We’re developing a game on Steam and we’ve integrated Vivox Unreal SDK into the game to just use the voice chat function.
Voice chat does work but with some issues:
Volume varied wildly across players (which could be due to individual settings)
Hearing static noises or voices breaking up, in varying degrees.
Some players experienced siginificant delay - voice being heard 2-3 seconds after being actually said by the other person.
I searched the forum for related issues but I wasn’t able to find one similar (except for maybe this one).
And I checked the maintenance schedule but it doesn’t coincide with our playtests.
Currently, we suspect this might be due to the sound being distorted due to large default volume, so we’re some adjustments to the code and the default volume settings as per recommended settings.
In the meantime, I just wanted to ask if anyone would know of a similar problem or, even better, a solution to it.
With varying volume, definitely try restricting the volume range like is suggested in that documentation on recommended settings. Anything above the default setting can lead to distortion, so use the upper half of the volume range with caution.
“Static noises without speech” sounds like there is high volume when someone isn’t talking, so the Voice Activity Detector occasionally triggers and sends amplified background noise. Voice breaking up can be for the opposite reason; where voice is so quiet that it doesn’t trigger the Voice Activity Detector. Did you change the Voice Activity Detector settings at all? Also, increasing capture volume through the Vivox API will not cause more or less Voice Activity Detector positive-decisions because the capture volume transformation is applied afterwards. In cases of background noise coming through as voice or voice being declared as noise by the VAD: the distance between the microphone and talker needs to change, the OS volume needs to be increased or decreased, or the Voice Activity Detector sensitivity has to be changed. The balance between noise and voice is fickle, and it’s common that noise will make it through for transmission. It is better that some noise makes it through transmission than voice being cut out.
Significant audio delay is unusual and could mean there are network issues somewhere in the chain.
A Wireshark PCAP network capture and/or a screen capture / audio loopback recording from when a game client is exhibiting the issues would be helpful for further diagnosis.