Bringing Voice to Second Life
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 6:48 PM by: Joe LindenFor me, Second Life has always been more about human communication, collaboration, and spirit than about technology. When I talk to Residents about their experiences, one of the recurring themes is improving our communication methods. For so many, Second Life is a place to make and meet new friends and collaborate with others, whether that’s in a business, educational or purely social context.
That’s why today I’m pleased to announce our intention to bring integrated voice capabilities to the Grid. This will enable all Residents to speak with each other if they wish, in addition to the existing Instant Messaging and group chat functions.
Many of you know that voice has always been part of the long-term plan for the Grid, and we truly believe voice can be a transformative technology that will lend more immediacy and dynamism to the way Residents communicate.
Voice in Second Life will offer high-quality communication capabilities with 3D “proximity-based” voice communication. This technology uses spatial awareness, taking distance, direction, and rotation into account, for a more realistic experience. Basically, you’ll be able to tell who is talking in a group since the voice will sound like it’s coming from that direction. We’re also working hard on an initial set of avatar animations, which change and trigger according to the intensity of speech.
A limited beta trial on a test grid launches next week, before a Grid-wide beta takes place later in March, open to all Residents. Official launch is scheduled for some time in Q2 this year, although more details on that nearer the time. There will be no additional charge for using voice for residents or land-owners during the both of these beta trial periods.
We’d love to get people involved at all stages of the beta, so if you’re interested (and serious about) participating in the initial run starting next week, please drop me an email at 3Dvoice@lindenlab.com. All you need is a headset with a microphone. This initial beta trial will occur on a test grid and will require a separate viewer download. Details will be provided by email to those interested. If you’d rather test the voice technology on your own land in the context of the main production Grid, please do not submit a request to the email above for the beta1 limited trial, but wait for the open beta2 to begin several weeks hence.
Clearly, this is a complex technology to deliver, and we’ve been working with a couple of great partners for some time now to ensure that we provide high quality voice, while not impacting the performance or the ongoing development of the Grid. We’ve worked with Vivox to provide a first-class, scalable, end-to-end user experience and brought in another firm, DiamondWare, which has perfected the 3D spatial audio positioning technology. We believe this combination will make for the most realistic voice experience in a virtual world.
We know that many of you have questions about how and when voice can be used, how it works and what the different options are. I’ll start with a brief FAQ that may be helpful as a launch point for specific answers to your questions in the blog comments.
– Joe Linden
Q. Why are you doing this?
Voice is part of our ongoing effort to create a richer, more immersive virtual environment for Residents. We feel it marks a natural progression in the evolution of Second Life, and will prove to be a transformative technology for Residents. We anticipate that voice will be particularly valuable to Resident groups such as educators, non-profits and businesses, who might use Second Life as a collaborative tool for learning and training.
Q. How long have you been planning this?
Voice has always been part of the long-term plan.
Q. Do you see this a wholly positive move? What about the Residents that want to keep their real life identity anonymous? Isn’t this encroaching on one of the main selling points of Second Life?
Our aim has always been to give Residents the tools they need to fully embrace and engage with Second Life in whichever way they are most comfortable. Voice represents an additional option for achieving this, and gives Residents the choice of speaking to each other on voice-enabled land if they wish. For those who prefer it, they may continue to use the Instant Messaging and chat functions to communicate with others. Many of our Residents have been requesting voice for some time now, so it’s clear that for those users, voice will be a boon.
Q. What will Residents be able to do with their voice capability?
There are many ways Residents can use Voice (usage scenarios are outlined below in the technical section), but we anticipate that voice will be particularly valuable to groups such as educators, non-profits and businesses, who might use Second Life as a collaborative tool for learning and training.
For example, academic institutions could use Second Life to carry out lectures in front of a large group audience or corporations could use it for customer training purposes.
Specific technical issues / considerations
Q. Did you develop proprietary technology, or is this a partnership agreement?
We’ve partnered with Vivox to provide in-world voice. Many Residents will already have tried their bright red phone booths in Second Life and our 3D integration is an extension of the infrastructure Vivox has already built out and is successfully serving many existing customers. We evaluated a number of providers and in the end selected a combination of two. Vivox provides a first-class user experience for end-to-end voice services, without impacting the load or performance on the primary Grid. We wanted to make it even more immersive, so we brought in another firm, Diamondware, which has perfected the 3D spatial positioning technology. We think the combination of the two makes for the most realistic voice experience in a virtual world.
Intuitively when you speak with someone, you want a sense of direction and distance. People who are nearer should sound louder, and the person on your right should sound as if their voice is coming from that location. Without that, the voice is flat, and hard to distinguish from other active voices in the area. Our partners give us exactly that ‘3D audio’ feel without additional plug-ins, hardware or bandwidth overload.
Q. Is voice an automatic option, how are you enabled?
Voice capability is linked to the land parcel rather than an individual Resident, so in that sense it’s automatic. The entire Mainland in the Second Life Grid will be voice-enabled by default, with individual land owners able to opt out if they so choose. Private island owners also have the ability to turn on voice as they wish if they’re on a current payment plan (grandfathered plans may require an additional fee).
