Teamspeak, battlecom or what ???

[hornile 0]

We're playing OFP in a LAN (8-10 players) and would like to use something like teamspeak or battlecom.

I installed teamspeak and had approx. 1s of delay which is too much in flashpoint when you're trying a coordinated attack.

Anybody got any better ideas ? I also read something about a built in voice interface in OFP, but I don't know exactly how or if it works.

Any help would be appreciated !!!

[wipman 1]

Hi, well... i use to play to the AAO and sometimes im lucky of play to the OFP in MP; many people in the AAO say that another voice program called: Ventrilo it's better than the Team Speak 2, but i haven't try it, so i don't know. Let's cu.

[benu 1]

I think roger wilco and battlecom can be considered (mostly) dead. Most people seem to use teamspeak or ventrilo, some even use skype it seems. We use teamspeak. I tested and did not like ventrilo, but others switched from ts to ventrilo, so they obviously liked it better.

[tankieboy 0]

Ventrilo is used by VCB.

[svendejong 0]

@ zeus we are a bunch of happy ts users.

[benu 1]

I just rechecked ventrilo licenses, and you can only host for 8 players on the free ventrilo server. This was a change in license for the free server with v2.2. The license for 2.1 reserved the right to revoke it when newer versions are finished, which they they did on their site when v2.2 was ready.

I would guess this leaves you the options of running v2.2 for 8 users only or keep running v2.1 regardless of breaking license agreements this way.

[SWIFT88 0]

I just rechecked ventrilo licenses, and you can only host for 8 players on the free ventrilo server. This was a change in license for the free server with v2.2. The license for 2.1 reserved the right to revoke it when newer versions are finished, which they they did on their site when v2.2 was ready.

I would guess this leaves you the options of running v2.2 for 8 users only or keep running v2.1 regardless of breaking license agreements this way.

what license? VCB have had more than 8..... more than 18..... where did you get that information from

[benu 1]

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I just repeated what they wrote in their license and on their hp. Although i did a test installation just now i did not go with more than 8 players onto it.

For the PUBLIC SERVER VERSION 2.2 a hardcoded limit of 8 players seems to exist according to the readme of the server. The settings in the ventrilo_srv.ini do not affect that (i checked, the server starts for 8 players only although by default 32 (?) were configured in the ini file).

Also, i had read this before, that many squads still use v2.1 because of the new license in v2.2.

The problem is, read the license of the v2.1 server and check their homepage:

Quote[/b] ]6. Updates and new versions. In the event that updates or new

versions of the software are developed, Licensor may at its

discretion, make updates and new versions available to the User

upon payment of a fee. Flagship may require the return of the

original software to Flagship, or require that the User

discontinue use of older versions of the software. If software

is updated and made available to the User, the User may use the

update only in accordance with the terms and conditions of this

Agreement.

And here:

Quote[/b] ]2004-03-17 2.2.0 Mandatory Server and Client update

[SpongeBob 0]

I installed teamspeak and had approx. 1s of delay which is too much in flashpoint when you're trying a coordinated attack.

How is a one second delay too much? I have a hard time seeing when a 1 second delay can cause a mission failure.

And can't you just sit close to one another if you're playing a lan?

[M9ACE 0]

QSF prefers to use TS.  You can easily change the codec to get higher quality if you so desire.

[hornile 0]

1 second delay is too long for a conversation or discussion.

And 8 men can't sit close together to talk, either you have no great sound-experience or you can't talk to each other, that simple.

And if you like 1 second delay, be happy with it. I don't like it and look for alternatives. And if teamspeak's latency is too high I will simply look for another program.

[benu 1]

Afaik TS has settings for that, eg reducing buffer sizes to decrease latency. Iirc it is similar as the anti-shock feature, the sound is delayed a bit to buffer for network congestions. You can turn that off in the Options/Settings menu. Pull the slider from "better sound" to "lower latency".

