Ingame voice chat

[SpongeBob 0]

I love playing OFP and have TS chat being played in my USB headset only, with my speakers putting out in game sound. I hope if AA has VOIP, that its able to setup with different devices.

[Dohtar 0]

Yeah, supporting 2 different sound devices is a must. I am using my SB Live w/ 5.1 sound system for game sound and on-board audio card w/ headphones for Ventrilo.

Other than that, real life like natural and radio communications should be put in as a server or map option. It would be a nice addition for COOP missions and clans that enjoy real war expirience, while most competitive squads will simply switch for Ventrilo/TS, if built-in system will be to limited.

[Llyranor 0]

About the VoIP, would it just be a team VoIP, or would it be possible to form up 'squads' and use squad VoIP?

Would it even be possible to form up squads in mp?

[lwlooz 0]

Good Day,

I read that Voice-thread,which was kinda closed,that reminded me on an issue tho that baffled me the other day.

While the current OFP chat-channels are good enough for typing,I was thinking that you will run into some difficulties when trying to have some sort of more organized games.

Example:Company-sized mission

With the current channels given you can have a fine distinction between individual squads and its Platoon,but each Platoon and the Company commander have to share one Coms-Network for talking.

The only solution to that I see without getting in complex radio-traffic simulation(Frequencies and bollocks) is to give n (maybe 8?) Sidechat-channels,all of which can be muted and each of which can have a button for speaking mapped to it (Sure you can have one and the same button for all). Alongside with the keys you sure could have some sort of dialog for all of it I guess.

Some script-commands for allowing people to talk/listen on those n-channels might be a good idea too.

The other thing is for the DirectChat thing.I wonder if you guys have some sort of quick-input-volume adjustment(also mappable).I mean,if I want to scream to some guy 50m away from me in game,I don't necessarily want to scream that loud

I know its pretty late in the dev-state,more wondering how VOIP is looking,rather than requesting stuff.

[coderdfox 0]

How did it work in OFP? I hear some ppl saying the direct function work liked a speaker comming from the player? Or is that wrong?

I sure ARMA hasent changed it that much (well maybe). Most likely just improved it.

[Metal Heart 0]

Quote[/b] ]The other thing is for the DirectChat thing.I wonder if you guys have some sort of quick-input-volume adjustment(also mappable).I mean,if I want to scream to some guy 50m away from me in game,I don't necessarily want to scream that loud

I think different channels would do the trick nicely. Like direct whisper (-inf dB at 8m), direct speak(50m), direct shout(300m) and direct scream(600m). It's just that if the area of 'transmission' is too big it can cause lag if there's like a 50 players inside it but I guess smaller bandwidth servers would disable the feauture anyway.

[Scrub 0]

As far as quality and character of the voice changing from natural to radio, (not a suggestion, just an idea) Why not just reduce the bitrate it records at, like radios do? Flatten out the curve a bit and the voice has that wonderful tin-can quality while making it easier on the CPU. Maybe use the extra clock cycles to add the random digital 'static' or loss of packets.

OFP's directplay localized voice was great imho, a bit hungry on the bandwidth, but very immersive in it's implementation. I always hope there would be a game that you could assign our own channels in. It would be a neat way to organize the massive squads that it seems ArmA will support. Can't wait to see what the BIS is cookin' up.

[benu 1]

I actually liked the old directplay ingame voicecom very much. Ingame voicecoms beat any 3rd party app by far. The way you could talk to your side, group, vehicle or vicinity only is just not possible with 3rd party tools, as those do not know who is eg in your vehicle at any given time. For tactical teamplay this really is a must have. It was too bad to see it go with socket networking, it just has to be back with ArmA.

[frederf 0]

I like in game VOIP too. Let the devs include in all the hooks and such in the code to have range and what gear you have on and what group you're in determine who you talk to.

ArmA is going to be arcadey, and no BF2 convert is going to stand or even understand not being able to talk to someone 4km away without a radio. Hopefully you'll be able to select what VOIP channel you're xmitting on and which you're listening to.