Of course, if you wish not to speak, that’s fine – there will be an indicator telling other Residents that you are not voice-enabled. While we expect the vast majority of Residents to jump into voice conversations immediately, we fully understand that others may be more cautious or simply decide to stick to IM and Chat.
Q. What equipment do you need?
All you need is a pair of headphones with a microphone – just as you would with a standard VoIP service. Without a headset and mic the sound quality will not make voice communication an enjoyable experience for you or your friends – too much feedback, echo or missing words. If you’ve used one of the popular VoIP services, you’ll know what we mean.
The headsets are widely available from retail and online electronics stores at a range of prices, so there will be one for you.
Q. Can you modify/change your voice? If not, why not?
At present we’re not offering voice modulation or modification. We understand than some Residents may wish to preserve their anonymity even further by disguising their voice. Those that wish can use third party software to modify their voice, but when evaluating it as a standard feature we found the existing technologies just not able to deliver a high-quality result.
Q. Describe how the 3D spatial positioning works
Essentially this means that voices in Second Life will sound as if they are coming from the location of the speaker. So if the person you are speaking to is far away, they’ll sound fainter than one who is closer. But as they walk towards you, their voice will get louder. If you are in a group, the person on your right, will be heard on your right, and those standing to the left of you will sound as if they are indeed on your left.
Of course, all this spatial positioning is specific to you. Others will hear voice locations from their own perspective. This can obviously get quite complex in large groups of moving avatars but was necessary to make the voice experience more authentic.
You can also shout which makes your voice even louder to those standing close to you and those who were previously beyond range, my hear you. We will moderate particularly loud sounds for the benefit of Residents’ ears and also because some people naturally talk loudly or have headsets with particularly sensitive microphones.
Unlike real life, if you do have trouble hearing someone, you can turn up the volume on your computer at a local level.
Q. What are the different options available?
There will be several usage scenarios available in terms of group and private one-to-one conversations:
Scenario 1 - Residents can teleport to voice-enabled land, and automatically start speaking, with the volume of speech modified according to their spatial relationship with others.
Scenario 2 - Group conference calls for two or more Residents. This enables Residents to communicate with large groups regardless of geographical boundaries (e.g. concert setting, multi-sim events, or between pockets of land etc).
Scenario 3 - One-to-one personal communication. This enables
Residents to privately share a conversation, which can be initiated by an Instant Message. Residents don’t have to be on voice-enabled land to do this.
Q. How does the avatar express what they’re saying? Is it through speech bubbles or lip-synching?
When speaking, Residents’ avatars will become animated according to the amplitude of their voice. Residents may disable this feature entirely or easily customize it to match their mood or attitude. There are literally thousands of gestural combinations available.
There isn’t lip synching for the reason that even minor variations in timing of the voice and lips can become very disconcerting, and actually distract from what the speaker is saying. The delays could come from common issues such as minor fluctuations in bandwidth or other tasks taking CPU time. We opted for extremely high voice quality with more generic animation to address this issue.
Q. Can you shout or whisper using this?
Yes – you can do both, and whistle, sing or hum. The codec used in our implementation carries frequencies from 50Hz to 14,000Hz and is ideally suited for music and ambient sound as well as voice.
Q. How does this affect Second Life Grid/server performance? Won’t this make the experience even slower?
The addition of voice should not affect the normal operation of the Second Life Grid since the service is provided by different servers via a third party. Just as video content or music streaming is handled by systems and bandwidth off the main Grid, the voice channels are too.
Q. How does this affect the PC specifications for using Second Life Viewer?
Residents will already have noticed that Second Life works best on a modern machine with a broadband connection. Adding voice will marginally add to the bandwidth requirements, though we have optimized it so that all voices are condensed into a single mixed voice channel, customized for each client. Residents running Second Life on a compatible computer with no other applications in the background via a broadband connection will get the best results and will not notice degradation. Necessarily adding the voice channel does take some bandwidth and some processor power, but no more than other VoIP services which are in common use. Actually, the codec (Siren14) was selected partially because of its low computing resource requirements compared to other codecs of its class.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:54 PM
Although the idea I think is cool- GREAT more lag. Like scripts are enough. We just end up using TeamSpeak or Vent.
February 27th, 2007 at 6:56 PM
Awesome! I seriously cant wait for this!
February 27th, 2007 at 7:07 PM
Great Idea, but with the current instability of the grid, packet loss issues, and network lag, this will probably be the straw that breaks the camels back.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:14 PM
I suppose this was inevitable, but it will further divide those for whom Second Life is a truly second life, very possibly a fantasy life, from those for whom SL is an extension of their first life. I wonder if there will end up having to be a grid (from LL or someone else) where those who don’t just want another first life will be able to go.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:18 PM
Are you seriously going to charge people with older $195/mo tier islands to use the chat while giving it free to the newer $295/mo tier islands?
February 27th, 2007 at 7:18 PM
“There will be no additional charge for using voice for residents or land-owners during the both of these beta trial periods.”
This sounds like there will be an additional charge AFTER the beta, when it is implemented in the main viewer.
I hope i’m only misreading this, or are you really planning to take money for using this new voice feature in the future?
