A 3rd party voice chat solution

[jason_ac]

Has voice chat ever been on the list of things to add? That would be so cool & useful when playing! Especially with a large team.

Or maybe people could use a 3rd party chat service...1 passworded room per team? Or if the teams are all single-players, then 1 room so everyone could talk smack.

[vinylrake]

external app voice chat is often used in (at least recent) tournaments. (MWC).

You can tell pretty easily who is using voice chat by looking at tournament films. If you see a team acting in coordinated way without any ingame chat it's a pretty good indicator the players are communicating by voice.

[William Wallet]

Either that or it's like the Bee Gees - they just have that chemistry.

[Jon God]

I've pushed for this for some time, it's just a lot of work, and no one with the experience has been motivated to work on that when there are other things to do.

[jason_ac]

I've pushed for this for some time, it's just a lot of work, and no one with the experience has been motivated to work on that when there are other things to do.

I've actually never used Skype, but maybe if we all did (or something like it), and everyone got in the habit...when a server goes up, maybe they can create 1 persistent chatroom where everyone can join for FFA games, and when there are team games, one of the players from each team can setup a chatroom just for their team.

Then for each game, you either join the FFA chatroom, or you go into your team's chatroom.

Or maybe cooler things are possible? Like be in your team's chatroom, but be able to hit a push-to-talk to say a few things in the FFA chatroom (smack talk the other team).

[vinylrake]

The issues I've heard raised in the past have been cost (good dependable voice chat hasn't always been free), lack of universal chat application (to include everyone it needs to run on Windows, Macs, and Linux. And not just the latest versions but versions going back many years) If the chat app isn't cross platform it's a problem), bandwidth issues (hosting a chat client takes a lot more bandwidth than hosting a Myth game), and basic hardware - not everyone has mics or headphones with mics - especially the dinosaurs still playing Myth on old desktop computers.

Not to say it can't be done, but people could just as easily use something like Google Hangouts (or G+ or whatever it's called these days). It is cross platform, free and from what I've heard would work fine for the number of people in a Myth game. Turn off the camera and you have voice chat.

[Omicron]

Why has no one mentioned Ventrilo? Spa has a server set up, and myth players can chat there. I think it has 6 rooms.

If someone can't think of a reason to not use it I can post the connection details.

[erileykc]

Ventrilo? How valuable is an alternative chat if it's not close to universal? A chat system that ran in parallel to the lobby would be a very valuable resource but it needs to be announced as a banner on the Tain and the Gate of storms site to gain the traction that will make it really useful. I think that something as simple as an IRC channel would be more than adequate but it needs to be widely publicized.

Why has no one mentioned Ventrilo? Spa has a server set up, and myth players can chat there. I think it has 6 rooms.

If someone can't think of a reason to not use it I can post the connection details.

[jason_ac]

While the idea of it being a solution for EVERYONE is a good goal, and we should get as close to it as we can, I don't think it should be that no one voice chats unless ALL can do it. Heck, on console gaming, not everyone has a headset...those that do, still voice chat.

We all keep trying to get new people into Myth (I'm working on something now)...they're going to like it more if when they come, there's a common voice chat solution.

[vinylrake]

There is no Ventrillo for Linux and the Mac client can't use most Ventrillo servers, but if you think standardizing on a practically windows-only solution is a good idea, then go ahead and make your case.

[jason_ac]

people could just as easily use something like Google Hangouts (or G+ or whatever it's called these days). It is cross platform, free and from what I've heard would work fine for the number of people in a Myth game.

Maybe Google HO would work. Though won't it require a browser that handles fairly modern web standards, and a computer that has the capacity to have that browser in the background? I wonder if a voice app would have a lighter footprint.

Or maybe we need to start looking through
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... P_software
To see what supports the oldest computers.

I started looking at Skype...the Windows client supports Windows XP, and you can still get the 2.8 Mac client from Skype & elsewhere, which goes back to OS X 10.4 on PPC. So that moves us back in time some. And there's a Linux client.

[vinylrake]

I am sure a voice client could require less overhead than a recent browser, it's just a matter of finding a free cross-platform one that will run on fairly old computers. I don't know if anyone is still playing Myth on PPC macs, or if anyone cares, but if that potential userbase is going to be supported the software would have to run on OS X 10.4 (2005) as that's the last version of OS X that runs on the old G3/G4 chips.

[Jon God]

I know Punk was pushing for Mumble for quite a while, as it was open source (IIRC?)

[Omicron]

There is no Ventrillo for Linux and the Mac client can't use most Ventrillo servers, but if you think standardizing on a practically windows-only solution is a good idea, then go ahead and make your case.

I wasn't commenting on anything other than the existence of Ventrilo, VR. You disappoint me, what with you always asking others why they comment on your posts outside the language you used.

[jason_ac]

just a matter of finding a free cross-platform one that will run on fairly old computers.

Well, Skype fulfills all that. Don't know if anything would be better.