This week we wanted to review the use of Station Voice so that everyone can participate in upcoming events that utilize this feature. Station Voice will enhance your gameplay and is easily controlled from within SWG.

Star Wars Galaxies subscribers can talk person-to-person in-game, at no additional cost, using the revolutionary voice chat service, Station Voice.

Players can go far beyond basic real-time chat with the usual headset and microphone setup that is commonly used today. Station Voice offers high quality voice communications where players are able to access a suite of voice communication tools. Station Voice is hosted and managed on the Vivox Network.

This article covers all of the currently available commands, options and UI windows tied to the integrated voice-chat system for Star Wars Galaxies.

/voice Commands

All of the commands below are 'arguments' for the /voice set of commands: as an example, /voice invite Gourneywould send an invite for your private chat channel to Gourney. These commands are case sensitive.

• hideBar: Hide the voice bar
• hideVoiceUsers: Hide the voice users window
• info: Dump (show) current voice chat info
• invite <player name>: Invite another player to your private voice chat room
• kick <player name>: Kick a player from your private voice chat room
• pushtotalkDown: Start transmitting in push to talk mode
• pushtotalkUp: Stop transmitting in push to talk mode
• setSelectedChannel <roomName>: Set which channel you are connected to. (requires the whole room naming convention: example /voice setSelectedChannel  SWG.TestCenter.private.Gourney - this information can be found via /voice info)
• showBar: Show the voice bar
• showVoiceUsers: Show the voice users window

Voice Bar:

• Talk:This button can be used to activate the microphone and talk. You can bind an alternate key to 'push to talk' (the insert / INS key is the default), or change your settings to talk on demand.
• Channel: This button brings up a dropdown list of the channels you can currently select.
• Voice Users: This button (the one with the three heads) spawns the Voice Users UI window: the window shows a list of the current users in the group/channel, the name of the channel, and a column which shows a conversation icon when that player is talking
• Message Area: The right side of the Voice Bar is set up to echo messages from the Voice Chat system. This includes alerts on who's talking at the time, changes to the channel you are listening to, etc.

Voice Users Window:

Each user in the channel you are currently in will have their own line in the Voice Users window. The system will generate a speech-bubble icon in the first column if that player is currently speaking or has their mic active and sending data (i.e. background noise, etc).   The second and third columns show the character name and channel respectively.

As you click on a player's entry, you'll have an option at the bottom to mute them or un-mute them with a checkbox toggle. You'll also be able to modify the volume of that specific user if they are too loud or quiet. The volume for the user is applied after the system looks at the Voice Chat Output Volume, which can be changed in the Options screen (shown below).

Options:

From top to bottom:

• Enable Voice Chat: Checkbox allows you to turn voice chat on or off with one click.
• Rebind: This button allows you to bind the push to talk key to a new key/button combination. This is the same functionality that's present under Options / Keymaps.
• Clear Binding: This clears the previous key binding for push to talk.
• Voice Chat Output Volume: This slider bar controls the overall volume for voice communications from other players (individual player volume can be modified in the Voice Users window).
• Voice Chat Input Volume: This slider controls the volume of your microphone within SWG.
• Game Audio Fade: This slider controls the volume level of regular game audio while someone is speaking in voice chat (i.e. the higher the slider volume, the more the game volume is toned down while voice chat is ongoing).

Local Test:

• This area allows you to run a self-check on your microphone.  Recording: Start allows you to record your voice through your current microphone/audio setup so that you can hear how the system interprets it: once that's done, the Playback: Start button will become active, and you can listen to your test recording. This is a handy way to see how your microphone is working before joining busy channels.  The Monitor: Start button allows you to listen 'live' to your microphone's input, and may further aid in your testing and getting all of the different audio and volume settings where you want them to be.

Device Selection

• Poll Input and Output Devices: Press this button to poll (search/check) your system for devices that may be used for voice chat (sound cards/adapters, microphones, etc).
• Voice Chat Input Device: Allows you to select which input device you want to use (i.e. what system/device manages your microphone/voice recording device).
• Voice Chat Output Device: Allows you to select which output device you want to use (i.e. what system/device sends data to your speakers/headset, etc).

Windows Audio Settings:

• Check Mic Settings / Fix Mic Settings: You can use these buttons to check and attempt to fix your Windows audio settings for your microphone. After running the check, the service will return a message with its findings: if the check finds any minor problems and thinks it can fix them, you'll see the Fix Mic Settings button become active, and you can use it to attempt to clear up the problem.  Not all configuration problems can be fixed by this utility, so you may need to go back into Windows or your audio device software to make further changes.
• Show Voice Bar: Check this box to show the Voice Bar UI on your screen. (can also be manipulated with /hideBar and /showBar)
• Auto-decline channel invitations: Check this box to automatically decline all private voice  channel invitations.
• Automatically join channels: If this box is checked, you will automatically join new voice chat channels if you are not currently in a channel. As an example: If you are not in any channels and join a group, having this box checked would attach you to the Groupchat channel and make it active. If you don't have the box checked, you would need to go to the Channel button on the Voice Bar and manually select it.

Make sure to watch for information posted about Star Wars Galaxies Station Voice events so that you can join in.

Click here to join the discussion now

Other Links:

[TECH] Voice Chat Troubleshooting FAQ

[SWG] FAQ - Voice Chat

[SWG] Voice Chat: The Basics

Push To Talk. (Previous Friday Feature with addition details)