Voice Comms on CS:Source Servers

Anonymous · October 28, 2006, 05:13:32 PM

There has been much muttering and wringing of hands recently over the quality of the voice comms in cs:source and, consequently, I have been digging around on the net to see if I can find anything to improve things. There are several threads on various forums regarding the use of the "Speex" codec at the server end, however, the people who claim to be doing it invariably will not show anyone their server config to allow us to see how they got it working. This leads me to believe that it does not work properly which would tie in with my own testing on both our server and my own server. Enabling the Speex codec instead of the miles codec does improve voice quality but, as soon as the map changes, we lose ALL voice comms from the server which really does fly in the face of all we are trying to achieve with TCS.

Here are some things to try:

Do not run TeamSpeak (TS) when playing CS:S

Try adjusting your rates as per:
http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_sid=Aq4-qUki&p_lva=&p_li=&p_faqid=179&p_created=1093557339&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTQmcF9wcm9kcz02NCZwX2NhdHM9MTAzLDE0NyZwX3B2PTEuNjQ7Mi51MCZwX2N2PTIuMTQ3JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*

Try the direct sound fix at:
http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=175&p_created=1093416297&p_sid=Aq4-qUki&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTQmcF9wcm9kcz02NCZwX2NhdHM9MTAzLDE0NyZwX3B2PTEuNjQ7Mi51MCZwX2N2PTIuMTQ3JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=&p_topview=1

There IS a workaround for the speex codec shutting off after each map change but it would require a bit of effort on our part:

QuoteAFTER the map changes you need to press "ESC", then click on "OPTIONS", then click on "OK" and finally press "ESC" again.

I appreciate that this is a pain but it seems to be the only way to get decent comms at the start of each map. NB you do NOT need to do it at the start of each round, just the start of each map. If we can't get the current codec working better then we may revert to this but we'll take a call on it at the time. In the meantime, would anyone who is having comms probs in Source please try the tweaks above?

In case it helps here is a copy of the sound entries in my Source config.cfg:

Code Select

cl_rumblescale &quot;1.0&quot;
cl_debugrumble &quot;0&quot;
voice_modenable &quot;1&quot;
suitvolume &quot;0.25&quot;
voice_forcemicrecord &quot;1&quot;
voice_enable &quot;1&quot;
voice_scale &quot;1&quot;
snd_duckerthreshold &quot;0.15&quot;
snd_duckerreleasetime &quot;2.5&quot;
snd_duckerattacktime &quot;0.5&quot;
snd_ducktovolume &quot;0.55&quot;
adsp_debug &quot;0&quot;
dsp_dist_max &quot;1440.0&quot;
dsp_dist_min &quot;0.0&quot;
snd_mixahead &quot;0.1&quot;
snd_musicvolume &quot;1.0&quot;
volume &quot;1.0&quot;
snd_pitchquality &quot;1&quot;
snd_digital_surround &quot;0&quot;
sv_voiceenable &quot;1&quot;
dsp_enhance_stereo &quot;1&quot;
dsp_volume &quot;1.0&quot;
dsp_slow_cpu &quot;0&quot;
cl_downloadfilter &quot;all&quot;
cl_allowdownload &quot;1&quot;
cl_forcepreload &quot;1&quot;
cl_soundfile &quot;sound/player/jingle.wav&quot;
bgmvolume &quot;1&quot;

OldBloke · October 28, 2006, 05:32:44 PM

Excellent detective work, BB. Your efforts in trying to resolve this annoying 'feature' is very much appreciated.:thumb:

Whitey · October 28, 2006, 07:10:48 PM

:withstupid: Thanks BB.