Lag wouldn’t be much of a problem, because the voice thingy will be on an additional server. But i’m not sure about hearing some blonde bombshell vixens talk like silvester stallone
February 27th, 2007 at 7:21 PM
Amen to Veronique! I don’t even like to hear my own voice, much less those of others… My life is filled with a din of voices, TV, radio, piped-in muzak, etc, etc. (Obviously I live in a city!). In 2L I could find peace and quiet… and now?
February 27th, 2007 at 7:26 PM
The voice ‘improvement’ avoids one obvious issue… In what human language are all the voices to use? English? Chinese? Spanish? Portuguese? It’s bad enough bridging the language barriers when we are IMing (where one has time to think, compose, and apply rules of grammar and remember foreign words over a span of time)… But speaking demands faster recall and faster integration of language elements in real time… tough in one’s own language… sometimes almost impossible in another language… Good luck, but I have my doubts….
February 27th, 2007 at 7:29 PM
[...] an initial set of avatar animations, which change and trigger according to the intensity of speech. (more…) [...]
February 27th, 2007 at 7:30 PM
[...] Linden Lab have announced a road map for integration of voice capability into SL. Limited beta-testing is on the horizon. [...]
February 27th, 2007 at 7:30 PM
Mmm…now this is somethings sound cool enoung!
February 27th, 2007 at 7:32 PM
I can see that there are powerful reasons driving LL to add this capability, and I agree that integrating live sound will be wonderful for those using SL as a business platform and in producing live entertainment.
As a regular resident, however, I have no interest in using voice to communicate. The fact that I can turn it off or just not use it is not a feature–it is simply a tool for making sure that something I don’t want isn’t imposed on me. I’m concerned, however, that noise will be imposed on me.
Will I be able to turn off other people’s voices? Will there be any way for an avatar to indicate that they cannot hear?
What provision are you making for deaf or hard of hearing residents?
February 27th, 2007 at 7:34 PM
This sounds great, or will soon! I’m sure there will be options to turn it off like other sounds already. -IF- it has no impact on scalability this is of course way cool the way it’s being implemented.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:35 PM
I have to agree.. my mother language is german.. my written english is understandable (most of the time) but far from beeing perfect. My spoken english may be understood… but i’m sure it will sound horrible! maybe this would help me improve my spoken english, but the first time (weeks, months) it will be very hard…
And it will clearly increase the voice barrier. When i think of all the new german residents, having problems understanding the simpliest readme files….
February 27th, 2007 at 7:35 PM
You must be crazy. Day in and day out there are problems with lag, network outages, slow performance. And now you want to add to the load? You have shown repeatedly that you can’t build a system that scales, that you and your “colo” don’t know how to troubleshoot network problems and don’t know how design a system that can support more than 20,000 people online at once even though you claim millions of residents. I have already considered cancelling my subscription because I think it is a waste of my money to pay for an unusable system. If my cable or phone was out as many days of the month as SL is, I would be demanding a refund.
So adding voice would be “cool” technology-wise. Well go ahead and play. Maybe you and your “beta grid buddies” think it really hot. But I already thought SL had reached its peak and had outgrown its abilities - now I know it for sure.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:37 PM
I my experience from various MMORPGs, using voice chat ends up alienating those who choose not to use it. People using voice often don’t want to be bothered to have to switch back to text for someone who isn’t using voice, so the one not using voice gets ostracized and often isn’t allowed to participate in group activities. Not only is this problematic for people who don’t want to or can’t use voice (for example, because they live in a noisy area, or aren’t able to use headphones because they need to be able to hear what’s going on in their home), it’s even more problematic for people who are hearing-impaired. Rather than facilitating communication, my experience has been that voice capabilities tend to divide users and make it harder for those who make different choices (for whatever reasons) to talk to each other.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:41 PM
[...] Linden has a post on the official Linden blog: Bringing Voice to Second Life « For me, Second Life has always been more about human communication, collaboration, and spirit than [...]
February 27th, 2007 at 7:55 PM
In my opinion, although voice is optional, it’ll wind up creating rifts in SL. For those who play SL as a true fantasy world, it’ll be difficult. Their characters may be a different age, gender, or ethnicity from who they are in real life, and will have to opt out of voice to preserve their second identity. People will question who they are because they choose not to use the voice features. There will be a whole “I won’t believe you are who you are unless you talk to me” mentality going on, which will have the inevitable effect of creating rifts between people in SL. Those who will talk, and those who won’t.
CCC
February 27th, 2007 at 7:57 PM
So like…can we talk about this? Oh…oh wait..I see, hahah funny!
*sigh*
I agree also, anonymity aside, I just hope that those people whose english is not so wonderful won’t feel intimdated by this. Then again, other worlds have enabled voice..it was a mad rush at the start, and then levelled off after a while, with IM still overwhelming chosen form of communication.
February 27th, 2007 at 7:58 PM
Oh NO!!! Change!!!! It’s PANIC TIME!
February 27th, 2007 at 8:03 PM
Can a resident turn on/off the voice chat through their prefaces if they venture on to a voice enable area? I can only imagine how a griefer would use this to annoy others or how disorienting it can become inside an event or club area if we could not turn off the voice chat.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:04 PM
I understand why LL wants to do this. It’s cool, it will bring people. But for me, this is a catastrophe.
