New 'voice' Encoding Options With Steam.

WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
edited October 2003 in General Server Discussion
<div class="IPBDescription">And information on how to enable them!</div> <a href='http://www.xiph.org/archives/speex-dev/200308/0002.html' target='_blank'>Here</a> is a mailing-list archive entry about the <a href='http://www.speex.org' target='_blank'>Speex</a> voice-compression codec, where it details how to enable and use this new and vastly improved speech compression with Half-Life. It will eventually <i>replace</i> the existing voice-compression, and become the only option. Until then, it is not the default option, but available for all Steam-powered servers. In general, reducing bandwidth usage for voice down to 6000 bits/second (quality 2) still sounds better than the current codec, while truly high levels of compression (2400 bits/second) sounds equivilantly bad, but in a different way than the current compression method.

As a quick comparison, it used anywhere from 7.5% as much bandwidth to 47.5% as much bandwidth as the current 'voice' compression, and at less than 25% the bandwidth usage sounds generally better than the current voice compression. It <b>does</b> use a higher portion of server CPU, but only 1-2% in most of my tests.

And as Yet Another Note: 56k modems generally have around 20000 bits/second of upload space available, and around 40000 bits/second of download space available, once you factor in TCP/IP and PPP headers and everything else. So these new codecs are MUCH more friendly for modem users.

Unfortunately, it's only available for Steam-compatable servers. Anyways, for those that don't want to read that mailing-list for more information, here you go:

First, switch your server to use the Speex encoder:

<span style='color:blue'>sv_voicecodec voice_speex</span>

Now, you're running in Speex mode. The next choice is how much bandwidth do you want Speex to use, which is a direct trade-off with the voice quality.

<span style='color:blue'>sv_voicequality 1</span> <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=671064' target='_blank'><span style='color:gray'>//2,400 bits/sec, 7.5% of current usage</span></a>
<span style='color:blue'>sv_voicequality 2</span> <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=671068' target='_blank'><span style='color:green'>//6,000 bits/sec, 18.75% of current usage</span></a> <-- Ideal Choice
<span style='color:blue'>sv_voicequality 3</span> <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=671069' target='_blank'><span style='color:yellow'>//8,000 bits/sec, 25% of current usage</span></a>
<span style='color:blue'>sv_voicequality 4</span> <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=671071' target='_blank'><span style='color:orange'>//11,200 bits/sec, 35% of current usage</span></a>
<span style='color:blue'>sv_voicequality 5</span> <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=671072' target='_blank'><span style='color:red'>//15,200 bits/sec, 47.5% of current usage</span></a>

And for comparison, the <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=679507' target='_blank'>original MILES 'codec' which is 32000 bits/second,</a> and the <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=679510' target='_blank'>untouched base sample I used for this test, which is 128000 bits/second,</a> for your convenience.

<span style='color:blue'>Heavilly edited to make convenient links for the comparison values, and more information on bandwidth consumption. Removed all other messages in thread except those holding files, moving all information up to this post.</span>

Comments

  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    sv_voicequality 1, 2400 bits/second
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    sv_voicequality 2, 6000 bits/second
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    sv_voicequality 3, 8000 bits/second
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    sv_voicequality 4, 11200 bits/second
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    sv_voicequality 5, 15200 bits/second
  • verboseverbose Join Date: 2002-11-25 Member: 9968Members, Constellation
    Speex is a Good Thing. If you've used <a href='http://www.teamspeak.org/' target='_blank'>TeamSpeak</a> at all recently, you're probably already familiar with speex and how it blows the other codecs away in terms of quality/bitrate. Granted, it's only good for human-voice ranges, but use the right tool for the job, 'eh?
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    MILES compression, 32000 bits/second
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    edited September 2003
    Original source WAV file, 128000 bits/second
  • DrekDrek Join Date: 2002-12-19 Member: 11165Members
    This is totally cool. Finally a reason to like Steam! My buddy on dial-up has had to basically sacrifice his voice communication in order to be able to play HL, and he loves talking, so it is a big sacrifice. This looks like it might give it back to him. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

    Thanks for the tip WolfWings!
  • billcatbillcat Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4903Members, Constellation
    I'm using this on my server, under linux HLDS/steam, and it seems to work just fine. It was a bit choppy under the 1 setting so I turned it up to 2. Still doesn't seem to cut into the BW much at all.

