Do You Use Voice?

[Lexxi Gynoid]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

The only sound I could ever tolerate out of you would be purring, hissing, or meowing.

mew

(That also reminds me - I think that, at that party I mentioned before, I think the only thing I did on voice was meow) 

Edited August 22 by Lexxi Gynoid

[Velk Kerang]

On 8/20/2024 at 4:30 PM, Orwar said:

   Very rarely. Sometimes with family whilst we're playing board games, but other than that most voice communication with people in SL that I have is via Discord; it's just more reliable and already has all the bells and whistles you'd want out of a voice com.

   I also just generally avoid voice communication unless I feel it's necessary, 99% of the time I'd rather blow my ears out with music than listening to other people. I like text chat better. 

Pretty much this for me too mates. If I do movie nights we are generally on Discord. All though Discord has been acting funky the last few days or so. My feelings on it is if they do away with the OG SL Voice and replace it with that web voice crap my very rarely is going to be a solid zero never at all. I won't even bother to touch it. Good bye lip sync. lol I just feel like it will be just another added resource hog in to the mix. They could easily have updated the back end on what they have in place right now and keep all viewers compatible. They got enough issues with PBR as it is. lol🤣

I mean I use Genesis Viewer now days and I speed rezz everything in an instant with an average of 120 to 140 frames on that viewer. Even with that having been said I can still tank the frames down to 4 to 1 frames even with my gaming rig I that use for live streaming high end content landing on a sim that is overly meshed out or even in a packed crowded club. So I'm not at all interested in the new changes when the old changes aren't even tweaked out and optimized for performance. lol I, personally have a good laugh about it all because right now LL is looking goofy to me mates. lol🤣

[Anna Salyx]

Generally speaking* ... no. 

My use of voice is very rare/limited.  I keep it up so I can hear people (job requirement) but I rarely plug my mic in for various reasons.  Primarily is that my home environment is not the best and people don't need to hear** what's going on.

I prefer text chat for 2 main reasons:

1. What I backspace over, I never said.  Text gives me time to consider what I want to say.  I carry this over to RL and only phone call with very close friends and sometimes relatives.
2. There is a record of what's been said.  I can step away and not miss out on something important and if need if I get confused even when present, I can scroll back to make sure I understood something right.  I also carry this over to RL and only phone with very close friends and less times with relatives.

---

* pun intended. 

** that includes both sides of the screen.  People in SL don't need to hear the chaos home life and chaos home life don't need to be part of SL conversations.

[Kalegthepsionicist]

@Prokofy Neva

it seems u want voce removed from sl, why dont u jist trun off your voice rather than complain

Edited August 22 by Kalegthepsionicist

[Midnoot]

2 minutes ago, Kalegthepsionicist said:

@Prokofy Neva

it seems u want voce removed from sl, why dont u jist trun off your voice rather than complain

Lol .

I'm not saying this is prokofy's reason but it sure is half the people who complain about voice's reason :

 

"Cause then I would miss out on conversations  and not be able to force them to text to me :c! I have no self control and MUST hear the conversation I'm missing!"

[Kalegthepsionicist]

Just now, Midnoot said:

Lol .

I'm not saying this is prokofy's reason but it sure is half the people who complain about voice's reason :

 

"Cause then I would miss out on conversations  and not be able to force them to text to me :c! I have no self control and MUST hear the conversation I'm missing!"

tun off it, it take not more than one min todo that

with voice we can work at other tab and fpllow comversation is sl without need stares the game whole the entire day

Edited August 22 by Kalegthepsionicist

[Midnoot]

1 minute ago, Kalegthepsionicist said:

tun off it, it take not more than one min todo that

Mhm mhm , but then they can't stand around the voice chat dominated conversations and remind us that they never turn voice chat on and can't hear our insignificant peasant conversations .

Edited August 22 by Midnoot

[Kalegthepsionicist]

Just now, Midnoot said:

 

"Cause then I would miss out on conversations  and not be able to force them to text to me :c! I have no self control and MUST hear the conversation I'm missing!"

hangout with the text only people

[Kalegthepsionicist]

Just now, Midnoot said:

Mhm mhm , but then they can't stand around the voice chat dominated conversations and remind us that they never turn voice chat on and can't hear our insignificant peasant conversations .

hangout with introvert text only people uwill find nobody will try dominate conversatiom

[Midnoot]

3 minutes ago, Kalegthepsionicist said:

hangout with the text only people

It does sound pretty simple ,right xD?

