Voice Chat

[Bej-Bej]

I've come to appreciate voice chat from Left 4 Dead versus. UT2004 (and thus the killing Floor mod) has voice chat but from my experiences there was enough lag involved in transmitting the voice that it was unusable (by the time a message was received it was already irrelevant).

The benefit of voice chat is that you can say what you want with only minor disruptions to your movement and actions in game. Typing out a message of help would ironically leave you helpless the entire length of time you took to type out the message. It would also most likely leave you dead.

Does voice chat work effectively in retail Killing Floor? Also, thoughts on voice chat.

 

[Nenjin]

I've yet to be impressed by ANYONE's in game voice chat. WoW, BF2, L4D, TF2 and on, VoIP in game sounds like crap 99% of the time. You won't get the same level of clarity as you would running skype or ventrilo, or something else. IMO, in game VoIP is a waste of resources when there are so many better alternatives out there.

 

[Innociv]

yeah.. i've only ever liked vent.

Most ingame voip does not work on my mic, and doesn't have a high enough volume slider for others voip for me to hear them.

Source is the only one i've seen work moderately well for my computer.

 

[Bej-Bej]

I guess you've come to the same conclusion as I have.

Is there any way to actually integrate a good voice chat clients into this particular game other than telling someone to join a particular voice chat server once he or she has joined the game.

For instance, if I were to join a random server (which many people will be doing on may 14th) how would I know if people were actually using voice chat on the server?* If the server is using ventrillo as a client, how would I connect to the voice chat server?* How much more confusing would this process be for someone who has never heard of ventrillo before?


*these are rhetorical questions.

 

[[UIT] Akame]

I've yet to be impressed by ANYONE's in game voice chat. WoW, BF2, L4D, TF2 and on, VoIP in game sounds like crap 99% of the time. You won't get the same level of clarity as you would running skype or ventrilo, or something else. IMO, in game VoIP is a waste of resources when there are so many better alternatives out there.

Regardless of the quality of the voice chat, the fact that it is included in the game and of good enough quality to hear the other person is reason enough to use it. Ventrilo is wonderful, but you have to get others to join the same chat -if the have veltrilo. While that isn't as big of a problem for a game like WoW, it would be unreasonable to expect to use it outside of your normal group or clan.

EDIT: Bej-Bej, you ninja'd me...

 

[Superfly724]

I've never really had a problem. The VOIP of most games is clear enough to get the point across, so what more do you need? If I was going to have an in-depth discussion with someone, sure I would use vent, but other than that the in-game is fine. No in-game voice chat is ever going to sound like you're talking in person, so what's the use of being picky?

 

[XyzKiller]

Well the one for L4D isn't that bad, I've heard worst. As long as I can understand the person talkin, I'm fine with it.

 

[Nenjin]

Is there any way to actually integrate a good voice chat clients into this particular game other than telling someone to join a particular voice chat server once he or she has joined the game.

I'm not a tech expert, but as I understand it, the problem is that you're trying to force VoIP data in with the game/client data. So as a ratio of available resources, VoIP gets much less than the game client. So it's quality is poor, it's transmission is poor. Functional? Sure. Do I have to turn my game volume up ridiculously high to hear them clearly? Yes.

That's the biggest advantage to me of 3rd party VoIP. It's not tied to game volume. I can alt-tab and still have it function. I can individually adjust people's volume based on how good or bad their mic/sound set up is. I can turn down game sound and get perfect clarity with Vent.

And I've honestly made more friends by going "Hey, come to our vent server" than using in-game. L4D has shown me that any desk jockey can get on their mic and (usually) be a dink. People seem to change their behavior when you invite them to a vent server because suddenly they're in your realm. I think private chat servers encourage a level of maturity, where VoIP is mostly used for cursing your teammates. (I'm talking L4D here.)

If people don't have vent, it's not a big deal. But once you've downloaded vent, or something like it, you'll end up using it for every MP game out there.

Also I like Skype because it has no push-to-talk, but your mic channel being open all the time doesn't lead the same kind of feedback insanity that I've had with other games.

 

[[UIT] Akame]

And I've honestly made more friends by going "Hey, come to our vent server" than using in-game. [...] People seem to change their behavior when you invite them to a vent server because suddenly they're in your realm. I think private chat servers encourage a level of maturity, where VoIP is mostly used for cursing your teammates. (I'm talking L4D here.)

From my experience in L4D (I play 20+ hours a week, so I figure most people see the same thing) most people who use the in-game VoIP for cursing their teammates are not going to use vent, rather than the reverse. The only people who join are mature, regardless if you use vent or VoIP.

If people don't have vent, it's not a big deal. But once you've downloaded vent, or something like it, you'll end up using it for every MP game out there.

I used Ventrilo for KF-mod because the built-in VoIP for UT2k4 did not work well. For L4D, I find VoIP completely acceptable. I do agree with your comment about mic volume though.

 

[Fuby]

We use The VOIP on ToW Darkest Hour Server.. the volume could use an adjuster for sure..
Block/Mute users needed also..

And the worse part.. I got a bug when I broadcast on any channel.. it's heard on all channels including the enemy..
We have now moved to telling people to join us on Teamspeak..
(Vent teamspeak...both good ..personal choice)

Would like to see the mute feature at least..

 

[Bio666]

I've come to appreciate voice chat from Left 4 Dead versus. UT2004 (and thus the killing Floor mod) has voice chat but from my experiences there was enough lag involved in transmitting the voice that it was unusable (by the time a message was received it was already irrelevant).

The benefit of voice chat is that you can say what you want with only minor disruptions to your movement and actions in game. Typing out a message of help would ironically leave you helpless the entire length of time you took to type out the message. It would also most likely leave you dead.

Does voice chat work effectively in retail Killing Floor? Also, thoughts on voice chat.

I've played KF for quite a time, and in my experience, it's good. Of course, it's not crystal clear, nor immediately as face-to-face talking, but it's enough. I can hear well what ppl want to talk, and the delay(if any) is quite small, around few seconds. I've never encounter the by the time a message was received it was already irrelevant.
The weird thing, everyone seems to have difficulties with KF VoIP. My computer is normal, mic-headphone set is very cheap, yet they work great. I dont quite understand other post here.

 

[Nanostrike]

The advantage of in-game VOIP is that you don't have to join a different Ventrillo/Teamspeak channel for each particular server you join...that gets inconvenient fast if you switch servers often...

You just join a server and you can immediately talk to whoever is there. It makes it much more casual, IMO, and tends to get rid of a lot of the "LOL WE R IN VENT AND U R NOT LOL!!!11!!!" crap that a lot of games have...