FAQ

What do I need to use YellAt DotA?

A PC running a 64 bit version of Windows 7 or newer, a microphone, and DotA 2.

Do I need a Kinect?

YellAt DotA will work with any PC microphone; Kinect is not required. Note that the Kinect speech recognition software will be installed at setup time whether you have a Kinect attached to your PC or not.

How does it work?

Think of YellAt DotA as a big set of DotA 2 keybind macros that you activate with your voice. You could activate these macros by pressing the keys, but letting YellAt DotA do it for you when you give it a voice command is much easier. 

The macros are defined in the .cfg files in your Steam\SteamApps\common\dota 2 beta\dota\cfg directory. Do not change anything in the files unless you want to break everything.

Is this cheating? Will I get banned for using this?

YellAt DotA isn’t a cheat program, it’s just a different way of activating keybind macros. It does nothing that can’t be accomplished via the console, meaning it only uses functionality that is already part of DotA 2. There is absolutely no reading or modifying of DotA 2 code or memory.

Myself and many others have been using YellAt DotA regularly in our DotA 2 games and nobody has been banned for it. This isn’t an ironclad guarantee, just my interpretation of the rules and past experiences. You are using YellAt DotA at your own risk. As always, use your best judgement.

I want to use YellAt DotA in my living room. Can I use my XBox 360 Kinect?

Unfortunately not. Only the Kinect for Windows device is supported. This is a limitation of Microsoft’s Kinect SDK. While the 360 Kinect can be used for development purposes, deployed applications require a Kinect for Windows device.

If you know of a way around this limitation, please let me know.

Do you work for Valve?

Nope. I don’t believe anyone employed at Valve is aware of this project.

Will you go open source?

SoonTM. I’m working to get the code and documentation to the point where the project can be easily understood and modified by others (and I won’t be embarrassed to share it with the world). If you know C# and want to help with this process, send me an email and I’ll get you source code access.

Do you plan to support games other than DotA 2?

Absolutely. YellAt DotA is built on a generic voice command framework. There is very little code that is specific to DotA 2, and the parts that are have been kept separate from the core functionality. However, it will likely be a while before I get to implementing support for other titles.

What is your site’s privacy policy?

See the privacy policy page.

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