At the moment, I am on par with everyone else. Noone treats me differently, I am not a second class citizen. With the introduction of voice communications, though, I suddenly become a member of a set of people that is not part of the speaking community. This is exactly one of the things I come to Second Life to escape - the feeling of “otherness” or pity that I get in real life, because I’m deaf, you see.
For me, this does not increase communications, it will decrease it by ostracizing me from “those who use voice”. I admit, though, that this was bound to happen some time, but for me, I see the beginning of the end - of becomming marginalized. I hope that my vision is incorrect, but I fear the future now…
February 27th, 2007 at 8:06 PM
You people seriously havent been conducting your cyber sessions using Skype? Get a clue, if they charge too much you can go back to your prevoius VOIP provider.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:09 PM
This is a fucking bad idea. (pls define abusive.)
Text is simply a different modality. If you want a videocam then implement a videocam, and leave us alone.
Where’s the poetry of asking one to rub softly in a squeeky semblance of that other non-reality?
Pure stupidity. — Sphere.
—
Anicca. Anatta. Dukkha.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:15 PM
Great news. I can’t wait. I’d even pay extra for it.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:17 PM
I will probably NEVER use this feature, but I guess for those of you who will, enjoy….?
February 27th, 2007 at 8:18 PM
Yay, good job Linedn Lab. All you nay sayers, don’t be Luddites.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:19 PM
I think that voice will detract from SL. What about people who can’t her to well? Will they become second class citizens? And last but least what about the lag? We don’t need more of that. Also it will be a problem for people whose English is not good.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:19 PM
This new feature sounds interesting and a big step towards virtual reality in the sense of full immersion.
But my biggest question is this. Is the voice part only for main chat as in everyone can hear it or will there be a way to select who hears your voice like if you chat in Instant Messaging?.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:22 PM
Much like my infamously pointless “post-it cam” where I would point a webcam at a postit note on my wall which stated if I was at school or asleep or what.. I suspect that this feature will be mostly used for me as a portible feed of whatever is playing on my winamp at the moment. Then I can annoy everyone with my personal brand of “music”… like some teeny bopper with their headphone jacked up to the sky.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:23 PM
Vanessa Sakai Says:
February 27th, 2007 at 8:19 PM PST
I think that graphics will detract from SL. What about people who can’t see to well?
God, you people are really hilarious. I’m so glad I’m reading this instead of watching reruns of Def Comedy Jam.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:24 PM
BTW, will the next person who brings up “lag” please actually read the post above about why this won’t be laggy?
kthxbye.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:30 PM
God, clubs are going to get HELL of annoying. Same with sandboxes, and infohubs.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:30 PM
Yeah, I agree, LL needs to roll this out slowly and see how it impacts the world and its culture. Charge a lot of money for it, why not? You get the revenue plus, give people what they want, and you don’t screw up the world.
You can always lower the price moving forward.
What’s the rush?
February 27th, 2007 at 8:32 PM
Well, charge a lot of money for it, but give deep discounts to the educational folks. Obviously it will only improve the culture there.
But, seriously, don’t just dump this on SL with a free / low cost version.
That really helps no one.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:37 PM
As far as lag goes they always say that it won’t be bad, but we know how that goes. I wonder if in a club or other large gathering with a lot of people trying to talk at once.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:40 PM
It’s interesting how proximity-based seems to mimic hard-wired phones. In RL, we live in a world where wireless communication allows us the ability to move about. That’s one of the frustrating things about those Vivox phonebooths. We *have to* be there, and no other place. Group IMs and IMs in general, do afford us the luxury of moving around.
It won’t be surprising to see Skype, TeamSpeak, or Vent continue to be used, because they exist regardless of where we may be.
The same exists with music streaming… the community over time, had decided to share URLs for people who couldn’t get to an event, or had someplace else to be– even though the SL client and the music streaming parts are separate, music is tied to a parcel. From my understanding, this has been done for purposes of immersion, and vetoed before (even before my time).
The thing I’d encourage everyone to watch is the emergent uses of the voice aspects of SL. It might be used for things far more creative than simple communication, since it is limited in its design.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:45 PM
Vanessa Sakai Says:
February 27th, 2007 at 8:37 PM PST
As far as lag goes they always say that it won’t be bad, but we know how that goes. I wonder if in a club or other large gathering with a lot of people trying to talk at once.
Do you understand how it works? Tell me. Explain it to me.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:46 PM
This “sounds” like fun. I look forward to it and hearing everyone’s charming voices.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:46 PM
I LOVE the idea!! Some of us suffer from Carpal Tunnel or RSI and typing is sometimes painful. It would be nice if I can just plain ol’ SAY what I mean & not type it while grimacing from the pains.
Some folks seem to cry “What about the Deaf User?” Hmmmm… how did they do it before?? OH! Thats right!! TYPE!!!!
Along the same lines: “What about the user with impaired limbs, whether from a disability or injury?” No one ever thought to ask them how they liked typing, so why should being deaf make a difference? All you gotta do is type “Sorry, I am deaf in RL, could you please type?” Not that hard to do!
