Some Issues With Voice Comm

nicuss

<div class="IPBDescription">they say i'm hard to understand</div> Other people tell me I'm hard to understand when using voice comm and I'm trying to find what the problem is. Having two computers I've installed NS on both and made a LAN game, I can hear and understand myself well (not crystal clear but good enough) from one PC to the other. However, on the internet people still don't get what I'm saying.

My connection is a Verizon DSL with 128kbs upload / 756 kbs download. Those are bits/second, so in bytes it does about 13 KB/sec upload and 80 KB/sec download. Do you think my slow upload could be the problem? If not what else?

I've already read through some voice comm FAQs and played with all the variables. Ran the HL voice setup too.

The PC is a 1.4GHZ Athlon with some 900MB PC133 SDRAM.

mouth

A lot of it really has to do with enunciation. When there's a lot going on, it gets hard to hear fast, long commands over the voicecomms. Slow it down a little and make sure what you're saying is to the point. Try not to mix sounds. Your distance from the microphone is also important. Too far becomes faint, and too close sounds like you're talking into a pillow.

Think of it like this:
When someone types carlesly liek tis, the reader has to put in extra effort to understand it. This balances out the lack of effort the typer put into saying it, but it also leaves plenty of room for misunderstandings. Same kinda deal works for speech.

nicuss

hmm, dunno. i'm just saying "need a welder in base" and the guy is like "what?", i repeat "welder... welder please" and get "don't understand, please type".

i can hear other people fine no matter how long they talk, etc. and there's that internet telephone where people can talk for hours, right?

i'm not really sure if going through the trouble of upgrading my upload speed (or switching to cable) is worth it, that is if it's gonna make a difference or not... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->

PsioniC

Well the thing with lan is, there is no lag. Do you wont get a realistic stress test. Your upload speed may very well have some effect on it ask people weather its choppy or just plain unclear. also try opening a server with a friend that way there will atleast be small amounts of lag. Maybe try buying a better Mic if you have a cheap one.

nicuss

got a $25 or $30 plantronics headset and in HL voice setup it sounds crystal clear
sound card is a creative soundblaster 16PCI or sumthing like that

voidfish

I have a similar problem. Using the "voice_loopback 1" command I have noticed that while my voice comes through clear sometimes, it is very choppy rather often. My mic setup has always worked well in cs. My voice sounds fine in the ready room, but starts breaking up after I start playing.

mouth

I have noticed that FPS can play a role in voicecomm choppiness. If you're getting choppy FPS during the time when you're sending a voicechat, it will be choppy as well.

WarpZone

I have cable internet service, and half the time I can't understand what anybody using voice chat is saying. They all just mumble some stuff like this:

"ee gobba go habba <i>hive</i> un, un evehbada bidda *microphone abruptly cuts off* ambers!"

Also, maybe it's just my immagination, but everybody's voice is really annoying. Except you occasionally get someone with a mild australian accent, and they sound hella cool, or some guy who sounds like a sterotypical california suerfer dude from the late 80's, and he sounds tolerable. Everyone else just sounds like someone else's nerdy kid brother breathing anxiously into a phone.

And don't even get me started on the people who use <a href='http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-11-18' target='_blank'>those damn voice masks.</a>

And to top it all off, they go "eed ealth! eed ealth! eed ealth!" While you're trying to build up your base. It's bad enough that they felt they had to wander off on their own, but the <i>least</i> they could do is use the damn comms menu so I can <i>jump to them.</i>

The_Turk

<!--QuoteBegin--nicuss+Nov 18 2002, 09:09 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (nicuss @ Nov 18 2002, 09:09 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> i'm not really sure if going through the trouble of upgrading my upload speed (or switching to cable) is worth it, that is if it's gonna make a difference or not... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
your net speed shouldn't make too much of a difference. i'm only on a 56k dialup connection, and my old mic worked fine. My new headsets not working loud enough though.

Trancer

There is a bug in Half-life which makes players hard to hear over voice comm when "+voicerecord" is binded to certain keys. You said it works well on the other computer? Then bind "+voicerecord" to the key which the working computer has it binded to.