Articles - Japanese Plastic
"Voice Chat"
by Matthew C.
2008.04.25
Until Nintendo gives us a VOICE CHAT solution on the
Wii, I've taken it upon myself to apply something from
my PC gaming experience to my console gaming world. It's voice chat, plain and simple. I setup a Ventrilo server to use while playing
console video games. While this does necessitate a computer and therefore complicates my console video gaming experience, Nintendo
hasn't yet provided a simple "Xbox Live" kind of experience. So...my solution isn't as seemless as Microsoft's process, but
using a personal computer (desktop or laptop) and an application like Ventrilo makes the voice chat cross-title and cross-platform!
Imagine playing
Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation 3 and chatting with people playing
F-Zero on the Wii's Virtual Console.
|
port: 3784 (default)
pw: ****** |
A few friends and I were chatting last night and everything worked smoothly. EVERY VIDEO GAME NOW HAS VOICE CHAT.
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)? Voice chat.
- Wii Sports (Wii)? Voice chat.
- Chip's Challenge (PC)? Voice chat.
- Rock Band (PS3)? Voice chat.
- Surfing the web? Voice chat.
- Guitar Hero between a PS3 and a Wii? (It would probably never happen, but it would have voice chat!)
Ok, maybe I'm a little too excited about voice chat. (I just know it increases the fun of an online video game...exponentially.)
A voice chat server like this can also be used for a variety of uses OTHER than gaming. You could broadcast ANY audio. You could talk with
people from all over the world FOR FREE. No need to call them on the telephone and run up huge bills. Speak with one person in "Minnesohda",
another in Maine, a third in California...all at the same time, FOR FREE. You could even swap brownie recipes with friends from around the globe.
While the possibilities seem endless there are some...limitations, but we'll burn that bridge while we're standing on it.
(You can view the 'structure' of the voice chat server below. We're always tweaking.)
2009.05.14
While Nintendo's
WiiSpeak peripheral and the PDP
Headbanger Chat Headset are admittedly more direct ways to communicate with your
friends
in-game, our Ventrilo server is cross-franchise and cross-platform!
Here's a current look at
voice.yeahdogg.com:
2011.01.31
Our "Vent" server is compatible with almost every microphone, speaker, headset, and USB device (such as the
PDP Headbanger Chat Headset).
Technical stuff that you really don't need to know, but might be curious about:
- The server uses the Speex codec to allow both PC and Mac use.
- (32 KHz, 16 bit, 5 Qlty) 2433 bytes/sec
2011.03.08
Here is a rough diagram of the Basement of Gerard Hall. (Close, but not to scale)
+--------------------------------+--\\--+
| 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 |Stairs|
+--------------------------------+---\--+
| \ |
\ +----------------------------+--\---+
\ | 9 | 7 | 5 | 3 | |
| | | | | +--\\--+
+-\-+-------+------+------+------+--\\--+