Sn00ks · October 28, 2006, 07:24:48 PM

Having someone who actually seems to understand all this stuff is awe inspiring. Keep up the good work BB it is appreciated. :clap:

Anonymous · October 28, 2006, 07:37:05 PM

Another good thread on troubleshooting voice comms:

http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/popup_adp.php?p_sid=Aq4-qUki&p_lva=&p_li=&p_faqid=26&p_created=1092255838&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTQmcF9wcm9kcz02NCZwX2NhdHM9MTAzLDE0NyZwX3B2PTEuNjQ7Mi51MCZwX2N2PTIuMTQ3JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE*

Penfold · October 29, 2006, 09:55:45 AM

Nice work as usual Mr BB.

PEN

Dr Sadako · November 03, 2006, 11:09:22 PM

QuoteIf you're having trouble with the voice features, you might see better performance by setting a command line parameter in Steam:

In your "Games" list, right-click on the game title.
Select "Properties" from the popup menu, and then select "Launch Options" on the dialog that comes up.
Enter +voice_dsound 0 and then click OK

This completely messed up my CS:S. Causing lag and freeze. When I removed "+voice_dsound 0" everything went back to normal ... that including crap voice codec.

Anonymous · November 03, 2006, 11:50:36 PM

Quote from: Dr Sadako;160982This completely messed up my CS:S. Causing lag and freeze. When I removed "+voice_dsound 0" everything went back to normal ... that including crap voice codec.

Good feedback. Thanks Mats.

Keep it coming peeps?

One thing I noticed tonight was that VC was good early in the evening and degraded as the night progressed.

Othbarty · November 07, 2006, 02:56:33 PM

On the steam forums there are plenty of posts saying that the speex codec works fine... Have you recently tried this?

EDIT:
And tbh, the workaroundpart, i can live with

Anonymous · November 07, 2006, 04:27:27 PM

Quote from: Othbarty;161593On the steam forums there are plenty of posts saying that the speex codec works fine... Have you recently tried this?

Yup, as per my first post:

QuoteThere are several threads on various forums regarding the use of the "Speex" codec at the server end, however, the people who claim to be doing it invariably will not show anyone their server config to allow us to see how they got it working. This leads me to believe that it does not work properly which would tie in with my own testing on both our server and my own server. Enabling the Speex codec instead of the miles codec does improve voice quality but, as soon as the map changes, we lose ALL voice comms from the server which really does fly in the face of all we are trying to achieve with TCS.

DuVeL · November 07, 2006, 04:48:44 PM

On rates I once got this from OB:
cl_updaterate 101
cl_cmdrate 101
rate 21000

Any suggestions for ADSL and such? Or are these fine?
I'm going to check everything tonight.

Akall · November 07, 2006, 07:01:09 PM

I'm pretty new to CS:S but one thing I've noticed is that I can't actually understand nothing with voice communications...still I was using the standard setting, hope that with this changes something will improove

DuVeL · November 07, 2006, 07:25:01 PM

Tryed all the stuff as suggested above and it still not works.
I was thinking of buying a new headset anyway as it might be my mic (might try one of my brothers microfnes first).
For the rest I was thinking audiodrivers on my Shuttle but they should be fine...:g:

Spend 1,5 hour trying and no result...:sad:

Anonymous · November 07, 2006, 07:48:36 PM

Quote from: DuVeL;161634Tryed all the stuff as suggested above and it still not works.
I was thinking of buying a new headset anyway as it might be my mic (might try one of my brothers microfnes first).
For the rest I was thinking audiodrivers on my Shuttle but they should be fine...:g:

Spend 1,5 hour trying and no result...:sad:

I'm pretty convinced it is a "server end" problem. If we use speex the comms are excellent but we have to do that silly selection thing with options at the start of every map.

DuVeL · November 07, 2006, 08:00:45 PM

Quote from: BlueBall;161636I'm pretty convinced it is a "server end" problem. If we use speex the comms are excellent but we have to do that silly selection thing with options at the start of every map.

12K is running a matchserver and such allready for quit a while on Source. 1 of theirs is also an ED-admin. Maybe they could help out?

I thought it was my Headset as mine was busted during the last LAN.