Voice awareness for non-voice users

Please... No anti-voice rants here... (^_^)y I predict that voice will be the dominant way to chat once it hits the Linux client and only messed-up freaks (like me (^_^)7) will try to avoid it. Complaining will get us nowhere. (T_T)

For me: I don't use, and may never use, voice chat. I can't even bring myself to listen to it. It's a long story... (=_=) Please don't ask me to explain.

But, that said, is there a way I can be aware of who is using voice chat around me? That way I don't have to rudely interrupt my friends who are probably having a perfectly good conversation. (^_^) I really bummed some people out lately and I'm still kicking myself about it. (T_T)

It's a bit embarrassing to sit/stand somewhere for 20min only to ask "Why is it quiet in here?" to get the response "We're in voice."... (^_^d)

Someone told me that I should see a dot over their head, but I never see it. Is it invisible to non-voice users? (>_> I'm sure LL wants to encourage voice chat use, but wow! (>_<

Is there anything in the debug menus? Or a script I can run? Should I have posted this in Technical Issues?

It's really simple.

Just go to Edit > Preferances > Voice Chat

At the top is a little box to enable voice chat. I think all you have to do is check that. If there's more someone will come along and correct me.

It would be nice if there was a way to be aware of who's using voice without the network and system overhead that goes with turning voice entirely on even if you aren't going to use it.

That's true. Because doing this will now cause Imnotgoing to have the white dot over her head therefore voice users will assume she is using voice also.

Why would voice coming to Linux make it the dominant way to communicate? Are you suggesting that the Windows folks, the majority I would guess, have already embraced voice?

You are far from alone in not using voice. Other than a few private conversations with someone special, no not sex, I haven't used it. I haven't even been asked to use voice by anyone. I am sure there are some groups in SL that do use it on a regular basis, but I have yet to see them. Maybe it is just the crowds you hang out with?

Yeah... But that actually turns on voice chat. My hands went numb last time I considered it. (T_T)

I think that is exactly what the OP does not want to do.

I don't see why non-voice users cannot simply hear the voice if they want to. We hear the audio stream, we hear the crickets, we hear the birds, we hear the waferfalls... Why don't we hear the voice? Not using the microphone does not mean we are not using the speakers...

You're wrong though. Only a tiny number of people don't have voice access right at this moment, and yet it is still a minority activity. People use it when they wish to, and not as routine. The state of the Linux client is entirely inconsequential.

>>Everyone<< I know inworld tells me they use voice... Even other loli types... It adds to my antisocial freakishness in SL. (=_=)

I'm asking because I'm often finding myself interfering with their conversations more-and-more. I'd love to just be able to hang out without stepping on them. (^_^)

And... I wouldn't mind a dot... as long as I don't have to hear a live human voice or mislead someone into thinking I'm actually listening. (^_^)

You are being deceived by the people you know. I have never, ever, encountered a social situation inworld where voice was assumed.

Not trying to argue , but I think it is more the groups you are hanging with. But I may be wrong.

I haven't encountered it either. NEVER.

Okay. (^_^)y ... I'm just new to all this... Sorry if I was too pushy about that point... (=_=)

So there really isn't a "who's on voice" solution? (<_< ... (>_> ...

Oddly, that may have an effect out of all proportion to the number of Linux users, though. At some bug triage, somebody mentioned switching to using voice for the next meeting. I asked, as innocently as I could muster, "oh, the Linux client has voice now?" No further discussion. (Not surprising, given the audience there: it wouldn't be the best place to highlight the limitations of the Linux client.)

I understand the premise to be that something someday will tip the balance and quickly voice will "catch on." I'm not sure that's wrong. Butterfly wings, etc.

FWIW, I sometimes use a crippled Windows laptop that thinks it can do voice, even though the microphone doesn't work, so I walk around with a dot over my head, and see lots of other avatars with dots over their heads, too. And yeah, you can hear voice that way. But I only ever heard anybody actually using voice at a welcome area. (They weren't n00bs, just the typical welcome area hangers-about.)

Wait. Are you trying to double-negative me? I know your sort.

One of the the only places I ever encountered voice, was in a meditation class, of all places! The leader of the group, wanted to be able to give voice instructions, favored the use of it. I found it to be quite disruptive personally, especially considering the subject.

