Teamspeak/Ventrilo?

Can someone explain to me how difficult it is to use these Voip apps? How do they work and how complicated is it to setup and use? Also how secure is it if you do decide to use such a voice chat?

I want to voice chat when playing Battlefield bad Company 2 using the in game voice chat, but it seems no one responds when I press the key to talk. Only once in awhile, someone would respond with their mic, but I'm thinking everyone else is probably using Teamspeak or ventrilo. IDK...

 

Depends on the game and situation. I know if I'm playing with strangers on Left 4 Dead 2 or Killing Floor we mostly use the in-game mic program. If we're playing a (semi-)competive game, like a Counter-Strike PUG, we'll use a VoIP because their quality is usually better.

I've used Ventrillo before. Very easy to set up. As for security it's... not really secure. I mean, anyone who has the password to your channel--and hasn't been banned by an admin--can hear what you say.

As an alternative, try Vicious' Mumble server.

 

thanks Forge. The reason I'm kinda suspicious about these chats/voice chat is that I read about a guy that used such a program to hack other people's computer's camera and mic.

I'm kinda thinking that since both programs are popular among the gaming community they might be "safe" to use, although since I never used one before, I wasn't sure if I'd have to have friends first that had the same program to use it, or is there like a lobby or an option when I go into BFBC2 to see who I can speak with using teamspeak or ventrilo.

I don't understand why no one uses the voice chat that's built into the game. Is it just on my end?

 

Of all the Voip programs I find mumble by far the highest quality, lowest latency, and it has some of the neatest options (like in game overlay)

So that is why I host one for everybody here to use.

How easy is it to use? Just as easy as any in-game speech.

Why use one of these instead of the built-in game ones? - Lots of reasons.

1.) More configurable. Example: Starcraft 2 uses the tilde key for push to talk and that is totally out of the way and hard to use. I always use a mouse button for my push to talk key so I can use it easy without interrupting my gameplay.

2.) Higher quality. Example: higher bitrate, better noise reduction, also being able to tune the volume of each player instead of just a base setting can really help with the overall quality. Maybe one person you play with often just does not talk loud. With in game you would be forced to turn it up too loud to hear him or not hear him if you do not.

3.) Privacy: Example - Perhaps you and 2 friends are playing and just want to talk among yourselves and not the entire team/game.

4.) Centralized: Example - Just my one mumble server hosts speech areas for multiple games and also just a "hang out and chat" area. So you can use that one mumble setting/setup for every game instead of worrying about each games bindings and settings. This also importantly means you can use speech in games that do not support it (like Magicka)


Important things to note:

> If you use mumble I recommend you run the setup wizard it will walk you through setting up your mic levels and configuring the sensitivity of voice activation.

> Use push to talk. Unless you have no noise around you and are using headphones you should use push to talk so that your sound from your speakers and/or the things around you does not go into the voice chat and ruin it for others.

> Dont forget that you need to configure not only your Voip settings but your windows settings so make sure your volume is correct and your microphone levels are set via your sound area in your windows control panel.

 

thanks Vicious, I just watched the video in the link and it kinda seems complicated. I want something real simple like plug and play, since I don't really want to go through the hassle just for BFBC2.

But the video was very informative concerning how one of these programs work.

 

Or if anyone wants to voice chat so we can communicate and coordinate attacks in BFBC2 add me in the game and I'll accept the request so we can find each other and team up on the battlefield. I go as Diehard01 so search that and add me for voice chat...

 

Its not hard or complicated but if your not willing to put forth the effort to learn something new, nobody will force you.

See my sig

 

Oh right on, I just added you and I'm gonna send requests for the others. I'm familiar with the ingame chat so we can use that until I familiarize myself with mumble.

 

most VOIP for PC games are rarely used in comparison to console games. often times, friends are playing with one another in the servers and are using vent/ts/mumble to chat and ignore all voip in game. and that's mostly due to annoying people on the interwebz

 

Id just download steam, get all my friends on it aswell, then get steam to find your currently installed games and run games through steam. I dont mind Vent but its a pain sometimes, steam is simple and runs over top of games, it also gives you a web browser so you don't have to leave the game to search something up. it also supports cross game chat aswell.

 

yeah i know this, but I'd run BFBC2 with Steam running offline and gamebooster disabling unnecessary programs to free up as much resources as possible on my computer. I don't think it makes much of a differences since I have an i5 and GTX 460m with 4GB ram, but i want every once of performance I can get, also the ingame voice chat is just as effective if not more so since it's built into the game itself, but nobody wants to use it. WTH?