What if you speak very little english? No biggie!! TYPE!!…. even though I love to hear spoken foreign languages. Can’t speak any of ‘em but English, but its still NEAT!!
February 27th, 2007 at 8:52 PM
Here is a suggestion. GET SECOND LIFE STABLE FIRST. Thought you said you were focusing on stability and scalability?
February 27th, 2007 at 8:58 PM
Well, while I see the advantage for a lot of people, and know that it has been in the plans, I have to say I’ve been dreading the day.
I was playing There.com when they introduced voice. It split the community in two. Those with voice and those without (for whatever reason, including capability, choice, etc.).
Events became default voice only, and trying to participate without voice was futile. People without voice became as 2nd class citizens.
I own a market; in order to stay competitive I’ll have to enable voice even if I dont want to or am unable to use it myself? Not much of a choice, is it?
Frankly, one of the major problems I had with voice There and expect here is that I can multi-task about 3 conversations in chat. But with voice, I can only do one. So this communication /improvement/ is really a degradation in some ways.
Well, I dont expect my opinion to sway anyone. Nor, for any significant number to even agree with me. But I wanted to say what a sad day this announcement is for at least /part/ of the community.
February 27th, 2007 at 8:58 PM
The question I have is, which would add a whole new level to clubs, is will you be able to play music while you talk? I can see people using this for karaoke bars and stuff, heh.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:02 PM
@31 … I gotta say that based on experience, saying “Im deaf, please type” never worked. The expected courtesy just never happened. In fact, Im not sure that those using voice chat even /saw/ the text of someone trying to participate in the conversation.
Not to discount the point made about RSI, etc. but it is just not as clear-cut as anyone would like it.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:03 PM
Well what about the live music events? I would imagine voice or audio would have to be enabled to hear the musicians sing or play. So we got 20 or 30 chatty avis out in the dance area wooting and yehawwing………how are we supposed to hear the music? Turn it down? Turn it off?
Not a particularly great feature as far as I’m concerned. It all may be a great feature for the educational, charitable and business organizations but I really don’t think it’s feature a lot of residents are clammering for. The escort business will thrive though. But, I’ll give it to LL…….it is another selling point to get there corporate friends to come.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:28 PM
I was honestly excited when I read this news on another website I check before ever logging into SL each day, so this is getting some attention. I never for once thought about the issues of people wanting to protect their “image” but since this is a world where people can be whoever they wish I can see the problem.
I sort of thought about it in a stance of another world we may know about with voice… Of course there you can just be a human male or human female with mostly the same look, but people still talked if they wanted, or didnt if they chose not to. I actually figured this would be the same.
No one has SAID people are forced to talk with your REAL voice if you do not wish. Why will it be an issue if someone judges you for being non voice enabled? If you worried about people who may have a “problem” with your in world persona, would you have made a furry/child/sexual difference choice?
I look at it as a choice, but a wonderful addition that many can and will benefit from. On a business point of view, this will do great also for the fortune 500 companies who may be eyeing second life for a place to have meetings with their offsite staff for a very very reasonable price.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:34 PM
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February 27th, 2007 at 9:40 PM
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February 27th, 2007 at 9:41 PM
YAWN…. all this wasted time testing and implementing something, where that time could be spent on bigger and better things… like maybe grid stability, or grid growth.
You guys are seriously on the WRONG TRACK all over again.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:42 PM
A few issues come to mind for me, and I don’t really like them.
Foremost that this could be a huge division, people who do not wish to or simply can’t talk (I know many profoundly deaf and intellectually handicapped people in SL) will be shunned by others who only want to talk.
Then there is that hearing a person’s voice can in some cases shatter the illusion of their avatar, so while some areas will be safe (the landowner opts out) what about those areas where they haven’t?
Will friends and SL Family you have now become offended when you don’t grant them voice rights? Will it be expected?
People who play the other sex, another species or a different age are another thing to consider. Placing the ability for people to only want voice as their method of communication “at risk” of finding out their wife is a man.
Also very US centric, what about non-english speakers who rely on translators or who speak english slowly, will they be locked out if they transport into a sim where the discussion is at voice speeds?
Lastly what if some people in the conversation choose voice and others text. The speeds both run at are vastly different. While in text/text discussion you both type at roughly the same speed, when one party is talking and the other typing will impatience be lost?
While a great idea for the Normal-Adult-USA-Human population the rest loose the equality that currently exists. If people want voice then they can use skype like they do now but to plug it into the game itself is a huge mistake IMO.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:42 PM
I have to agree with #32…JUST GET THE WHOLE THING STABLE before you go off adding additional “revolutionary” gadgets. The frequent crashing I experience at my end breaks the fantasy of SL enough as it is. I shouldn’t have to relog repeatedly just to maintain an interchange with another person.
This is supposed to be a big new technology–how about attending to getting it to work properly with the current features. Current performance and reliability ought to be embarassing for such a purportedly major operation.
If I want voice services I can get them elsewhere. We also do not need to create the “audio divide” which will inevitably develop.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:49 PM
I’m really sad to see this. I thought it destroyed the community in there.com and I suspect it will do even more damage here.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:53 PM
First of all 10/10 to Lindens for doing everything they can to give Sl’ers what they want, and also for putting up with the usual negative moaners who slag everything off.