And, the other place, was the same group of people, who got together afterwards to gab about the class on their private beach. I really wanted to hang out with them, but it was so difficult to deal with all the noise, feedback (of which, I have to admit I was part of that problem), that I gave up.

That was months ago. Since then, there has not been one single place where I have been which uses it. And, I've been around. I've never seen any indication of it.

the reason you see so many dots is that the client prompts you to set up voice when you install it, people being people just click yes to get past the prompt. I have wandered around with it on just out of curosity and I avoid welcome areas like the plague, but I have yet to hear a single voice conversation, or been asked to start one.

Imnot...

All my friends use it too, all the bloody time.. in situations that used to be fun hanging out time... now SL is lonely and silent, and it leaves me also feeling isolated and intensely alien and alone, even surrounded by friends.

I can't give you a solution for this. Every time my friends talk about it, even the well meaning considerate ones make me feel like some kind of technophobe or something. I'm really not able to explain in words all the reasons why "even just listening" makes me want to cry... but it does.

like I said, I can't give you a solution.

BUt you're not alone in the lonliness.

(hugs)

i'v started to use it more and more increasingly, i don't like it. But it does come in handy when you want a meeting to be over quicker or when your building and someone needs to ask you something, can keep building and chat as well. i don't think it will take over in SL tho IMO. there are way to many annoying things about it. more than half of the AV's on my mute list are people who have annoyed me over voice (the rest are mostly over use of gestures)

-Crunch

To attempt to answer your question, the best way to see who is using voice is the way Bradley said. Edit - preferences - voice chat - on. However, you can go into the little speaker button in the lower right hand corner of the SL screen which makes a window appear with sliders for all of your SL sounds. One of these includes a voice volume level which can be turned all the way down so that you don't hear anyone speaking. The button next to the talk button (chat bubbles with green waves coming off) brings up a list of people who are currently in the voice session; the green ones are actively speaking. This may bring up some awkward moments, but I have prepared a little white lie for you. Tell people "voice has never worked right for me, and I don't know why; I can never hear people and have tried everything"....maybe it's an SL glitch... You can also say that you do not own a microphone or your dog/baby chewed through the cord of the old one. You could put that in your profile if you wish, lol. By the way, when an avatar's white dot emits green waves, that person is speaking.

Voice gestures can be made into a decent solution. We already have voice gestures that animate your avatar while you're speaking, but I haven't seen anyone really use sounds yet... If you're a wolf, you could have the sound of a wolf howling when you speak...

unfortunately, "white lies" don't work for voicing friends. They try to FIX your problem. if you tell them it's your system, they try to help you fix it, if you say your microphone is broken, they try to buy you one, if you say it's your sound card, they try and replace it.

and if you tell them the truth, that you aren't comfortable using voice, and when you can't speak, that listening to people ignore you typing hurts more than thinking they're just afk or quiet.. they tell you you're being stupid, irrational, etc, and some actually become really f***ing a**holes and actually refuse to type just to coddle your "irrational" issues.

Regardless of what SOME of you think.. others of us are seeing friendships fall apart because of Voice.

You are right, but I don't give a flying F if people don't like it. I don't use it, don't plan to, I don't have to justify why to anyone, and if they feel it's irrational, so be it. I'll find like minded friends, or explore alone. I use SL the way I want to.

I have only once come across a situation where voice was assumed (An SL5B meeting). Otherwise, it's text. I actually often forget voice is available inworld.

Mari

The only way to detect if others are using Voice, without doing so yourself, is to activate Voice on your system, and at the same time turn off the volume for Voice and make sure you don't have a valid sound input device set up. (Beware of laptops and newer flat screen monitors that incorporate a mike and/or webcam, whether you want that "feature" or not!) Then you'll see the dots over other people's heads, but you won't have to hear them, and they won't be able to hear you. You will, however, give a false positive to every Voice user that you meet, who will see the dot over your head and assume that you DO want to use Voice. So they will think you are rude and ignoring their 'scintillating' vocal conversation.

I asked the Voice Chat developers quite some time ago for a way for a non-voice user to determine if others were using Voice in their presence, *without* having to turn on Voice yourself and give that false positive. They ignored that request, even though quite a few others thought it was a good idea.