But a WGL like mod that wants to have communications with realism can hook into those code parameters and program in some realistic communication based on taling range.

A big thing I would like to see if Alpha leader tell his radioman to contact Bravo squad. Bravo's radioman gets a little buzz or something to let him know the radio has traffic. He then switches to his radio weapon and picks up the phone to talk between the two. Hopefully the squad leader could get within talk range and be able to directly talk with anyone within talk range who's next to the other radio. Tank and pilot crews and squads would have their associated intercomms as well.

It sounds complicated but after a few tries it would feel natural because that's how things work in real life.

Of course type chat is always a lovely back up and should be as fully featured as in OFP, hopefully this can be turned off or modified if they wanted to go in a mixed or VOIP only way. For example with VOIP only you could have all text be seen by everyone. Useful for blabbing about the basket ball game or tech supporting game issues, but not useful for relaying combat info as the other team would hear.

[PeterEyres 0]

I dont think anything has been said, could be wrong.

Didnt OFP have VOIP? I thought it did. I never really played online with a mic.

I personaly love the BF2 VOIP. Everyone should'nt <FIXED> be able to yell at anyone

I disagree. There is NO co-ordination in BF2, the only channels avaliable are Commander to Squad Leader and vice versa, and within squads. Squads cannot communicate with other squads

However, commanders are usually non-existant or do not talk, SL's do their own thing.

We should have differecnt channels or frequencies avaliable:

Local, Team Leaders, Common (everyone)

To avoid everyone shouting at each other, or slanging matches, just have a voip control dialogue where you can switch channels (ala red orchestra) and mute people you don't like (BF2)

I would love to see some sort of dynamic and positional system, where you can shout things, whisper (Americas Army), and then the diffferent radio channel to different squads etc, and also hand signals (Americas Army)

[dmakatra 1]

I don't know if this has been written before, but at the moment I don't have the patience to read through three pages, but I just want to present how I reckon voice comms should be in ArmA.

First of all, direct speaking, you know like in OFP it has a limit of about 20 metres? Well, like that, only with voices and make it dynamic depending on the range, so standing very near the player talking will make you hear him very good. Stand 100 metres away he has to shout if you want to hear. This way we actually have to shout in fights, and we can have whispers and all that. Really cool, especially if the enemy side can hear this stuff too. Imagine MP co-op games with two player sides, when you can hear people shouting between each other.

Then there would be the frequencies that you can access if you have a radio as secondary weapon. Basically like a normal TS2 or Ventrilo server, with different frequences as different 'channels'. This way we can organize big battles without shouting into each other, like having the lads attacking Morton on the first frequence and the lads attacking Le Moule on the second, etc. Player-defined of course, not editor defined. It'll be both atmospheric, realistic, logical AND practical.

[Freshman 0]

I thought about this several times, too. It would be very cool.

[SHWiiNG 0]

based on the whole chat ability.. is it posible to use some sort of system where by the player can use two talk modes.. the first is a simple talk or shout mode. where whatever the player says through the mic is transmitted by the digital player... so other players surrounding the one whos talking.. will hear the player as if in real life * like using an artificial sound source* .. of course the ability to hear is dependant on the distance.. and of course for long distance orders.. a radio function be used. Both will have significant tactical and realism value.

and will make the whole chat experience much more valuable.

[TrevorOfCrete 0]

i hope in game chat is included, most games have it. But then again this isnt a predominantly MP game like many games relaease that have in game voice.

[dmarkwick 261]

based on the whole chat ability.. is it posible to use some sort of system where by the player can use two talk modes.. the first is a simple talk or shout mode. where whatever the player says through the mic is transmitted by the digital player... so other players surrounding the one whos talking.. will hear the player as if in real life * like using an artificial sound source* .. of course the ability to hear is dependant on the distance.. and of course for long distance orders.. a radio function be used. Both will have significant tactical and realism value.

and will make the whole chat experience much more valuable.

I don't see a reason why someone who has the radio activated as their current equipment shouldn't have their voice transmitted over both. Cool