I already use skype to talk with a few friends and my club is teamspeak enabled, though most choose not to use it. When on voice, it is very difficult to include those people who are not voice enabled, and voice does take preference over text unfortunately when you are talking to someone. It is very difficult to carry on a conversation in voice and type to someone at the same time. Yes, it will destroy the fantasy of Second Life, but it is already being used in SL, so it needs to be an integrated part of the main client.
A massive change in attitude needs to take place within SL Citizen’s minds, that voice should be optional and not compulsory. If that fantastic looking girl you are currently chatting up “displays” a “not voice enabled” tag, it does not necessarily mean she is a he. It may be that she doesn’t sound as sexy as she looks and doesn’t want to spoil the illusion and fantasy world she has created. She may have a speech impediment that she wants to lose, she may talk with an Essex or Birminham accent
Remember that great Cinzano advert (UK) of Lorraine Chase looking stunningly beautiful, standing on a sunset balcony, sipping her drink and being asked by the James Bond type male, “were you truly wafted here from paradise”. She replied in a very strong Essex accent, ” Naaah, Looo’un Aairport”. If you haven’t heard it, this probably doesn’t make sense.
Fantasy destroyed, not so beautiful girl.
I won’t be using voice for most of my SL experience through choice, not because I have anything to hide. But it should be provided.
Slightly off topic, but still to do with communication, Lindens, PLEASE help get BABBLER back up and running by providing a translation software server. Babbler used Google translate or similar but is blocked by their spam protection as it see’s the numerous hits as spam. This was the most valuable tool in Second Life and helped integrate people of all languages. True SL citizenship. Please contact Max Case who has been trying to talk to you about it or check out http://www.maxcase.info
SUPPORT BABBLER
Well done Lindens.
February 27th, 2007 at 9:54 PM
As long as it does not add more lag, or cause sims to crash more often. I think LL should concentrate on using their resources to make the grid more stable, rather than trying to add more capabilities. What good is a virtual world full of capabilities if everyone has left because they cannot stand the lag and crashes?
February 27th, 2007 at 9:59 PM
will the voice be integrated into the client or be a seperate client as was offered earlier.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:08 PM
I wouldn’t fret too much. I expect it will be tried at first for novelty’s sake and then people will realize why no MMO (except There) has integrated voice.
I expect it will work as well as Quicktime in SL does, that is, not well at all.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:09 PM
In real life, my secretary is less than 15 feet away from me, and more often than not. We communicate more by messenger than voice. Part of my staff is in Shanghai (I’m in Japan). Weekly we have a conference call because there are issues that it is critical to hear the others voices, and immediate feedback of vocal communication is necessary.
Also, Japanese and Chinese is a bitch to type on a western keyboard! Try writing English using Japanese characters. For these languages voice will make communication so, so much easier in SL.
This is going to be a huge development for content in-world…….good going guys!
February 27th, 2007 at 10:10 PM
*sighs* I do not think this is the best idea for reasons that have been pionted out..
the Hard of hearing , the ones that play other then what they are in RL ,
add this one to the list. i sound like Fran Drecher had she grown up in a lousisana bayou. not the most appealing voice to say the least .
I am quite sure that is not what people wish to hear
February 27th, 2007 at 10:16 PM
I have a feeling that the voice feature will not be commonly used… only in special circumstances. I will bet that the majority of the population on SL is not interested in voice communications, for obvious reasons. I wouldn’t worry about becoming a second class citizen since I’m not interested in using voice… as I bet the people using voice will be the odd ones out. It’s just a gimmick that will be interesting to people at first, then will fade away.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:17 PM
If I choose to go to a voice -enabled area, such as a club, will a huge babble of voices come at me if I am voice-disabled? Would the noise overide the music or other in-game sound effects. Would the “mute” option work as it does now?
I think it’s an unnecessary addition to the game, people who want to can already use outside VoIPs.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:19 PM
To add to the “Some people won’t do voice because…” debate:
I doubt my hardware will be ABLE to do voice AND SecondLife - my CPU is already at 100% anytime I’m running SL. Adding voice capability at my end will bring it to it’s knees.
And… another thought… some of us have been text chatting for years, and quite simply think BETTER and respond BETTER when viewing text in chat than listening to voice.
It’s too easy to miss something vocal in a crowd of people, or if you’re distracted by kids/pets/significant others at just the wrong moment.
Anyone who treats non-voice-enabled as second class should probably rethink why they’re here in the first place. If they place voice chat on that high a priority, there’s plenty of telephone conference lines to call.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:21 PM
I was also on There when voice was introduced. And yes, it will totoally schizm the populace. Although people with voice can listento people without (seeing their chat) people wouthout voice will not be able to communicate with groups using voice.
I sometimes wonder if Lindens ever play or played any other MMORPGs and have first hand seen what this sort of thing does to a game.
I also see this as yet another “enevitable” but world damaging tech feature.
