Suggestions of voice communication app for gaming???

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Badger_sly

[H]ard|Gawd
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Currently, myself and a friend both play Battlefield VN and we both live in the same town. To communicate while playing we use headsets that plug into our phones. Of course it's not long distance, so everything was good.

Now, we have another person who wants to play with us, and probably soon a 4th person. We have them set up with AllSeeingEye already. The problem is that the other two new people live about 50 miles away, which would be long distance over a phone.

So, we're trying to find a software to use to talk while gaming. The thing is though, we only want it to be us 3 or 4 guys talking to each other, not on some public channel where we have to listen to immature 8-10 year olds scream and sing and swear all the time.

I haven't set anything like this up yet to date, so a short description of how any of your suggestions works would be greatly appreciated. A cheap or free means of doing this would be great, but we'd all probably drop $5/month each or something for a process that works good.

Well, I'm open to suggestions / ideas / hints how to use.
 
Hi,

I've used a few different ones playing RavenShield, BF, UT, etc. I've heard good things about ventrillo, but I've never used it before. We use a proggie called Teamspeak. Its completely free, pretty easy to set up, and has quite a few server side options That will let you configure codec's and whatnot to optimize bandwidth. The client and the server are seperate downloads, but are very easy to use.

I used to use MS Gamevoice, but found the performance of teamspeak to be much better. Its still not "official", as you have to download a "release candidate" (kind of like a beta if you arent familiar with the term), but it works flawlessly as far as I have been able to tell, and I've used it on two different servers, for different games.

It even allows you to use ingame voice software as well. I.E. UT2k4...i can be logged into my TS server, but still talk ingame with the push to talk function. Any questions, post away!
 
Alright, thanks for the ideas so far.

First question for any of you:

I know you have to install the client application on each gaming computer of a person using it, but did you install TeamSpeak or Ventrilo's server application on your main gaming computer or on a secondary computer in your home network, or what?

Would it work on a person's main gaming machine, with the client app, if only 3 others are using it, while gaming?
 
I'm sorry, but if you consider yourself a gamer.. your only choice is Ventrillo. The options are endless and its flawless with every game I've ever used it over.
 
Alright, I'll look into Ventrilo. How about my other questions though?

Originally posted by Badger_sly
................... did you install .........Ventrilo's server application on your main gaming computer or on a secondary computer in your home network, or what?

Would it work on a person's main gaming machine, with the client app, if only 3 others are using it, while gaming?
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by theNoid
I'm sorry, but if you consider yourself a gamer.. your only choice is Ventrillo. The options are endless and its flawless with every game I've ever used it over.
Click to expand...
Teamspeak > ventrillo
 
Originally posted by theNoid
I'm sorry, but if you consider yourself a gamer.. your only choice is Ventrillo. The options are endless and its flawless with every game I've ever used it over.
Click to expand...

actually, if you play cs you probably use ventrilo. most other gamers (bf1942, etc.) use teamspeak.
 
Vent all the way here. I love it, and found it easier to use than anything else.

We use for our SWG in game. :)
 
teamspeak is gay. it syncs games so gamers cant talk to alive gamers when they are dead. ventirilo is the best by FAR.
 
Originally posted by accidentalsuccess
(who used bcomm? "help i've got the flag and I'm stuck in a tin cup". . .but nothing else existed)
Click to expand...

HAHA!!! Ahhhhh, the good ol' tribes days and Battle Comm ... man, BC sucked, hehe.
 
Originally posted by zoltan
teamspeak is gay. it syncs games so gamers cant talk to alive gamers when they are dead. ventirilo is the best by FAR.
Click to expand...

No, what you are using is a TS server built into whichever game server you're playing on. A separate TS server wouldn't have those restrictions.
 
OK, I got which apps, TeamSpeak and Ventrilo, and I'll give each a try.

I didn't mean for this to be a poll or turn into a pissing contest of which is better. I just wanted some suggestions to try, which I got so far, thanks......

...... but now I need to know the answers to my followup questions, if anyone happens to know the answers:

Originally posted by Badger_sly

I know you have to install the client application on each gaming computer of a person using it, but did you install TeamSpeak or Ventrilo's server application on your main gaming computer or on a secondary computer in your home network, or what?

Would it work on a person's main gaming machine, with the client app, if only 3 others are using it, while gaming?
Click to expand...

^^ (that is the info I need now, thanks)
 
The server application itself shouldn't tkae up much processor use, but no matter where you're running it on your network it's going to cut into your upload bandwidth. If you're on a 128kb up cable or DSL that could really hurt your gaming.
 
Originally posted by Talon Blackrazor
The server application itself shouldn't tkae up much processor use, but no matter where you're running it on your network it's going to cut into your upload bandwidth. If you're on a 128kb up cable or DSL that could really hurt your gaming.
Click to expand...

Thanks for an answer Talon Blackrazor.

I have a 2.0 Ghz P4 with a 1 Gig or memory as my current gaming machine, and line speeds of 2 MB down / 512 up.

So would that be sufficient to game on with TeamSpeak or Ventrilo running in the background allowing 3-4 individuals to talk?

I have a second machine which could be used to run TeamSpeak or Ventrilo seperately from my gaming machine, but I also have a junk Linksys router which randomly drops it's connection from the cable modem (no help for it as I've tried every possible fix over the past 6 months). In order to run a voice communication application on my second machine, I'll have to get a different router first, and for the time being this is why I'm hoping to run the application on my main gaming machine.
 
hehehe, i had a feeling this was going to become a TS vs Vent thread...no fault of the original poster of course, but I've seen this debated on quite a few forums.

As for running the server and the client on the same machine, I dont think you will see too much of a performance impact, esp with only 3 or 4 people. You have a decent upload, and that is the most important thing while serving. Your best bet is going to be to just load it up and give it a shot, as TS is pretty easy to get up and running. And it also has some codec options so you can trade quality for bandwidth and vice versa. (I'm partial to TS, as I said earlier)

I dont know what that guy was talking about with not being able to talk to dead players and stuff, that must be some kind of ingame setting or something. I know, I've been stuck on death cam in RS often enough, and have been able to talk with those still playing or those others who are also dead...i dunno...

Good luck, and have fun, voice comms make games better!!
 
TS or vent. is kinda a flip of the coin. I have setup servers in both apps. They are both good, work in any game I have tried, use little bandwidth and have quality settings to lower it even more. TS has a slightly better UI, and is probably a hair easier to use than vent. But again, both are great programs.
 
teamspeak and ventrillo both work great. use both at the same time
 
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