Voice Beta Live!

why does everyone keep saying voice chat is gonna add lag? it's not running on the sims far as i can tell, as whenever a sim on beta goes down, voice keeps running seperately. i don't think there's much going on simwise that's gonna affect...anything.

if you don't want voice chat - don't go to regions where there is voice chatting!

LL has done a great job of making this a feature that, like Second Life itself is USER driven. Set your regions to not allow voice chat and type away.

I'm developing training in world for my employer and for my particular use, voice chat is going to be very valuable. But I will still enjoy danceclub music and watching the text chat because I'd never be able to understand 30 avs there anyway.
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ll

i totaly agree with you there, just stay type, its not like anyone is going to ignore you, just state you have sed issues and people would kindly type to you regradless, or simply stay to the text only areas, which wont dwindle to begin with. pleanty of areas will be text only, and pleanty of people will type.. its not going to effect much, it simply gives people more freedom to chose how they wish to comunnicate.

Just mentioning the beta grid is back up but the voice client hasn't been updated to a newer version number and can't log in. You get a message that you need an update but the update isnt what you need.

I'm an addict and I need a fix.

i second that, please fix it cause i need my fix as well

Third'd.
C'mon, guys.

Will there be a way to block public voice chat but allow group and private IM?

Definitely FIX the Voice Chat Beta so we can have our fix!!!

I swear I spent about 6 hrs just standing around talking to people. 'Twas Great Fun!!

And YES- Not all of them had the ability to talk. Yet they were still included in conversations.

BTW- some of you ladies have really really cute accents!

So simplistic.

Unfortunately, as currently implemented, the only way to know for sure if an area you are in is enabled for Voice Chat is for you to be enabled yourself. Then you can see the indicators. If you're not fully voice enabled, you can see no parcel indicator or user indicators. All you can see is that the presumed voice users are standing around like zombies and apparently doing virtually nothing, and that many of them are ignoring your presence or your typed comments.

The stated default land condition will be that ALL land will start out voice-enabled, and that it will take an intentional act by each and every parcel owner to disable it on their parcel. It needs to be the other way around. If you want and are willing to pay for voice on your land, you should have to enable it intentionally. I was happy to see that LL has already reversed their original stand on who would be forced to wear an indicator tag. Initially all non-voice users would be marked. Now, only voice-enabled users are marked. They need to reverse it on the parcel default as well.

As far as I can tell, private sim owners can't even choose to disable Voice on a sim-wide basis. They would have to go to each parcel and disable them one by one - assuming they have the group roles that allow them to do that. If someone owns a roleplay sim and wants to ban voice, they have no sim-level tool for enforcing that ban, other than reclaiming the land of anyone in their sim who violates such a ban.

Therefore, if you don't choose to use voice, the only way you can be sure to avoid going to regions where there is voice chatting is to lock yourself away on your own parcel of land where you have disabled it. Because anywhere else, you'll only know because of the rude behavior of others who assume everyone around them can hear them chattering audibly.

Really?

Thats odd. After going to several regions I noticed there is a small icon at the very top of the screen, same location as the "no push, no scripts, no build" icons.

Not sure if it applies or WILL apply to land parcels or whole sims yet. After all, this is Beta.

As far as people abusing Voice Chat, not sure about that. So far it does seem to add to the fact that there's a Human behind that Avatar and people were being a bit more polite.

Well, on my Mac I looked carefully, and could see no sign of any icons on the menu bar. And I did look where the no-push usually is.

I haven't checked the very latest beta version. Not a lot of point for me, since I still have absolutely no way to connect a microphone to my Mac Mini, short of spending a lot of money on a USB headset or a USB Audio adapter. I did borrow a USB Audio adapter, but I haven't managed to get it to work yet.

I tried using my old shortcut for the Voice Beta. I got the "There's a new version, do you want to download it?" message. I said yes. Instead of downloading a new version of the Voice Beta it downloaded the latest version of the non-Voice Aditi Beta.