I REALLY hate to have to live through this again, rechoosing all your friends and groups and being locked out becuase I HATE yaking to my computer
February 27th, 2007 at 10:22 PM
Otenth poses a good point, what about those people who cannot hear? Actual deaf/mute people who play on SL. Is there a way to disable incoming and outgoing voice communication for those people so they don’t receive an unnecessary bandwidth and processing hit for content they can’t experience?
February 27th, 2007 at 10:22 PM
Well, now escorts will be able to answer that age old question…
“How do I know youre not a dude?”
February 27th, 2007 at 10:23 PM
There.Com has had voice for some time. Those who chose not to participate rapidly become second-class participants in any conversation. Those of us who prefer not to speak because our RL identity does not match our avie (NOT just those with different gender, in RL I am much older than my avie, my voice is harsh and accented, it would be a jarring intrusion into the SL fantasy world if I were to speak) will become disabled and left out of any interaction where two or more participants have voice. This is a Bad Thing, and although I will stick with SL through its technical growing pains, I can see it become the reason I leave SL
February 27th, 2007 at 10:29 PM
Where voice will be used in SL:
1. educational classes, virtual corporate meetings, presentations, etc..
2. to verify that that escort is really the sex they claim to be
Everybody else will have “Enable voices” turned off in their config. People using the voices in public will be labelled “griefers”.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:32 PM
voice chat killed there.com
voice chat is not nessecary to SL. those who want voice chat can use skype/teamspeak.
this is a waste of time and resources.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:33 PM
Good thing you read the FAQ, right?
It answers the question about lag and says pretty much no impact on the grid’s performance since it’ll be handled by servers off the grid.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:35 PM
Wow I really shouldn’t leave blog posts open in the browser all day, and then comment on them when I’m about to go to sleep without refreshing the window first -,-
February 27th, 2007 at 11:02 PM
Ha! No offence LL, but SL cant even handle normal chat when the amount of users you allow on, log in- let alone Voice! Stop jumping the gun! Fix transactions, TP’s, sim line crossings, typed chat delays, IM caps, Live help Lindens not knowing First Look isnt the beta grid, Rez fails etc.. To be honest, you’re just not ready! Most of the staff* are very gifted and know exactly how to implement the stuff you want added but can you honstly say the you have the equipment needed?
* Look in a previos blog, where I C@P’d a convo I had with a Linden, she didnt even know First Look was on the main grid and said the reason my invo wouldnt load is because a screenshot of my invo was used and was roughly a month behind..
Please dont censor this, LL. The convo was in a previous blog entry..
Try taking a step back, forget the online “ghost” users, and fix before you add
February 27th, 2007 at 11:03 PM
A few thoughts…
Not sure if the escort business will benefit or loose 95% of it’s workforce over this one
While Voice certainly has its uses, it isn’t about to replace text outright. SMS manges quite well despite voice being on that medium first! I see voice as complementing text, and text being very useful for less real-time-critical communication (like IM, email, letters, memos, etc.). I certainly won’t be taking random voice calls from people that are quite capable of sending me text in SL any more than I do in RL! Myt phone is for my convenience, not yours!
While SL isn’t going to provide voice-morphing capabilities, there is nothing stopping you adding a VOX (I think that is what they are called) to your own system, either a hardware or software one. Furries can even get away with a really cheap one that will make them sound like chipmunks :-). I actually think the user’s system is a better place for the VOX than built-in to SL anyway. Would you trust the SL Grid with your identity obstification?
And I am happy for any SLer to refuse to communicate with me in text - what better way of making sure I waste less of my time on people I really don’t have time for anyway
February 27th, 2007 at 11:05 PM
Eep, ignore the email hyper, dunno what happened there
February 27th, 2007 at 11:06 PM
Oh, and as far as LindenLabs resources goes, I got the impression the voice service is being supplied by outside sources that would not have anything to do with stabilising the grid or the client anyway.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:10 PM
Bad move. It’s hard enough trying to keep up with a conversation as it is in a busy area, but at least with chat log you can go back and see what you missed. If you’ve got 5 people using voice chat and 2 people typing… the conversation is going to make no sense.
I personally know several deaf people in SL. Quite how do you expect them to be able to use this?
Broccoli
February 27th, 2007 at 11:12 PM
A few things about sound I’m still curious about:
Does Second Life support EAX?
When I move my cam underwater, the sounds do seem to get muted a little,
but that could be software rendered, or DOES SL support EAX?
And: Is surround sound (5.1 for example) supported by SL?
February 27th, 2007 at 11:13 PM
Voice! Great, I can finally teach English classes where students can benefit from the correct pronunciation element as well! Please make sure the teleconferencing capabilities work well, too. I love to hear my students talk…Many thanks, Linden team, and keep up the good work
PS In my in-world experience, Skype was very noisy and unstable while Teamspeak was a total disaster…
February 27th, 2007 at 11:25 PM
OMG KARAOKE!!!
IN DA NAAAAAAAME OF LUUUUUUUVE…..
February 27th, 2007 at 11:25 PM
I think that will be great to get rid of those people misrepresenting themselves in SL.
i HATE fake people. i HATE people who represent themselves as something they are not but expect others to fall in love with them. an image of them and personality that does not represent them in any way at all.
