Voice in EM : channels hosted by EM servers ?

Beta_ver · Post by **Beta_ver** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:11 pm

Hello all.
I have installed teamspeak3 and I was wondering if there was another way people connect to voice channels.
Would it be a possibility that the servers that run mutiplayer sessions also run a teamspeak3 (or anything else, to be discussed if you like the idea) in parallel so that players connected to the server can also connect to the voice channel of that server ?
For everyday online players, a server voice channel approach would be cool.
20 slots should be plenty enough, even 10 most of the time.
I like to help players a lot, but it gets painful hitting the I key firing off my stealth generator when chat append window didn't open, not to mention that if we could speak it would make things much easier and less cycles consuming.
How nice it would be to join a channel with the ip of a server.

I just hope there is a freeware solution for both sides, server and client. I remember some time ago that very simple voice chat utility, Roger Wilco, that we used for our Ghost Recon clan [FW]. Don't think this is still around though, was too simple, had a too small network load, hdd and cpu foot print (close to 0) and worked too well ... I wonder of anything like that still exists.

But maybe I'm bashing in open doors and all this has happened before.
What do you think ?

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:38 pm

the game has in game voice chat but its limited to players in the same sector.
also, most server operators dissable it to reduce bandwidth.

Teamspeak 3 is currently the prefered method.

Beta_ver · Post by **Beta_ver** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:27 pm

OK, thanks for the info Capt_Caveman.
Cheers.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Tue May 19, 2015 11:29 pm

From post: 177020, Topic: tid=11921, author=Capt_Caveman wrote:the game has in game voice chat but its limited to players in the same sector.
also, most server operators dissable it to reduce bandwidth.

Teamspeak 3 is currently the prefered method.

Yes, voice data uses a lot of bandwidth and ISP's particularly don't like people clogging the Upstream channel - like streaming music, video, voice, etc. They want you to pay for a Business package to do that.
Some ISPs get all hot and bothered if you host any kind of server and forbid in in their TOS - most do.

On the other hand it would be interesting how low a mono bandwidth voice feature of say a few 1000 kbs and if it would be sufficiently inteligible. But even a few kbs can had up if you are on a monthly data limited connection.
And with voice you also need a reliable connection with low latency and low jitter.

Beta_ver · Post by **Beta_ver** » Wed May 20, 2015 7:35 am

OK, it seems the in sector voice built in feature would be sufficient at least to help out players in the same sector, others out of sectors needing help can use the chat text to call in then I go see them if necessary, so that should do it.
I'll test teamspeak too just for fun. I could find a version of roger wilco on the net but not sure this would bring anything more to the story as the necessary tools seem already available.
Let's see how this works then

Thanks all for your replies.

Beta_ver · Post by **Beta_ver** » Fri May 22, 2015 5:17 pm

Finally got my headset to work, the in sector chat perfectly suits the needs, what a pleasure to be able to talk instead of typing, also much less polluting for the chat.

Cheers.

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Fri May 22, 2015 9:15 pm

From post: 177289, Topic: tid=11921, author=Beta_ver wrote:Finally got my headset to work, the in sector chat perfectly suits the needs, what a pleasure to be able to talk instead of typing, also much less polluting for the chat.

Cheers.

I don't suppose you have any way to tell how much bandwidth it uses do you?
I would think that seeing as my old laptop causes ships to jitter and jump around when someone is in the same area as me that voice for me would be al jumbled also.
Wouldn't want to waste $20 or whatever on a cheap headset that I couldn't eve use.
Wonder if Vice knows?

Post by **Marvin** » Fri May 22, 2015 9:37 pm

Headsets can be used for more than just EM ... or TS3. They're an investment ... especially if you're married ... and especially if you have a baby in the house.

Beta_ver · Post by **Beta_ver** » Fri May 22, 2015 9:49 pm

I have no idea how much bandwidth that took, I didn't notice any particular effet of using voice, but I was not paying attention to that either. I'll check and see if that causes jitter or lag and let you know, but it's dependent of plenty of parameters, your HW, your ISP's service, location ... So I wouldn't conclude that if it works for me it's going to for you, guess the only way to know is to try.

Think about configuring the proper type (microphone, not line in) and the gain of the mike through the OS first (be careful that the view meter that is moving is actually your headset's mike, not the on board mike of the laptop for example), and to hear others remember that the in game voices in the esc menu must be enabled. You may also have to rebalance the music/effect/voice sound levels in the game's config to hear others properly.

See you soon in space !