Please explain "voice-enabled areas?"

Hi, from what I've read here it sounds like voice doesn't work everywhere on the grid, even if you're running the voice client. Is this true?

Are land owners able to enable voice on their land now, or is that capability only for Lindens now?

Is this a parcel-based option, or is it controlled at the region or estate level?

Also, I think I heard someone say that only Class 5 servers and later will support voice. Is this true? (As someone who rents land to people I'd like my tenants to have voice as an option.)

EDIT: One last question (sorry). Will enabling voice on your land impact your sim performance any, or is the audio data handled independently of sim bandwidth?

Yeah, I've wondered about this. I've enabled voice on my private island sim but it does not work. Is there another setting I must change?

I use it all the time (shut up Colette) and it works fine.

It is a parcel-based option that people choose to turn on or off. There are a number of sims on the mainland that are voice-capable. There's a link to a map on one of the blogs showing who has voice and who will when.

The voice program is separate from the viewer so lag isn't an issue...at least none that's SL's fault. I have heard of some weaker computers having problems but mine ran fine even when it was at 786GB RAM & 1.2ghz processor.

If you haven't already, you should mess with your voice settings in Preferences. It doesn't come working out of the box. You have to enable and tweak things to get it set up. It's not hard to do, though.

Thanks, SqueezeOne. Do you know whether it's true that it's only supported on Class 5 sims, or is that just a rumor?

Class 5 servers have the setup to run voice without any assistance from other machines (don't know the specifics of that) whereas class 4 and below need something else hooked up for voice to work...er...something.

One of the guys that works for the company implementing voice with LL explained it all to me once and I could probably draw a picture of it, but I don't know specific terms or the names of the equipment involved.

Hope that made sense!

just had a look at the voice settings and wtf...

all parcels are auto set to estate channel and u can NOT disable the use of estate channel while allowing voice

another brainless implementation as if it was up to me, ppl would have voice but restricted to ther own parcels and disallow the use of estate spam

There was some specific talk of there being some charge to use it on class 4 sims (the ones with grandfathered pricing). I do not know if that is still the case.

There's actually a setting they still haven't completely got working that WILL do this.

One of the reasons it's not on the main viewer yet...

"Brainless" indeed.

Yeah, essentially what I was talking about with extra support needed on older servers.

It could all be an excuse to get rid of the grandfathering (which they're probably going to do sometime down the line anyway) but it would make sense if it was legitimate, too.

Very weird, I still can't get voice to work on my brand new Class 5 sim. Besides enabling it in the Estate settings, is there anything else one has to do? Voice works elsewhere for me.

If you look in the more recent blogs talking about voice there is a link to a map (why this isn't on the page for firstlook I'll never know) that will show you what areas are enabled and when ones will be enabled in the future.

It's most likely it just hasn't been turned on with your sim yet. They've been enabling them in waves since the beginning of July.

Hope that helps!