 

But then they couldn't take satisfaction from telling us were blocked , yet continuing to read our text because their viewers still showed blocked text . If they actually muted someone's voice , they would actually be left in silence and have nothing to feed off of . It's just not the saaaaame. 😭

Edited August 22 by Midnoot

[Zalificent Corvinus]

36 minutes ago, Kalegthepsionicist said:

why dont u jist trun off your voice

I disabled Voice-spam less than 15 mins after joining SL, I've never turned it back on, ever, and never will.

 

32 minutes ago, Midnoot said:

but then they can't stand around the voice chat dominated conversations

Most of the places I visit, have Voice-spam disabled at the parcel level, for everyone, so there ARE no Voice-Spam conversations.

 

 

[Qie Niangao]

It's not so much that it's voice, but using voice is just not how I use SL. As much as possible, I don't have sound turned on at all, and when I do, it's always on one bluetooth earbud so I don't miss anything in RL.

But there are two reasons I'd be glad to see voice quit working altogether:

1. Lindens meetings would come with a complete transcript during the meeting so we could all scroll back and see what was said. The Simulator User Group is like that. The Land & Concierge one isn't, and it's a confusing mess, and to not miss stuff requires sitting still at my desk the whole time (which "is just not how I use SL").
2. Every use of voice requires a good five minute "warm up" while participants get their audio gear working. It's not Vivox that's the problem (not anymore, anyway), but sound is flaky as hell on PCs, Macs, smartphones, even TVs—confess: how many remote controls are on your coffee table?—so it's not going to magically get usable just because they switched to WebRTC.

That said, I'm hopeful WebRTC will (eventually) enable a seamless bridge between audio and text so we can turn on auto-transcribe and get those real time transcripts on demand, and do built-in text-to-speech for those who really rely on audio.

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

No preference really, depends which is most convenient.  Not sure why so many people feel so strongly about it, it's just a feature that you can enable and use or disable and ignore.

[Extrude Ragu]

I don't think I've ever intentionally used voice chat on SL. Sure I've had it turned on to listen to linden meetings, but that's about it.

 

I've had it disabled in my own sim since like 2014.

[Anna Salyx]

10 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

It's not so much that it's voice, but using voice is just not how I use SL. As much as possible, I don't have sound turned on at all, and when I do, it's always on one bluetooth earbud so I don't miss anything in RL.

But there are two reasons I'd be glad to see voice quit working altogether:

1. Lindens meetings would come with a complete transcript during the meeting so we could all scroll back and see what was said. The Simulator User Group is like that. The Land & Concierge one isn't, and it's a confusing mess, and to not miss stuff requires sitting still at my desk the whole time (which "is just not how I use SL").
2. Every use of voice requires a good five minute "warm up" while participants get their audio gear working. It's not Vivox that's the problem (not anymore, anyway), but sound is flaky as hell on PCs, Macs, smartphones, even TVs—confess: how many remote controls are on your coffee table?—so it's not going to magically get usable just because they switched to WebRTC.

That said, I'm hopeful WebRTC will (eventually) enable a seamless bridge between audio and text so we can turn on auto-transcribe and get those real time transcripts on demand, and do built-in text-to-speech for those who really rely on audio.

couple of points you made in there jogged a third reason I generally don't use voice in SL.  I hear "okay".  but i watch TV with the closed captions always on because my hearing is only 'okay'. It can be sketchy on the best of days and if there are multiple people on screen speaking I can easily loose whose talking (especially in action scenes when the camera is not focused on speakers), miss entire words, (also especially if the speaker mumbles or there are other competing sounds).  CC helps fix all of that.

Now, SL is even worse in this case since there are less actual visual cues on who's talking and and I can often experience disconnect on voice to person,  I can lose words entirely if multiple people talk at once, and in that specific situation I often literally don't know who said what (it's easier to maintain that connect and references if I can see actual people not avatars*). Voice might be good for small groups, or well managed presentations, but in a general sense, not so much so.  for me at least. 