I understand anonimity, and thet involves not telling people about things from RL to identify you. this is totally different from misrepresentation of YOU.
Be happy about YOU and what YOU are. if you need to fake YOU to get a friend. them maybe these people are not really you friend after all.
Roll on voice.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:30 PM
Cant you just fix all the other bugs first please?
February 27th, 2007 at 11:32 PM
I must say i welcome this new step, being in europ we have different languages, some of us speak but don’t write that well in other languages so for those ppl I welcome speach into SL, paying more for it? well everything gets more expensive everyday, also in RL so ….
SL should become a true second chance !!
February 27th, 2007 at 11:34 PM
I’m torn. It’s awesome… and it’s terrible all at once.
If I enable Voice on my store’s land… I will have to constantly worry about a new kind of griefer.. people that just walk around shouting obsentities. It will happen. I cant imagine any store/business having Voice-Enabled land unless they plan on having 24 hours security.
Shopping in SL is a lot of folk’s favorite thing. It’s chill. It’s relaxing. If it was as loud and annoying as a real mall, it would be, well, as loud and annoying as a real mall.
I like the private chatting idea regardless of land settings, that’s super cool. So, I’m not complaining, just saying I’m definately turning it off on my land.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:37 PM
God, clubs are going to get HELL of annoying. Same with sandboxes, and infohubs.
Hmm reminds me can we ban that stupid banana song from the whole of SL somehow…………
Hmm yes played other MMO’s where people use team speak etc, great for a team of close friends, buteven then you end up with people jumping up and down infront of you waving their arms typing “LISTEN TO ME! HEEEELLLLOOOOOW!” because you tend to ignore chat completely and hence others around you, if whole group doesn’t have it it is Chaos.
Well a lot of escorts may disappear I suppose or just not use voice. And so will the 45yo women playing 20yo babes too. Hmm my spoken german will be worse than my typing too. Eventually I guess some good scramplers or voice alteration will come out. I’m not good at RPing voices I’m afraid, but it would also mean RPG games could be played better too online perhaps.
And yes will be harder for deaf people and the slower disabled people out there with speech impediments.
I guess we can’t avoid it, I alsways hoped some games would split into voice & non voice servers to make it work ok.
I just hope they are very cautious to implement this, but it doesn’t sound so when they have comitted them selves to a release date.
February 27th, 2007 at 11:46 PM
This is certainly the wrong track. If I wanted voice I would be using voice. If I wanted a webcam I would have a webcam. Just how much is this unasked for feature going to mess up everything? What about when listening to the radio or in a noisey club? I need less lag, I need server stability. I don’t need no damn voice chat, been there, done it and I am not going to wear a headset all day. This is not no new cutting edge technology, this is old rehash vent or teamspeak that in my opinion is a POS.
February 28th, 2007 at 12:00 AM
I think that will be great to get rid of those people misrepresenting themselves in SL.
i HATE fake people. i HATE people who represent themselves as something they are not but expect others to fall in love with them. an image of them and personality that does not represent them in any way at all.
Be happy about YOU and what YOU are. if you need to fake YOU to get a friend. them maybe these people are not really you friend after all.
Maybe you HATE actors in movies too because SHOCK HORROR they are all FAKE, I hear the Orcs killed in WoW are not even real Orcs, And the people playing City Of Heroes can’t really fly either, but computer controlled pixels
People here are friends of my Avatar not my RL persona though some may be friends of my other Avatars here and on other games as well, chances are 90% of us from the opposite sides of the planet will never meet in RL. Some play their RL persona’s and that is good for them, I do that occasionally too, though the HATEMONGERS think my true physical look is ugly. I don’t HATE them for it or people choosing to be them selves, but I do HATE bigots like you.
And if I’m not happy enough about me to be me here that’s my business, this is Second Life, not First Life.
February 28th, 2007 at 12:07 AM
i’m really looking forward to this. i used to meet up with people in-world whose skype contacts i already have and so we used this. quite good.
February 28th, 2007 at 12:08 AM
Comment 45:
Second Life *always* maxes out the CPU on your computer, this has nothing to do with it being slow or anything. Voice encoding actually does not eat too much CPU power.
Comment 51:
Please read the blog post *in its entirety’ and understand it, before commenting on lag. The voice service will be provided by the network of an *external* company, not the main grid. The additional bandwidth needed on your end will be even lower than listening to the music stream on a parcel.
The voice chat of multiple people will be mixed and computed on a server at the VoIP company’s network, and only then it will be sent to the resident’s viewer, thus eating up always the same amount of bandwidth, regardless of the number of avatars talking.
I see uses for voice, I see disadvantages. Voice was available externally before, but now it will be a unified ssystem, no more “install skype, teamspeak, 25 other VoIP systems, work on linux, work on mac …”. I’m pretty sure, voice will be an option, not enabled by default, turned on or off by a click of the mouse. I also hope we get mute features for individual avatars while using voice. AND I hope that all island owners get to use voice chat for free, because even the old, grandfathered prices were quite high already, so there should be voice included
All in all this will add another level of communication to SL. Groups of people will use voice chat as primary method of communication while others will stick to text chat. We will see how it blends together in the end…
An excited, ant