browse VoiceAttack's data folder." link on the "System / Advanced" tab of the VoiceAttack options window to open the folder that contains the profile database and its internal backups (as well as the TTS effects database, if you created any effects).

In the VoiceAttack folder are a few subfolders and a number of files, most of them being DLL's. Which folders / files exactly contain the profile database and its internal backups that I should back up? I don't see anything with an obvious-sounding name. I don't want to back up everything, as this may include whatever might have caused the problem in the first place.

[Pfeil]

There shouldn't be DLLs in the folder opened by clicking the mentioned link on the options window. Are you looking in the installation directory instead?

If you'd prefer to navigate to that folder externally, use the same method as for the settings file, but paste in

%Appdata%\VoiceAttack

[Bannor]

Voice Attack is installed on my D: drive, so Steam directs me there.

Please confirm I should back up *everything* in %Appdata%\VoiceAttack?