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Nov 3, 2003, 6:10pm

I know this was suggested a few months ago and I'm aware that there are
programs that allow others to talk to each other while in AW, but I
think a built-in voice chat feature would breathe new life into AW. The
VR universe There has this and it works fairly well. If a user has voice
enabled, there is a special icon above their avatar's head. Volume is
also adjusted depending how far away you are from others. There not only
has voice, but the ability to also stream music from a Shoutcast server.

Just think of the possibilities here -- it would bring a new meaning to
telecommuting. Businesses could hold virtual meetings or conference
calls entirely within ActiveWorlds. Parties and events would be a lot
more fun. Playing games in AW would be more enjoyable. It would add a
more human touch to one's avatar.

I assume there would be some "trouble makers" that would cause some
havoc with this, but the mute feature could be expanded to mute not only
text, but voice or audio from a user as well. And the ability to turn
voice on or off entirely (just like other settings in the browser) would
work just as well, IMO. If you hate the idea of voice chat, simply
disable it and be on your way.

There are already open source and patent-free audio codecs for
speech/voice that the AW development team could implement (Speex at
http://www.speex.org is just one example). I think it would add more
"value" to the overall AW experience and liven things up a bit. At least
think of the uses for other galaxy or universe owners.

Builderz
http://www.3dhost.net

Nov 3, 2003, 9:52pm

That would be hot, I'm in There also, and voice chat is a VERY useful and
cool thing. Nice to be able to talk to people by voice. I also think this
would be useful to implement into AW (Shoutcast too).

[View Quote]

Nov 3, 2003, 9:54pm

[View Quote] > That would be hot, I'm in There also, and voice chat is a VERY useful and
> cool thing. Nice to be able to talk to people by voice. I also think this
> would be useful to implement into AW (Shoutcast too).

Roger Wilco.

--
--Bowen--
http://bowen.homelinux.com
Give me ideas.

Nov 3, 2003, 10:21pm

Roger Wilco is a decent third party program to use for voice chat,
Bowen. But what if I owned my own world, universe or galaxy and wanted
to hold a live "virtual seminar" about a certain topic? I'd love to be
able to use voice chat and speak to the people there (without having to
inconvenience everyone by telling them to go download additional voice
chat software such as Roger Wilco or TeamSpeak). It'd also be nice to
hear the audience members ask me questions quicker than it would take to
type them out.

If I wanted to do such a thing currently, I'd either have to type
everything out via text to the audience, setup some type of streaming
audio outside of AW, or have a bot rotate large prerecorded WAV or MP3
files. It would be so much easier if AW had built-in voice chat. And I
really don't see a reason why they shouldn't add it, since members of
other VR communities will most likely be "expecting it" if they ever try
AW and there are numerous free or cheap speech codecs out right now.

Builderz
http://www.3dhost.net

[View Quote] >
> Roger Wilco.

Nov 3, 2003, 10:27pm

[View Quote] > Roger Wilco is a decent third party program to use for voice chat,
> Bowen. But what if I owned my own world, universe or galaxy and wanted
> to hold a live "virtual seminar" about a certain topic? I'd love to be
> able to use voice chat and speak to the people there (without having to
> inconvenience everyone by telling them to go download additional voice
> chat software such as Roger Wilco or TeamSpeak). It'd also be nice to
> hear the audience members ask me questions quicker than it would take to
> type them out.
>
> If I wanted to do such a thing currently, I'd either have to type
> everything out via text to the audience, setup some type of streaming
> audio outside of AW, or have a bot rotate large prerecorded WAV or MP3
> files. It would be so much easier if AW had built-in voice chat. And I
> really don't see a reason why they shouldn't add it, since members of
> other VR communities will most likely be "expecting it" if they ever try
> AW and there are numerous free or cheap speech codecs out right now.

I do believe roger wilco offers the ability to integrate with existing
code. The only problem is will Shamus do it...

--
--Bowen--
http://bowen.homelinux.com
Give me ideas.

Nov 4, 2003, 1:06am

As far as I'm concerned, AW is still playing major catch up with the IM
networks...

It's a lot easier to communicate via AIM, Yahoo, MSN, <insert other IM
network here>... because of their ability to use various fonts, font sizes,
font types (bold, underline, etc), graphics smilies, intagrated image/file
transferes, and voice chat. Everyone loves the features that these IM
programs offer. Personally, I'd love to have them in AW. To me, this is one
major *glaring* place where AW is lacking.

AW is still stuck in the IRC age of the late 80s using simple text chat and
\commands for bots. Why don't we bring the *text* chat up to the current
deccade's technology and *then* worry about voice chat.

-Jeremy

--



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeremy Booker - Owner / Webmaster
JTech Web Systems
www.JTechWebSystems.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Mathew 5:34
[View Quote]

Nov 4, 2003, 8:41am

Hmmm I see where your coming from. Maybe AW should catch up to current times
with IM's etc. I think the GUI should be re-designed to look cooler. A lot
of the newer games use XML for their GUI's. It would be cool. (Even
WindowsXP uses XML for it's GUI lol...)


[View Quote]

Nov 4, 2003, 1:22pm

"zeofatex" <gzanone at optonline.net> wrote in
news:3fa79086$1 at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> Hmmm I see where your coming from. Maybe AW should catch up to current
> times with IM's etc. I think the GUI should be re-designed to look
> cooler. A lot of the newer games use XML for their GUI's. It would be
> cool. (Even WindowsXP uses XML for it's GUI lol...)

Using XML isn't going to make the GUI any cooler. XML is just a markup
language, a container of information. You have to write code to interpret
that information, it won't magically transform itself into a GUI, and even
if you use skins to draw your interface, you could still make a boring
skin.

KAH

Nov 4, 2003, 2:17pm

I agree that it'd be nice to use different font types, font sizes, and
font colors. But there would have to be a limit to it. You wouldn't want
someone at GZ typing "Go visit my awes0m3 world d00d" in red, bold, size
72 text. Maybe limit it to certain areas (like the bot radius limit at
AW GZ) or hard code it so you can't go over a certain font size.

As for the IM features, most of the IM programs have a similar GUI -- a
list of contacts and then a box for you to type and a box or window for
the other person's text. To be honest, I don't have many gripes with the
current telegram system that AW has in place. Sure, it could look a
little better and be tweaked a bit, but I'm used to it I guess.

But I see your point and I think it would be best to have a choice of
using the current telegram system or a system more like traditional IM
clients. And yes, it would be nice for AW to upgrade their text display
system (I think they use the RichText dll). Having the option to enable
or disable emoticons (e.g., smiley faces) wouldn't hurt, either.

Builderz
http://www.3dhost.net

[View Quote] > As far as I'm concerned, AW is still playing major catch up with the IM
> networks...
>
> It's a lot easier to communicate via AIM, Yahoo, MSN, <insert other IM
> network here>... because of their ability to use various fonts, font sizes,
> font types (bold, underline, etc), graphics smilies, intagrated image/file
> transferes, and voice chat. Everyone loves the features that these IM
> programs offer. Personally, I'd love to have them in AW. To me, this is one
> major *glaring* place where AW is lacking.
>
> AW is still stuck in the IRC age of the late 80s using simple text chat and
> \commands for bots. Why don't we bring the *text* chat up to the current
> deccade's technology and *then* worry about voice chat.
>
> -Jeremy

Nov 6, 2003, 10:52pm

and have a option to disable the font styles so i dont have to highlight
yellow text just to read it.. or bright pink like many girls like. *ergh*

[View Quote]

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