[Announce] Voice Chat / VOIP

I'm introducing my next asset called "Voice Chat", which is bound for the asset store within the next few days.
It allows you to integrate voice/voip communication right into your game, it can run on-top of any networking package and requires no external server/service other then your already existing game server as it's completely contained within Unity and piggy-backs on your existing networking solution.

Asset Store Link
http://u3d.as/content/fholm/voice-chat/3aB

Features

• Windows, OS X and Web Player support
• 4Khz, 8Khz and 16Khz sample rates
• Supports Speex and A-Law audio encoding
• Optional Zlib stream compression
• Push-to-talk and Toggle-to-talk keys
• Auto-detect speech (if enabled, dont require key to be held down for speaking)
• Can be plugged into any networking package as long as you can send int, short, byte and byte[]
• Comes with pre-built support for the default Unity Networking

Future Features

• Background noise reduction filter

Video Preview

 

This looks great! Might be great for shooters where coop is necessary. Is there a demo available?

 

There will be a demo available once it's fully done

 

Nice, fholm... following this

 

Great, but it will run only on unity PRO?

 

No it runs on both Free and Pro (assuming you have access to the Microphone in Free also)

 

I believe you do, but don't quote me on that.

 

This sounds great! I have my own library written for this stuff.

Microphone works in free and pro... FYI... Some devices can't record at the lower rates so you need to downsample...

I'd love to have auto voice detection! Keep us posted!

 

This is the last piece I'm working on right now I know a lot of smaller devices like phones, etc. can only record at a few or one rate, but how common is this at desktop/laptop level? I've been trying to find a microphone (connected to a computer) which doesn't return 0, 0 for min, max frequency ... but honestly can't.

 

My USB headset can only do 44.1 I learned this when I was writing my own lib it can play anything though...

 

Yeah, I'd just like one to actually test/verify with for myself Have gone through like 15+ head sets/mics/webcams and they all return "0, 0". Ah well, can just simulate it but still annoying.

 

Will this support 3d audio? I'm guessing it would if it sends the data over your current networking solution (ours is Photon), that you could send the data to any audio player you want?

edit: btw awesome work. Many people have been waiting forever for this.

 

As the audio that is recorded from the "Microphone" class in unity is 2d audio, this will not support 3d audio sadly, and nothing I can do about it

 

ah, should write Unity about that then. Would it be possible to fake the 3d audio by adjusting the volume level and pan settings depending on distance and location? Maybe not quite as realistic but believable and functional. I'd gladly work on this as an addition if it's possible with the system.

 

It should most likely be possible to somehow fake 3d yes, the system uses the native unity Microphone, AudioSource and AudioClip classes so anything you can do with them you can do with this.

 

I would just like to report that the asset is done, currently working on the manual. I also recorded a sample of how the sound is using the Speex codec @ 16Khz: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19877504/speex_16.mp3.

It uses about 4kb/s up-stream from the sender, which is a 4:1 compression ratio!

 

Oh, good! I was just going to start looking into a peer-to-peer voice chat solution.

Any ETA and price estimate yet?

 

Awesome news, I'll set it up with Photon and the fake 3d sound as soon as we can get our hands on it. Any info on availability, asset store or otherwise?

 

I just finished up the manual, which was the last piece. Submitting to the asset store now, so it will be available as soon as the Unity team looks at it. Price will be 40$.

You can read the manual a head of time here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19877504/VoiceChat_Manual.pdf if you wanna peek at the features/setup.

 

there we go, submitted, just waiting for approval:

 

=) hopefully it won't arrive october 29th in the year 2101. Will be buying asap

 

Great product, even better price

 

Will this work if I am using a smartfox server or photon?

 

Read the manual linked a few posts back, it explains how integration with smartfox/photon/etc. works

 

thank you will do.

 

Also about a live demo, I've tried putting something up - but realized quickly it would require me to be running a server 24/7, which isn't feasible.

 

Can't it work peer-to-peer?

 

Yes, assuming you have a way to send specific messages to each player, there should be no problem.

 

I was really hoping to throw some money at this tonight and try it out. Come on, UT! Approve it already!

 

Great stuff. I'm not sure I understand the manual for setting it up in Photon.
Could you do a video on basic setup? I have buyed a few of your scripts and they are awesome!

 

Setting it up with photon/ulink/any other third party networking is a bit more work then doing it with the default unity networking. Basically it requires you to write the integration yourself, as I can't write integration for every possible networking layer there is (simply too much work).

 

Still waiting on approval

 

as are we

 

Now live: http://u3d.as/content/fholm/voice-chat/3aB

 

I didn't get to play with it much last night, but playing with the demo was successful. I'm looking forward to using this in a game idea I had just a few days ago. This is a very, very timely asset.

 

I'm glad you like it!

When you've had time to play with it more, I would very much appreciate a review on the store, no matter if it's a good or bad one

 

Can you integrate this chat with Photon?

 

Yes it is possible, but I'm not sure this is something I would like to do. Are you talking about PUN or the "normal" photon?

 

With PUN. I need voice chat for my project on PUN

 

Ok, since PUN is very similar to the default unity networking it should be really easy to convert the demo code for yourself, as it's built for the default networking.

 

Any plan for android support?

 

It should work on android without any problems (it's not using any weird APIs or non-standard behavior), it's just that I have not tested it so I can't guarantee it, if you want I can try to get a hold of an android phone and test it out.

You might have to disable the auto-detect speech though as I'm guessing managed Fourier transforms will be to slow for mobile devices.

 

nvm

 

I've been selling a lot of these kits, but have not heard back from any users or gotten any reviews, anyone willing to comment?

 

Can you post the link to the asset store?

 

It's in the first post, but here you go: http://u3d.as/content/fholm/voice-chat/3aB

 

Hi, Great package you have there.

We're trying to integrate it in an application... so far so good.
Until we tried to have the host be a player too.

So basically, contrary to your example, in our application, a user can also host a game while playing at the same time (and thus host a non-dedicated server). And so far we've had no luck in implementing the voice on the one hosting the game.

Hence my question : Is there a way for a player hosting a game to also be able to use the voice chat? And thus use voice chat without a dedicated server?

 

@fholm

very good... any chance in the near future to add video?

 

@fholm
Any chance to get some feedback on the possibility of using voice chat with a non-dedicated server?

thx

 

Hey, sorry for the late response - there should not be any technical problem standing in your way of using it with a non-dedicated server, but you would have to modify the current logic a bit and allow a local recorder to transmit to the server, and also have the server listen to the audio it forwards.