2.9 Voice chat feedback and discussion

[Yuma]

As of for the new 2.9 update I transmit but the yellow box goes red even when in Radio mode in coalition with other people. A lot of us having issues with the new VoIP. I did hear someone come thru at some point.

[andyfoot]

I've got the same, I can hear others, but my transmit box goes red and no-one else can hear me

 

[Flappie]

Thanks for your feedback. Devs are looking for the cause of this issue.

[Devil 505]

Last night when 2.9 was released my buddy and I jumped into a quick mission on the Nevada map with the F-18 (cold start).  Started up, VOIP buttons assigned, all went well and we could hear each other and speak to one another on multiple channels both comm1 and 2. Flew over Nevada for a bit then bounced over to the Marianas map and flew the Huey.  Flew 2 hogs, radios worked just fine we both heard each other and could converse with no issues.  Jumped into 1 slick and tested the intercom.  I could hear my buddy (primary pilot) from the gunners seats but could not communicate with him.  I jumped to the Copilot seat and we could converse over intercom no issues.  Seems to be a problem with intercom and the gunner positions. 

We then jumped over to the F-18 on the carrier (same map/mission) and did a cold start.  This is where the problems started.  After we cranked up, my buddy could see me transmitting on com1 and com2 but could not hear me.  He would transmit on com1 and com2 and I could hear him. My aircraft volume knobs where cranked all the way up.  After trouble shooting for awhile we called it.

Jumped into today with our other team member and nothing but issues.  Ran the same Nevada mission from last night with the Hornet and I could hear him, but he could not hear me. Jumped over to the Marianas in the Huey same mission from last night, and flew in 1 bird.  I could hear him on the intercom but he could not hear me.  Neither one of us where getting a green transmit indicator when trying to talk to one another.  We tried both a normal server and dedicated.  Also tried a different mission on a persistent campaign with same results.  

I am curious how we went from a successful test last night with no issues to me not being able to transmit out now.  I have run through every setting including all volume setting and no dice. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I will try to shoot a video later and attached the trak file as well.

[Yuma]

I switched from my old trusted headset with mic to the pimax dmas and mic and now my in game radio works  But my headset will work in SRS…

Edited October 21, 2023 by Yuma

[Devil 505]

7 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

Last night when 2.9 was released my buddy and I jumped into a quick mission on the Nevada map with the F-18 (cold start).  Started up, VOIP buttons assigned, all went well and we could hear each other and speak to one another on multiple channels both comm1 and 2. Flew over Nevada for a bit then bounced over to the Marianas map and flew the Huey.  Flew 2 hogs, radios worked just fine we both heard each other and could converse with no issues.  Jumped into 1 slick and tested the intercom.  I could hear my buddy (primary pilot) from the gunners seats but could not communicate with him.  I jumped to the Copilot seat and we could converse over intercom no issues.  Seems to be a problem with intercom and the gunner positions. 

We then jumped over to the F-18 on the carrier (same map/mission) and did a cold start.  This is where the problems started.  After we cranked up, my buddy could see me transmitting on com1 and com2 but could not hear me.  He would transmit on com1 and com2 and I could hear him. My aircraft volume knobs where cranked all the way up.  After trouble shooting for awhile we called it.

Jumped into today with our other team member and nothing but issues.  Ran the same Nevada mission from last night with the Hornet and I could hear him, but he could not hear me. Jumped over to the Marianas in the Huey same mission from last night, and flew in 1 bird.  I could hear him on the intercom but he could not hear me.  Neither one of us where getting a green transmit indicator when trying to talk to one another.  We tried both a normal server and dedicated.  Also tried a different mission on a persistent campaign with same results.  

I am curious how we went from a successful test last night with no issues to me not being able to transmit out now.  I have run through every setting including all volume setting and no dice. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I will try to shoot a video later and attached the trak file as well.

So small update.  All three of us flew tonight for 4 hours and to my astonishment, Wulfe (first guy I flew with) our coms worked fine.  Kandy on the other hand, he cannot hear us.  We can hear him and he sees the transmit, but no audio on his side.  We will keep you up all up to speed as we try to isolate what is going on.  We are all using the internal PIMAX headset. The 3 of us only fly in VR. Right now we have to use Skype to communicate until we iron this out.

