voice chat

Hello
we are having a party with a speaker talking to several people. Are there any problems with the voice chat? How many people can communicate with the voice chat at the same time, same place?
Thanks, Leila

A) it can lag slower connections, but usually is ok
B) lots

If you want to have a conversation you can actually hear and participate in, try an outside voice chat client like Skype or Ventrilo, which are much less likely to crash SL then the half-assed voice system LL's has come up with.

Leila my theatre group addressed this issue with our Halloween production. Obviously using voice, we wanted the actors to be the only ones audible. We had 40+ avatars in the Sim, an although lag was a problem, the voice worked well, for the most part.

Before the show, our stage manager typed in chat instructions for the audience to mute their mics. They were given a notecard with the name of the actors they needed to turn up on the active speakers list. Then the announcement was made in voice again. I monitored the active speakers list and if I detected "green" next to an unfamiliar name, I IM'd that person and politely reminded him to mute his mic. Everyone was very understanding too. I had to eject only one person: an avatar who had apparently gone afk with an open mic and LOTS of background noise. And even she came back online after a while and sent an apology IM.

But the point is...if all you want is for your speaker to be heard...have all others mute their mics. Otherwise the sound will drive you mad.

Edit: one more thing...people can LISTEN to voice through their computer speakers, but it's very important that any person speaking use head or earphones and not the computer speakers. Otherwise the echo everybody else hears will be horrendous.

I have a friend who swears she is using a headset and doesn't have her speakers on. And yet everyone she is around echoes through her voice chat. It's really distracting especially when you're trying to talk and you begin talking over yourself. I'm stumped as to what to suggest to her to fix it.

Yeah That!

Have her look in Sounds and Audio Devices Properties for the Stereo Mix. It needs to be off. I have a Realtek Audio system so I cant recall what tab it is. But if the Line in /Mic in Stereo Mix is on it can cause some wicked awesome echoes.

I'm not technical.
I go to a couple of Church services in SL, both were using the music system for the speaking. This works well for me as a listener.
Now one of them uses Voice which I do not have so have had to miss out on that one.
My conclusion is the use of the music stream allows all to listen, and no problem with open mics.

Love, June

June,
Everyone has voice. Even you. You can enable it and chose not to activate your microphone and talk, but you can still listen to the conversations going on around you. Or you can keep it turned off.

For me the addition of voice to SL has enriched my experiences in SL far beyond what I would have expected. I've gotten to know my friends so much better and I have laughed until it hurt me, and shared that laughter with others. In typed chat you can be more careful with what is said, and you can backspace over something you were about to say, in voice its much more spontaneous and real.

The one problem I have with voice is when someone enters our group who does not have voice enabled. Suddenly I have to keep track of the spoken conversation and try not to forget the person sitting there in silence, and keep track of the written conversation also. Very difficult for me! LOL One track mind and all. So we always encourage these people to turn on their voice and at least listen if they don't want to talk. We have several friends who do this and fully participate in the conversations through chat. But I respect each persons right to chose how they want to play SL.

FaTeke

"So shines a good deed in a weary world."
Willy Wonka

I don't have voice. I use the Old School Nicholaz viewer. Admittedly, I do have the new Windlight First Look (now THAT is a lovely addition to SL), so when I am using that, I theoretically could use voice if I ran out to the store to pay money for a headset I don't want. A bit much to ask of someone you just met, don't you think? And no, I don't want to listen to voice, either.

If someone is running a church service, it is far more convenient for everyone if you use the music streaming function. If nothing else, it will keep yahoos from interrupting things with unsolicited voice chat.

I must be truly warped

I am less disturbed by actual web cam porn advertised in SL than actual Church Services performed in SL.

Collette, not trying to flame or any nonsense like that, but that strikes me as a bit bigoted, even realizing that you are being a bit tongue in cheek. I know some churches are fairly reactionary, but still, many others provide religious people with comfort and community. And why not use SL as a way to attend church whilst on the road, or perhaps in a town without a church of your own denomination?

I have some friends who attend the Second Life Unitarian church: http://fuucsl.org/ I think that is at least as valid an activity as webcam pornography.

I am not debating on whether its valid or not.

I am not against religious beliefs either.

I don't really like Church Services being on TV or the radio (religious talk shows or documentaries are fine)

I guess I figure church is one thing that should be done in person more than anything else.

Someone being too lazy to go to a RL strip club and instead looks at a naked cam streamed on the internet doesnt seem a big deal.

Being too lazy to actually go down to church and instead catching the webcast? Just seems disturbing to me.

Oh, my apologies. Misunderstood your point--there are some folks around here who do object to religion on general principle. Personally, I'm not a member of an organized religion, but believe there are different paths for different people. Some of those paths include organized church services.

I still think that a virtual service has a valid place for people on the road. After all, all the people at the service are real people. It's not just passive like listening to a radio sermon. Perhaps it's not as nice as a real service with cake and tea afterwards, but I imagine there is still a level of fellowship there.

Ah, perhaps you shouldn't assume that it's laziness that's keeping them from attending

It could be that they haven't found a church that isn't as open as they'd like it to be. Perhaps they have a disability preventing them from getting there. Perhaps they live 30 miles out in the country and the nearby churches don't fit in to their belief system.

There are any number of perfectly valid reasons why someone can't make it to a live church and I, for one, while initially startled to find them in SL, think that it's a very good idea. Because whatever it takes to get the Word out is just fine by me.

... I guess.

Something much less pious about being a cartoon in a cartoon church listening to a real church service to me.

Sorry I just used my experience of the use in a couple of the SL churches I had been to.
If anyone wishes to go to I suggest a Search is used, I was surprised how many to suit all choices.
The one I visit in SL is the ALM one. It is 11am SL time which is nicely 7pm. for me. Having been to a RL one in my morning this SL one is not a substitute for RL. It just part of my SL experience.

SL it seems must somewhere have every thing all of us do in RL.
We should not knock what others do in SL nor should we do that in RL provided it be legal.
Love
June

Hey, I'm not saying it should be banned or anything.

Just saying to me personally seems odd. I couldn't take SL seriously enough for it to "Feel" like paying reverence to the creator associated with my beliefs.