    Thx very much for the tip.
  • devicenulldevicenull Join Date: 2003-04-30 Member: 15967Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    This is kick-****,
    The voice quality sounds like never before,
    All servers should have this on!!!
  • Iced_EagleIced_Eagle Borg Engineer Join Date: 2003-03-02 Member: 14218Members
    I highly support this! I love how this sounds <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> love love love

    i think that if your server has this put [SPEEX ENABLED] in your server name <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> or at least [SPEEX] cause that would so want to make me play there
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    Glad to know everyone likes this little feature I found for Half-Life servers. Hopefully more and more will transition to using it, once they transition to using Steam at all. =^.^=
  • SuicideDogSuicideDog Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 8104Members
    I have to say this is killer .. this with the combination of the rate manager seriously improves my server performance.. it is a CS server (/me dodges the tomatos).. but it majorly helped my server too.
  • BonelessBoneless Join Date: 2002-09-03 Member: 1270Members
    I wonder why this is not the default codec already on Steam servers... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    Probably because it's the first version that has support for Speex enabled. They don't want to suddenly force everyone to the new standard without some chance for people to play with it, and get a feel for it, I think.

    Also, as a side-note... anyone, feel free to link to this post, use <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=8&t=48362' target='_blank'>this link</a> when posting this topic to other forums.
  • NiteowlNiteowl Join Date: 2002-09-04 Member: 1274Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    thanks for posting this! we'll try it on our servers <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
  • HypergripHypergrip Suspect Germany Join Date: 2002-11-23 Member: 9689Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    I was testing with speex and voice_quality 2 and 3. The quality was ok, but although the CPU usage was raising only a few % there were some quite bad lags and crashes. I'm not sure if this is really related to speex, but after i reverted back to voice_miles and voice_quality 2 all seems to run fine as before...
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    <!--QuoteBegin-Hypergrip+Feb 20 2004, 03:08 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Hypergrip @ Feb 20 2004, 03:08 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I was testing with speex and voice_quality 2 and 3. The quality was ok, but although the CPU usage was raising only a few % there were some quite bad lags and crashes. I'm not sure if this is really related to speex, but after i reverted back to voice_miles and voice_quality 2 all seems to run fine as before... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    And problems like this are another reason why it's still considered experimental code. :-)

    Also, voice_quality has <b>no</b> effect at all when you're using the Miles codec, only if you're using the Speex codec.
  • VadakillVadakill The Almighty BSO Join Date: 2002-04-02 Member: 373Members, NS1 Playtester
    I have this new codec running on my server, works great. I haven't experienced any crashes so far, no core dumps or anything.
  • havenhaven Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8767Members
    Ditto, its working fine for me on quality 4. Quality wise it is a little tinny with everyone having that "stuck in a cardboard box" sound about their voice. But voices are easily understandable and its causing no noticable lag or other problems.
  • SobchakSobchak Join Date: 2004-02-02 Member: 25997Members, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->They don't want to suddenly force everyone to the new standard without some chance for people to play with it, and get a feel for it, I think.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    ROFLROFL you're talking about STEAM??? /me dies from irony

    great plugin btw
  • zippyzippy Forum Police. Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11956Members, Constellation
    speex is actualy designed for mics and voices rather than the default codec.

    That is why when you chnage to speex you notice less bass and crap coming over mic.

    Overall it makes a better voice experience.
  • sacmo2sacmo2 Join Date: 2004-07-09 Member: 29824Members
    cuase on my server we use voice 5 i mean would u recomend me useing a lower voice ?
  • WolfWingsWolfWings NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
    Yes, I'd recommend using 3, or possibly 2.

    4 and 5 are fairly heavy overkill, able to transmit passable music. 2 and 3 are roughly the optimal point for voice-comm, while not being able to transmit things like music effectively, which I consider a benefit.
  • strikeforcestrikeforce Join Date: 2003-11-11 Member: 22523Members, Constellation
    Yeah I"m testing them now with the #wa-ns servers so we shall see but so far its looking great. Although I've only tried them out shortly so I don't know properly yet.
  • VertyVerty Join Date: 2003-08-04 Member: 18884Members
    Finally we may understand some people who speak ingame, gogo new voice on servers.
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