New Built in Voice Chat Support for Blockland (No teamspeak/steam required)

[ZERØ]

/Title

Please do not come into this thread and start complaining about people with squeaky voices, if you have a problem with it than there should be a client mute option.

Please do not recommend Teamspeak, others need to download it to use it, and Steam Chat requires the same.

And the same goes for Mic spammers, just mute them.
Yes I have posted this suggestion twice now, and I will keep trying.

The main reason I think we need it is mainly the fact some find voice chat as a easier way to communicate, for example when your in a TDM, or an intense situation, stopping to type is not the best option.
While that is not the best example I think others may also find it better than our current only option, just by personal preference.

I don't think I want to bandwagon the "Oh X game has voice chat and if X game has it we should too"
I simply think we need it now, specially now that we have more steam users that are used to voice chat being a primary way to communicate.

If you don't like it you should simply be given the option to turn it off.


Please discuss this matter, if you feel we should not have Voice chat, please explain why.

[Ad Bot]

[otto-san]

voice chat is a valuable means of communication in modern online gaming and it would serve blockland well as it is a very social game

[WaterOre]

Oh CRAP I voted before reading.

I'm in support for this, but I'm also worried about text chat being overlooked even more than it already is.

[Honno]

Its never been implemented in this old version of Torque. I know that Torque3D has it.

Probably possible if Badspot finds a third party library with a decent voice codec, and then implements them into the client and server. Would require lots of coding though.

And before anyone asks: No, it cannot be made in TorqueScript. Its not possible to implement a voice codec in a such a high-level language like TorqueScript, while expecting it to not be slow as hell.

[Masterlegodude]

Torque-not-3D has a built in voice chat?

[(minecraft)]

Its never been implemented in this old version of Torque. I know that Torque3D has it.

Probably possible if Badspot finds a third party library with a decent voice codec, and then implements them into the client and server. Would require lots of coding though.

And before anyone asks: No, it cannot be made in TorqueScript. Its not possible to implement a voice codec in a such a high-level language like TorqueScript, while expecting it to not be slow as hell.

Blockland is old so old

[ZERØ]

Its never been implemented in this old version of Torque. I know that Torque3D has it.

Probably possible if Badspot finds a third party library with a decent voice codec, and then implements them into the client and server. Would require lots of coding though.

And before anyone asks: No, it cannot be made in TorqueScript. Its not possible to implement a voice codec in a such a high-level language like TorqueScript, while expecting it to not be slow as hell.

That's Strange I could of sworn that the version of torque we run had a really butchered version of voice chat that probably sounds bad.

But that option sounds way better.

[ZSNO]

That's Strange I could of sworn that the version of torque we run had a really butchered version of voice chat that probably sounds bad.

Nope
TBH, trying to do this might not work out as well as you think it will.
To make it secure all voices would have to be routed to the server and then back to all the clients, significantly increasing the amount of bandwidth Blockland uses. So users with bad internet trying to host will make everyone lag when people try to talk.
Or atleast thats how I think that would work.

Also I don't think Badspot would take the time to implement this since there are SO MANY better alternatives.
Heck, I even made a basic TeamSpeak Add-on for BL.

[Refticus]

how long will it be before it's used to play music about richards

[joe411]

Is it even possible to put into such an old engine?

[otto-san]

Nope
TBH, trying to do this might not work out as well as you think it will.
To make it secure all voices would have to be routed to the server and then back to all the clients, significantly increasing the amount of bandwidth Blockland uses. So users with bad internet trying to host will make everyone lag when people try to talk.
Or atleast thats how I think that would work.

wouldn't be any worse than any other in-game voice chat if it were executed properly. that's not so much a concern these days anyway

Is it even possible to put into such an old engine?

we can change the source code, so potentially anything is possible. it's just a matter of implementing it while having to juggle with all the other systems already in place

[ZERØ]

wouldn't be any worse than any other in-game voice chat if it were executed properly. that's not so much a concern these days anyway
we can change the source code, so potentially anything is possible. it's just a matter of implementing it while having to juggle with all the other systems already in place

That's what I was thinking, Badspot has the power to change source code, and like you said things would have to be moved around.

how long will it be before it's used to play music about richards

Music about richards? Uhh first I've heard of this one.

Nope
TBH, trying to do this might not work out as well as you think it will.
To make it secure all voices would have to be routed to the server and then back to all the clients, significantly increasing the amount of bandwidth Blockland uses. So users with bad internet trying to host will make everyone lag when people try to talk.
Or atleast thats how I think that would work.

Also I don't think Badspot would take the time to implement this since there are SO MANY better alternatives.
Heck, I even made a basic TeamSpeak Add-on for BL.

I don't think that's how it works and even if it did there is no way it would lag the crap out of everyone, your forgetting many of the limits that where put on Blockland where put back then when computers weren't as strong as the ones we have today, heck Torque's Net settings still have a DSL option, I wish we had a Fiber option but we don't.

[Ipquarx]

Well, there's a bit of a networking aspect to it as well. There's a packet sent once every tick (32-33ms) to and from every player in the server. Each packet is a measly 128 bytes at most.. Now, at voice encoding around 20kb/s (That's kilobits, which is actually a reasonable rate for an under-appreciated codec called Opus, which has special modes for low-bitrate voice encoding. This is what teamspeak uses.) that would have to tack on around 60%-200% more bandwidth depending on the server.

So it's not impossible, it's certainly not unreasonable in terms of network usage, but it would add another layer of complexity to the whole system that would be quite difficult to implement and honestly, in my opinion I don't think all the extra time would be worth it.

[portify]

That's Strange I could of sworn that the version of torque we run had a really butchered version of voice chat that probably sounds bad.

No, all it has regarding "voice" is a generic voice command system (i.e. prerecorded lines that you can trigger).

[Outpacte]

Google voice recognition anybody?