--

* it's also easier if most or all the speakers have strong individual accents, but if most people are from a same general geographic region that edge quickly fades.

[Maitimo]

I've only ever had voice on for business-style presentations (with a speaker and an audience). As soon as the presentation is over, I turn it off again.

And no one wants to hear my RL voice coming out of my avatar.

 

[MillyWH]

I used to hang out at London/Hyde  Park (not London City) and it was voice chat there but it wasn't crazy busy so I got  used to chatting on voice. And at the time I was living alone and having some health issues so it was great to actually be able to chat with people and not be stuck with myself. But that sim is gone and everyone went their separate ways and I haven't really done a lot of voice chatting lately but I don't mind it there aren't too many people.

Now I'm kind of in the opposite situation, I end up at work talking to people or listening to people talk all day so when I get home I don't want to really chat or hear chat.

And then there are friends I've chatted with in a private call when shopping or out exploring because that is a lot easier than stopping to type and read the text. 

[MinkBlueleaf Fyrewik]

No. I have vocal fry. I hear people don't like vocal fry.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, MinkBlueleaf Fyrewik said:

No. I have vocal fry. I hear people don't like vocal fry.

Vocal fry is hot!

[Prokofy Neva]

On 8/22/2024 at 4:40 AM, Kalegthepsionicist said:

@Prokofy Neva

it seems u want voce removed from sl, why dont u jist trun off your voice rather than complain

I'm explaining the facts here, visible in this very thread: PEOPLE DON"T USE VOICE.

I do turn it off -- and you're curiously mistaking a report of the facts of the situation based on numerous tenants' practices over the years for a "complaint".

Describing the facts of the situation isn't advocacy to "turn it off" -- I suppose it has its uses for some and the Lindens feel it is "modern" and "business-like"...or something.

The reason I mention this is that Firestorm developers backed down from their original pledge to block past viewers that didn't have PBR; now they won't do that, but they are saying "you will have no voice" as if this is some kind of threat that will drive people into getting the PBR viewers -- which they will only be able to use if they get new computers.

My point is that this is not a loss at all.

 

Edited August 24 by Prokofy Neva

[Prokofy Neva]

On 8/22/2024 at 4:45 AM, Kalegthepsionicist said:

tun off it, it take not more than one min todo that

with voice we can work at other tab and fpllow comversation is sl without need stares the game whole the entire day

Not everyone is like you.

 

[discussionbot]

51 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The reason I mention this is that Firestorm developers backed down from their original pledge to block past viewers that didn't have PBR; now they won't do that, but they are saying "you will have no voice" as if this is some kind of threat that will drive people into getting the PBR viewers

I found that funny too, not sure if threatening the masses with no voice was the best way to prob them getting to upgrade to a world of unoptimised, painful performance lol

[WeFlossDaily]

I also felt like it was an attempted threat.

[Luna Bliss]

10 hours ago, MinkBlueleaf Fyrewik said:

No. I have vocal fry. I hear people don't like vocal fry.

I thought vocal fry was a choice. You must be teasing.....?

[Rolig Loon]

7 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The reason I mention this is that Firestorm developers backed down from their original pledge to block past viewers that didn't have PBR; now they won't do that, but they are saying "you will have no voice" as if this is some kind of threat that will drive people into getting the PBR viewers -- which they will only be able to use if they get new computers.

Nah.  That's simply a statement of the fact that future upgrades of the Firestorm viewer will be based on future upgrades of the standard LL viewer. That has always been the case. Those upgrades will naturally have the new voice system, WebRTC , enabled. If you continue using older versions of the Firestorm viewer, which includes the old (Vivox) voice system, you'll find that it will stop working after a while.

There's no threat there. It's just an alert to let users know that the old version of Firestorm is, well, old. Don't be surprised. You can't expect it to contain all the newer features (which you might not like) and you can't expect all the older features (like Vivox voice) to keep working forever.  If they hadn't said something now, you can imagine the screams later from some users ... "What happened to my beloved voice??!!"   Thank you, Prok, for pointing out that many (most?) users will just shrug their shoulders and say, "Meh".