Comments on: Voice Beta Live!

By: Corax Homewood

Corax Homewood — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:43:58 +0000

Just a quick note. I downloaded the latest test viewer and logged onto the test grid for the first time yesterday. I do have to say I was pleasantly surprised how well things were working. But another thing surprised me. I saw a group of people standing around saying nothing. When I talked to them, I was told I should enable voice chat, since that’s what they were all doing. Problem 1: Voice chat is (still) not available for the Linux viewer, which is what I have to use. Problem 2: Social interaction between voice-enabled and non-voice-enabled residents is awkward at best, and non-existant at worst. I finally just went off by myself to do some building experiments because you just can’t get involved in a voice-chatting group if you can only type.

Now I’m not one to stand in the way of progress, but I would like to suggest that enabling voice chat throughout SL could be a negative thing. When it comes to the main grid, as in the test grid, perhaps voice should be limited to certain areas only, in order to maintain equal footing between residents elsewhere. This way those of us who, for technical or other reasons, cannot participate in voice chatting, will not be left standing in silence with nobody to talk to.

By: RamessesIII Pharaoh

RamessesIII Pharaoh — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 11:40:45 +0000

A far better idea would be to use speach sythesis, using something like AT&T labs speach engine ( http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/ ), perhaps in combination with ( http://www.secondlife.sk ) users could choose their voice from a list, which would solve a few problems, obviously it would have to be served off the gird exteranlly, maybe some lag issues. But, You could still type if you wanted, whcih would put users fears of being excluded at rest.

It could also have speach recognition, so users could talk and have their voice ‘morphed’ and come out in their chosen voice (may take up client processor time).

This is how speach should work in SL, pehaps alongside real voice for those who need it. The technology and knowhow already exists to this, I think this will be feature in the future.

I want my cut of the proceeds when this happens!

By: Hunter Barrett

Hunter Barrett — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:12:46 +0000

I honestly havent had any troubles with this voice chatting system that has been developed. like many of the people that constantly say that SL doesnt need any voice enabled chatting I was making the same comments. I downloaded the client and just tried it out.
Now it has its ups and downs.
I myself had some crashing problems with the beta client however even with the client crashing I still wanted to get back on and continue the conversations. Not only did it make SL a little bit more interesting and liven things up but it also sort of rekindled my interest in the game I look forward to getting on the beta grid tonight just to hang out and laugh and joke with all of the people I have met and love hanging with.
I must admit the simple fact that yes there were annoyances like people playing music and yes my mute list did grow but I see these bad points being far out weighed by the good ones. I spoke with many people from around the world and even learned the pronounciations of a few names that I always said differently. As for the rping community yeah the avatar may not match the voice but when would anyone be able to match the beeps of a droid or the growls of a tiger? this is simply another way of communicating in a game in where communication is what it is all about. and as for the people against it in the deaf community I have no problems with your views and opinions regarding feeling singled out. as matter of fact everyone should be able to participate in this experience this will open up many different possibilities and for all types of people. I for one can live with voice being enabled. and with any feature that Linden Labs decides to add into SecondLife there are always going to be 2 sides to it. at least give it a try before you knock it.

By: melya

melya — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 12:26:08 +0000

“Voice Chat does *not* lag SL. It is *not* run on Linden Lab bandwidth. It does *not* slow down a machine which isn’t participating in voice chat.”

How does the voice chat server determine who hears what if it isn’t talking with the SL server? I suppose the voice server just magically knows that so-and-so is within 50M meters of talks-a-lot and sends the sound accordingly?

Is the SL grid in a position at the moment even to accept the smallest bit of added lag?

Regardless, isn’t it a little silly to rush out new, sexy features when the old ones don’t even work reliably? Exactly whom do the Lindens think they’re going to impress, here — all the people who don’t already play and whom the server can’t support?

I ask that last question because the people who do already play are probably too annoyed by that constant could-not-teleport sound and having their earrings appear on their rear ends to care much about the addition of voice chat.

This whole thing just doesn’t sound promising to me. It smacks of an auto mechanic’s telling me that he can’t fix my car, but that he can make it a convertible instead.

I don’t want a convertible. I want a working car.

“Fix Search so that any keyword can be used in all categories.”

A better Search function would be wonderful.

By: Tiberius Laval

Tiberius Laval — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 10:17:33 +0000

you’ve got to be kidding… sort everything else out first, SL is getting buggier by the second.

By: Freakin Ticked

Freakin Ticked — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 04:37:48 +0000

Well, typical LL decision. They announce they’re “thinking” about adding voice. People respond by the hundreds: we don’t want voice to muck up SL, the servers are already over-worked and we don’t need them further compounded with voice processing, griefers will use the voice system like they did on There and other boards, we don’t want voice we don’t want voice we don’t want voice.

LL decides to install voice. No wonder SL tech sucks.

By: live update » Comment on Voice Beta Live! by Sofia Westwick

live update » Comment on Voice Beta Live! by Sofia Westwick — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:48:24 +0000

[...] gucci4me wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis Is something we do not need. There are plenty of other options. Vent/TS/skype/ and all IM programs. I personally do not want the voice spam and griefing that come with Voice. Like in There.com that was so bad. … [...]

By: live update » Comment on Voice Beta Live! by Marcoh Larsen

live update » Comment on Voice Beta Live! by Marcoh Larsen — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:47:22 +0000

[...] Major Nelson wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIs there a Linux-client in the making? I would like to test as well, but we folks forgot Linux again! [...]

By: Second Life Voice Beta now live « Living in a Box

Second Life Voice Beta now live « Living in a Box — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:34:21 +0000

[...] Read more here: Official Linden Blog Posting [...]

By: Sofia Westwick

Sofia Westwick — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:27:09 +0000

This Is something we do not need. There are plenty of other options. Vent/TS/skype/ and all IM programs.

I personally do not want the voice spam and griefing that come with Voice. Like in There.com that was so bad. So many voice griefing with music sounds bad words name calling and immaturity.

I came to SL to get away form the immaturity of There.com now I am faced with this again. with the addition of voice. 500 M voice range, that is almost entire sim. there is no escape form it.

LL needs to fix the data base issues and other problems first before adding things like this that is not needed, when 36k + people are online its very hard do anything in SL. this needs to be fixed with how its growing or soon it will not be possible to do anything.

Voice should be last on the important list for LL

Voice will be the ruin of SL

to all of the ” voice junkies” use the other means for voice speaking we don’t need the spam in SL.

Let SL be the peaceful place it is right now with out the voice spam