Did anyone encounter issues with AWS Polly voices not working with P2A and ways to fix them?  P2A sees them just fine but when it comes to assigning them to different channels/controllers they start stop working at random.  I can assing Poly for example to copilot but when I try to assign it to Clearance for example or ATC center it simply doesn't play back.  But if I restart P2A few times it picks them up and plays them fine seemingly at random.

Edited August 17, 20214 yr by matrosov

Yeah this has also be a problem for me from the beginning. For some people the Polly voices work just fine, for others they only work sometimes unless you restart P2A a few times. I restricted my config to only use it for my CoPilot, which has been pretty reliable.

Hmmm...having the problem too...works sometimes, sometimes not. A restart of P2A sometimes fixes, sometimes not. 

I have had this issue for a long time and never got it sorted. The voices always work in Polly Player, but often (more often than not) don't work in other windows applications. As far as I can tell, this is nothing to do with P2ATC as I get exactly the same issues if I test them using Windows Narrator. Amazon gave Polly a lot of attention a while ago, but there doesn't seem to be much going on with it right now, so I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a fix from them.

I don't know how the speech subsystem works in P2ATC or what information it can get from the Polly API, but it may be possible to detect if the voices are working and if not, have the system call for a reconnect. However, even if it is possible, it would mean extra work for Dave (for something that isn't his fault) for, what is presumably, only a small proportion of the userbase.

What would be amazing is if the voices in MSFS 2020 could be used.  Those are quite well done but the use of ATC in that program is simply a no go.  Those voices are probably buried so deep in the program Asobo doesn't even know where they are.😀

To be honest, I think the problem is with P2A. For example, I set my voices to random and added all the MS voices (not Polly) because I was frustrated with Polly voices not activating and just getting MS David. However, I'm having the same issue, sometimes it works, sometimes I just get MS David for all speakers, same thing that Polly does so I doubt it's Polly as the issue.

I have same issue. I have AWS Poly working with P2A, but it is random. It works 50% of the time and other time no voice.  I can't find what cause it to work or stay silent. AWS Poly works fine in Windows PollyPlayer. 

Is Polly consistent if you set a voice for each controller, rather than randomized?

11 hours ago, Room112 said:

Is Polly consistent if you set a voice for each controller, rather than randomized?

No, the problem occurs even when manually assigned. Microsoft voices still work, regardless.

When P2A is unable to load a voice, it uses the default Microsoft Male or Female voice instead.

If a Polly voice doesn't download in time, or for some other reason is not loaded, then you will get the

Microsoft voice instead.

That is a problem with the Amazon Polly for Windows app.

Dave

 

23 hours ago, Dave-Pilot2ATC said:

When P2A is unable to load a voice, it uses the default Microsoft Male or Female voice instead.

But that isn't what happens. You just get no voice at for all that are assigned as Polly.

Microsoft ones work all the time. If Polly voices don't work (which is around 50% of the time, possibly more) then those channels stay silent. This applies to ALL Polly voices - if they work, they ALL work, but when they don't work, NONE of the Polly voices work. I have never had a situation where one Polly voice worked and another didn't. 

That is still an Amazon Polly for Windows problem that P2A can't address.

Until they fix/improve their Polly for Windows app, you can get quite a few free Microsoft voices.  See the thread on this forum about Microsoft Voices with P2A.

Dave

14 hours ago, Dave-Pilot2ATC said:

That is still an Amazon Polly for Windows problem that P2A can't address.

I realise this problem is not caused by P2A (as I stated earlier - see below). I am simply trying to give background information in case a workaround can be found.

I appreciate that you will not want to spend much time on an issue that is not your fault, but restarting P2A (sometime several times) rectifies the issue, so I wondered how easy it would be (or if it is even possible) for you to add a button to restart just the speech subsystem/module?

It is a pain having to keep restarting the whole of P2A until the Polly voices work, but they are so much better than the available Microsoft voices, that it is worth doing.

On 11/8/2021 at 6:29 PM, TwoSuitz said:

... As far as I can tell, this is nothing to do with P2ATC as I get exactly the same issues if I test them using Windows Narrator. Amazon gave Polly a lot of attention a while ago, but there doesn't seem to be much going on with it right now, so I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a fix from them.

I don't know how the speech subsystem works in P2ATC or what information it can get from the Polly API, but it may be possible to detect if the voices are working and if not, have the system call for a reconnect. However, even if it is possible, it would mean extra work for Dave (for something that isn't his fault) for, what is presumably, only a small proportion of the userbase.

Thanks for clarifying.

When you disconnect and reconnect, you also are shutting down and restarting the speech and grammar engine.

You might try that and see if it gets the Polly voices going again.

Strangely, I've used Polly Voices quite a bit and have rarely had problems, although I did have issues as you describe early on. 

I don't know if it might help, but perhaps downloading a fresh copy of Polly for Windows and installing that might help.

Dave

Although I'm using the Poly voices with some new features in the X-ATC-Chatter X-Plane player I did notice that some of the voices will give errors based on your region. They also give errors in the Poly player too. Most of them work but I had to be careful not to pick ones that had some region issue.

Just a thought in case that has something to do with it. Maybe has no bearing on what is happening in Pilot2ATC.

Mark