Help for a VoIP Noob

[Vacian]

Hey all,

First of all I'd like to say that I love the concept behind your clan/community... it's nice to have servers where teamwork and fairplay are not only supported, but required as well.

Anyway, now here's the thing... For all the time I've played BF2 and BF2142, I've actually never felt the need to use a headset/mic while playing, except these servers I definitely feel it would be better to have and use one. So could someone give me, or point me in the direction of, some sort of step-by-step guide on how to set up a mic and, more importantly, how to use it in-game?

[Jaykay]

Sure that's easy; a cheap non-usb headset/mic works fine. Just plug the mic jack in, and leave the earphone disconnected, so you have your sound set up as you would normally otherwise.

Set the Mic Volume in your Windows sound prefs at about 50% and then start 2142. Join a squad, and ask for a mic check. Press the V key to talk, it's not voice activated.

If it's working on your end, a huge green speaker-symbol will appear on the right hand side of your game screen, in-game, when you press V.

The final confirmation will be when someone in your squad responds to your mic check. If they say you're too loud or soft, ALT-TAB to the desktop, and adjust your mic volume, and try again until it's all good.

[Vacian]

awesome! it's that simple? I didn't know if it was an in-game feature or not... thanks a bunch!

[sc1ence]

it super simple like stated above. you just need a mic. you dont NEED a headset. but it sure is nice because otherwise, the sound from your speakers will be transmitted through your mic to your squadmates. so they will hear your voice along with all the in game sounds your mic picks up. if you have headphones with a mic attached, they will only hear your parents, wife, children etc yelling at you.

[WaffleHousChef]

Since I use a USB headset, and it's a bit more complicated then the run of the mill sound card mic with Windows settings I've got in the habit of testing my mic in game before joining the server to make sure that everything is working properly.

There is a in game mic test built into the game you can use to make sure that everything is working properly once you're loaded up. Go to the settings screen, and then Audio opitons. On the bottom right side of the screen there is a "play" button under a label about mic test if you have a mic plugged in. Press that button and it will pop up a box that will show you the current recording in the game.

When the box is up talk into your mic, and you will see the sound levels move. If the box is red your input is too low for the game to pick it up, and if it is green you are fine. While you are talking it will move up and down, and should be red or off when you aren't making noise, and green when you are actively talking.

If you find that it remains red while you are talking you can adjust your recording volume in windows to increase it some. Also, if you find that while you're talking it keeps going red alot during words you can adjust the in-game recording threshold so that you will transmit some of the softer sounds, and eliminate some transmission chop if you have minimal background noise (i.e. play on a headset mic and headphones in a quiet room.) In most cases your mic should work just fine out of the box with no tweaking required.

Make sure to click the button to turn off the test mode, because it mutes in-game sounds while you are testing, and playing 2142 w/ no sound is an exercise in futility.


One final note, if you play a single player game, and have your VOIP turned off on your single player server setup, it will not automatically turn it back on when you go back to multiplayer and you can only turn this feature on/off when you aren't connected to a server, so if your mic mysteriously stops working this might be the culprit.

[Exploding_Silver]

Talking is half the fun !

Another good basic test is in teamspeak,
settings / sound settings / local test mode

[Sir_Brass]

Some of us, despite having nice, expensive surround sound systems instead use 5.1 surround headsets for games like these. This gives one fully directional sound, a more immersive feel (the sub is vibrating against your head...one literally FEELS the bass), and the ability to have the sound isolated from the mic, AND you don't disturb your sleeping roommate/wife/children/neighbors for those all-nighter gaming sessions.

[Grunt 70]

I use a set of nice sony headphones and a desktop mic from labtec that cost 10 bucks at Staples. VOIP makes it a different game my man. Once you start you'll never want to go back.

[WaffleHousChef]

Originally Posted by Sir_Brass

Some of us, despite having nice, expensive surround sound systems instead use 5.1 surround headsets for games like these.

Every time somone brings these up I keep wondering if it would be worth it to run all the 1/8" jack extention cables across the room so I could use them.

[sc1ence]

As a perceptual psychologist that studies auditory localization (the ability to identify the location where sounds come from) I can assure you that 5.1 surround sound headphones are no more effective than stereo headphones for this purpose. The space between the speaker drivers and your ear does not allow for directionality to be percieved. if the physics of the situation is not enough to convince you, trust the signal detection task I performed. People do no better than chance in a signal detection test in determining front vs back and up vs down.

this does not mean 5.1s dont sound better. having different events coming through each of those speakers means that those events will suffer less from distortion and interference.

[WhiskeySix]

Originally Posted by sc1ence

As a perceptual psychologist that studies auditory localization (the ability to identify the location where sounds come from) I can assure you that 5.1 surround sound headphones are no more effective than stereo headphones for this purpose. The space between the speaker drivers and your ear does not allow for directionality to be percieved. if the physics of the situation is not enough to convince you, trust the signal detection task I performed. People do no better than chance in a signal detection test in determining front vs back and up vs down.

this does not mean 5.1s dont sound better. having different events coming through each of those speakers means that those events will suffer less from distortion and interference.

Have you heard 5.1's in game? You definitely can localize on the horizontal plane! You don't get 360 degrees, but you do get pretty good localization from about your 8-oclock to your 4-oclock... (Although it's not possible to locate in the vertical plane other than by the relative volume as you move your aim up and down) Sure the drivers are close to your ears, but they're still offset a bit and you can absolutely perceive a difference in directionality for each one. Combine that with discrete delays introduced to each channel by the sound card, and you definitely get some extra info to deal with...

this reminds me of this mostly unrelated, but very cool "holophonic" audio clip:
( reference)

[sc1ence]

you cant localize on a vertical plane, and you cant tell it is in front or back without inference. the loudness of the sound is modulated to vary with distance. if you hear a sound this is equal in both ears and sounds soft, it means it is far away, but you can not tell if it is in front or back. you then use visual cues to tell if it is in front or back. stereo headphones are equally as effective in reproducing this effect. this is well established. you can localize well on the horizontal plane, but stereo headphones are just as effective. to localize on the vertical requires, as you said, movement to point in the direction. regardless, you require visual cues to further identify the location of the sound source.


the main variable that is manipulated in simulatng directionality in sound is interaural phase and time differences. these cues can only get you so much and result in what is known as the cone of confusion. see this link for a quick and dirty description. http://ausim3d.com/about/AuWeb_perception.html

another way to reproduce direcionality in sound is to run it through a function that makes it seem like it wraps around a head. (the head related transfer function )sound that comes from behind is structured diferently because it interacts with the back of your head. same goes for the sound that comes from the front and from above and below you. how the environment structures sounds has been shown to be more important than where the sound is actually coming from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-re...nsfer_function

my main point is that 5.1 headphones are no better than stereo headphones for sound source localization.

[jonan_]

Can't wait to get home and listen to that on my surround.

[WaffleHousChef]

Originally Posted by sc1ence

you cant localize on a vertical plane, and you cant tell it is in front or back without inference. the loudness of the sound is modulated to vary with distance. if you hear a sound this is equal in both ears and sounds soft, it means it is far away, but you can not tell if it is in front or back. you then use visual cues to tell if it is in front or back. stereo headphones are equally as effective in reproducing this effect. this is well established.

Damn evolution, doesn't it know you can only establish a line with two points, and a plane needs three. We don't have enough ears! I demand more auditory input devices so Surround Sound will work properly.

[sc1ence]

having 3 ears would be so nuts.

I bet someday we will engeneer a 3rd and 4th ear to attach to part of the basil membrane. people would perceptually adapt fairly quickly.