I then checked the download page for the Voice Beta. That download link did produce a new verson of the the Voice Beta, version "Second Life 1.14.1 (109) Apr 2 2007 16:57:12".

Download this version at http://secondlife.com/community/bhear.php

The release notes do not seem to have been updated.

USB Headphones expensive??

Ok, could be. Just depends on brand, style, features, etc.

I can find 'em on Newegg for $20+

And from the sounds of it (no pun intended) it seems they need to update the graphics for the Mac side of users.

What I'd like to see for the Voice Chat stuff, is the lips moving when you talk. Doesnt have to be Phonetically correct, but it would be a nice lil' touch. Maybe some head movement too.

Well, spending 20 bucks or more for something I would have absolutely no use for except to test the Voice Beta is expensive, as it is a waste of money, from my perspective. Like buying a skimpy bathing suit that is so revealing I wouldn't be caught dead wearing it in public. Not much worth spending money on something I would never use.

So far, the most important thing in my opinion about the Voice Beta is that aside from the way it's going to change social interactions between myself and strangers who I will never hear, it's going to be invisible to me. And that is fine with me. As long as it doesn't spam my screen with visual indications and as long as I don't have to be aware of the feature when I choose to never use it, I'm happy. I won't even mind if they put a single small icon on my menu bar, that tells me that I am in a voice-enabled area - much as they do now for damage-enabled areas. If they do that, I'll know better what areas to avoid patronizing. Or at least where I should expect that standing zombies equal people who can't talk and walk at the same time, and who are unlikely to respond if I text chat to them.

Meanwhile, my alts and I can play in text with our roleplaying friends, and each of us continues to have a unique "voice", limited only to our imagination and descriptive prose writing capabilities.

Um, hate to tell ya this but.... even without Headphones & a Mic, you still hear people. Just cant talk to 'em. And oddly enough, those without a Mic are still included in the conversation.

Also, most seem eager to see how the voice client will handle a sim full of people. So far there seems to be NO lag at all, even with 10-20 people talking.

Another thing that needs to be added- the whole "Privacy" thing. Or something close to it. Since you hear from your camera's position, it would be possible to move a camera into someone's skybox while they're "gettin' it on" with someone and listen in.

Supposedly they'll include Voice IM's as a work around.

heh i wonder when there going to get the beta grid back up...

On my Mac Mini, with speakers installed, but no headphones plugged in, I could hear birds, footsteps, and wind, but could not hear voice chat from people standing 3 feet in front of me who were saying in typed chat that they were speaking. I had to ask the people around me if any of them were saying anything. I checked my client preferences, and it thought I had voice enabled. Checking or unchecking thyat didn't change a thing.

Maybe tonight I'll find time to try the new client. I have a business proposal I must work on first, however.

Hmmmm.... interesting. Might depend on whether you use a Mac or PC client?

Possibly, though I do think that one other Voice tester said they were using Mac OK. Could just be a hardware limitation on the Mac Mini, since it has no audio input circuits at all. That may throw the voice client off.

Last time I looked, the voice beta download site didn't have an installer available for any of the platforms. Guess they shut it off while they finish making a new release. When they release the next one, I'll see if I can get the external audio input adapter that I borrowed to be recognized by the voice client.

Wow, build 109 has some fun new (at least to me) voice stuff. Got to try out the voice gestures and see if mouth movements are included.

Many thanks to Theresno Hope for the tip to download anew.

Says it's for employees only. Anyone else experiencing this?

Can't get to login....is the grid down for beta? Has been for days....

<-------has given up

I was not able to log in either and decided to do a new download and found there was a new version - I was then able to log in - sad to say no one was there but me.

Check the download page for voice beta. It does not automatically give you a new version if you just use your voice beta desktop icon.

One plus side I've noticed on Voice Beta: You can actually HAVE a conversation without someone else's 10 lines of ASCII art Gestures scrolling "F**K You" into the chat area & messing things up.