How to Set Up and Use Voice Chat

At today's "Second Life and Lunch" meeting we talked about how to set up and use voice. Sometimes when you attend an event or a class in Second Life the main speakers will use voice to communicate to the audience. It's worth setting up voice chat on your computer in order to hear the voices of others even if you don't plan to speak a word.

Set Up Voice Chat:
First, be sure to check to be sure that your headset is plugged into the correct ports on your computer. (A microphone and speaker combination will work also.) Make sure your headset/microphone is in the "on" position.

In Second Life, go to EDIT > PREFERENCES > VOICE CHAT TAB
Check the box to Enable Voice Chat

Hear from your avatar OR Hear from your camera position?
"Hear from your avatar position" is a good way to start with voice chat. It works best when you want to talk to nearby avatars. If you use your camera controls a lot, or if you attend a lot of live events in-world, "Hear from your camera position" is useful. If you’re at an event and you're sitting in the cheap seats, a long distance away from the speaker, just use camera controls to get closer and hear the presentation.

Push-to-talk?
I suggest selecting both "Start Viewer in Push-to-Talk mode" and "Use Push-to-Talk in Toggle mode." Push-to-Talk is a handy feature that allows you to press your middle mouse button when you speak (or a different button if you choose) - sort of like a walkie-talkie. Push the button to talk and when you're done push it again. That way people in-world don't hear the background noises where you are when you're not speaking.

Now click the VOICE CHAT SETUP button to start the voice chat set-up wizard. Select the "Yes, continue using voice chat" radio button and then click the NEXT button.

Click the NEXT button again.

You should see five boxes next to a slider with the left-most boxes filled with green. If you don't, change the "Input" and "Output" device settings until you do. Select the name of your audio card or "default." When you see green in the boxes, speak into your microphone at a normal volume level and adjust the slider bar so that 3-4 of the boxes fill.

Now click the FINISH button, and then the OK button. You should now see a white dot above your avatar which means you have successfully set up voice chat - Yay!


Start Using Voice Chat:
Try speaking into your microphone. If you see green lines surrounding the white dot above your head, you're speaking in-world and others should be able to hear you. If you don't hear anything, click your middle mouse button and try again. When you finish speaking, click the middle mouse button again to turn off your microphone.

Adjust Your Master Volume Controls:
You can adjust all of the sounds you hear in Second Life. Click on the round blue button with the "up" arrow in the lower right-hand corner of your screen above the blue "map" button. This will open the Master Volume Controls. Slide the sliders to adjust the volume of music, media, voice chat, sounds, ambient sounds (birds, waterfalls, wind) and UI (user interface - the clicking of your mouse) that you hear. If you're having a hard time hearing someone using voice, try turning the Ambient and UI sounds all the way off.

Have a Private Chat with a Friend or Group:
This is a great way to chat with other members of our group outside of meetings. Click the blue "Communicate" button at the bottom left of your screen, this will open your "Contacts." Select the "Friends" tab to have a chat with a friend, or the "Groups" tab start a chat with a group. Select a friend/group from the list and click the IM/Call button, then click the "Join Call" button. This will send a pop-up notice to the friend/group asking them to join the call. When they do, start talking. When you're finished, click the "End Call" button. If you want to see who has joined a group chat, click on the small blue button in the upper right hand corner of the group chat window you just opened with the double arrows on it. This will open a list of members who have joined the call. They can choose to speak or use text chat during the call. A green icon will appear next to the name of the avatar who is speaking. (The white dot above your avatar's head will disappear when you are in a private chat.)

This information and more is available on the J:/Shared drive. Just look for the "Second Life Group" folder and inside that you'll find a "How to do stuff" folder. More information will be added as it becomes available.

Torley Linden has created a series of videos on this topic:
Voice Chat: Getting Started
Voice Chat: Etiquette
Voice Chat: Who’s Speaking?
Voice Chat: Improving Your Hearing
Voice Chat: Private Calls
Voice Chat: Speech Gestures
Voice Chat: Disabling it for yourself and on land