BTW: you did check the settings before you complained, did you? If i had started the ventrilo server without going through the readme and the config first i would have complained about the bad quality of the codec too, which you btw don't seem to be able to change on the fly as in ts or only in the console with cryptic commands...

[hornile 0]

I already tried reducing latency with this buffer setting (lower latency of course...)...I tried everything in TS

I now checked the OFP "onboard" Voice-Intercom and it has absolutely the same latency as TS....(maybe even less)

I finally tried Battlecom (not so good) and ventrilo, which still had enough latency....

I probably have to stick to the 1s delay and use the onboard OFP voice chat.

[Billabong81 0]

I use TS and it works fine for me . No delays or anything, as far as I can tell.

[crashdome 3]

Hmmm... I wonder if there is a hardware solution to all of this.

Anyone know of a cheap way to 'conference' call using headsets?

If not, perhaps someone should start a business going... call it "LAN-SPEAK" or something

[benu 1]

I haven't tried it myself but i heard that skype should be really good in the latency issue. But it is an internet telephone software, so you have to call your buddies, there is no server. But might be worth a try.

Everyone else seems to be using ts or ventrilo.

Regarding the latency, if two players with 150ms latency (time the packets need to travel through the internet) each talk to each other you will get AT LEAST 0.3 seconds latency. The rest will be encoding stuff on the source computer, queuing it, etc.

If you want to calculate the latency of the program you should at best be in a lan, everyone must have soundcards with hardware mixing (and no onboard stuff), and calculate the delay there. This should get you the delay that is inherent in the voicechat tool.

[stevevcb 3]

I have to say I prefer Ventrillo. TS is a little too bare-bones for my liking, and the amount of faffing around with codecs trying to get good sound quality got on my wick. I've never so much as touched Ventrillo's settings other than output volume, and it's crystal clear.

[Messiah 2]

same here... ventrilo does exactly what its meant to...

[RN Malboeuf 12]

So does TS, aslong as you preset TS to only allow

Speex 25.9 Kbit

or

GSM 16.4 Kbit

you wont have any worries when creating new channels, both programs are good, but when the majority of the OFP servers use TS, TS is the only way to go, the hassle of explaining what vent is to others is too bothersome

[shadow 6]

I noticed TS uses more bandwidth when selecting the lowest audio-quality compared to Ventrilo, yet still Ventrilo sound better. It affected my ping in-game.

ASP uses ventrilo 2.2.0

We have 35 or so slots (rented server).

I only use TS if I'm playing at a different clan's server that only use TS.

[RN Malboeuf 12]

at highest setting TS uses about 2-5 Kbs (a streaming effect compared to sending to each IP), on the recieving end it would be the same, so short of having a 56k, i dont think it would matter for any Broad Ban user

[sergeant rock 3]

[RR] uses Ventrilo. TeamSpeak is an excellent product, but if you are looking for sound quality Ventrilo beats TS hands down.

[KaRRiLLioN 0]

We've been using TS for a few years, and really like it. So you have to purchase Ventrillo licenses to go past 8 players? We regularly have 12-20 people on TS at once, so that wouldn't do.

[hardrock 1]

I haven't tried it myself but i heard that skype should be really good in the latency issue. But it is an internet telephone software, so you have to call your buddies, there is no server. But might be worth a try.

I did use Skype once in OFP, and it's latency and quality are really great, the only big and negative point is that it requires much too much network usage to run it properly in internet games.

Since LAN has a much higher speed, it might work there though.

And you can have conferences on skype, so not only point-to-point calls like with a telephone.

[wipman 1]

Hi, i've played in an AAO server where they had a message about a nother voice communications program called: CNR (= Combat Net Radio) it's a 1Mb of program, kinda the TS; but the voice quality it's like a TV with the CNN on in the other side of the living room at some volume. The quality of the sound, the speed of the transmission, the accuracy in the "on voice activation" plus the absence of lag... makes me think that the Combat Net Radio (aka CNR) it's better than the TS 2.2, i recomend at least to try it, it have impresed me; the team work it's much easyer with this program, it may help the ppl in those long coops. Let's cu