[Mistermann]

6 hours ago, Devil 505 said:

So small update.  All three of us flew tonight for 4 hours and to my astonishment, Wulfe (first guy I flew with) our coms worked fine.  Kandy on the other hand, he cannot hear us.  We can hear him and he sees the transmit, but no audio on his side.  We will keep you up all up to speed as we try to isolate what is going on.  We are all using the internal PIMAX headset. The 3 of us only fly in VR. Right now we have to use Skype to communicate until we iron this out.

I am the guy that cannot hear the transmissions, but am heard by others.  I recorded the flight from last night that Devil referred to above.  @Flappie, hopefully this helps diagnose the challenge I am having.  I am happy to provide system logs, details, etc.  

We were on our dedicated server when this happened, but it also happens when one of us hosts a MP mission from our local machine as well.  This feels like something with my DCS machine.  

Note the video was recorded in game using VR so head movement might be distracting to some.

 

[SignorMagnifico]

16 hours ago, Mistermann said:

I am the guy that cannot hear the transmissions, but am heard by others.  I recorded the flight from last night that Devil referred to above.  @Flappie, hopefully this helps diagnose the challenge I am having.  I am happy to provide system logs, details, etc.  

We were on our dedicated server when this happened, but it also happens when one of us hosts a MP mission from our local machine as well.  This feels like something with my DCS machine.  

Note the video was recorded in game using VR so head movement might be distracting to some.

 

I'm also having this same issue. Others can hear me, but I can't hear them. My DCS also crashes when I try to do a mic test in the main menu.

[Mistermann]

8 hours ago, SignorMagnifico said:

I'm also having this same issue. Others can hear me, but I can't hear them. My DCS also crashes when I try to do a mic test in the main menu.

I went and did a Mic test and my system crashed as well.

However after several hours of testing over the past 2 days, I have discovered a workaround - at least for me.  Not super satisfying, but something that at least allows me to play with my buddies and not requiring skype or some other VOIP solution.

I believe the problem comes from DCS' inability to handle multiple audio devices properly.  VOIP works for most (my fling buddies don't have this issue and we have similar setups), but others like myself have no ability to hear the transmissions.  BTW, when I test DCS without my VR headset turned on, VOIP works just fine and the mic test does not crash DCS.

My workaround

I ended up driving the "headset" sounds in game to a different output (shut down and restart DCS when making these changes).  My original settings had all game sounds driven to my default devices.  In my case, that's my PIMAX VR headset.  [BTW:  This is my preferred setup as all sounds come through my headset directly into my ears]

Here's the configuration change I made that temporarily solved this challenge for me.  

 

By forcing DCS to use a different audio output for headphones than the main audio out, I was able to use the PIMAX and hear VOIP.  This is less than an ideal workaround because I now only hear radio calls, betty warnings, RWR notifications, etc. outside of my headset.  This means I have to turn UP those sounds so I can hear them over the sounds coming directly into my ears through the PIMAX headset.  I may try and reverse those settings above to see if Headset sounds can come through the PIMAX and game sounds through the desktop speakers so the most important sounds are most prominent.  

Still ... the issue here isn't ALL headphone sounds are not coming through the PIMAX, just the VOIP transmissions are absent. 

This sounds like a tough bug to tackle (no pun intended).  Hopefully ED's testers can locate and address relatively soon.  

@BIGNEWY - this is starting to feel like this belongs in a different bug thread on its own.  I am happy to post this elsewhere if that's preferred.

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Mistermann

[BIGNEWY]

44 minutes ago, Mistermann said:

@BIGNEWY - this is starting to feel like this belongs in a different bug thread on its own.  I am happy to post this elsewhere if that's preferred.

split the thread into a new one. 

thanks for the feedback we are working on tweaks based on the info you are all giving us.

[Yuma]

The voice chat for me is a mix bag, sometimes I come in and works and sometimes I come in and it doesn’t. I’m also using Pimax audio solution. Still have SRS as backup.

[Chrisreb1]

Used to work for me and friends but after update getting a mixed bag of who can hear who. Also in pit comms are drowned out by static - anyone else had this?

[martinistripes]

I tried to test voice comms in MP. My friend joined my Apache as CPG. I could see his c/s listed in 'common' and in 'coalition', but he wouldn't show in the '[intercom] AH-64D Blk II' channel. When I transmitted on the intercom, the box was red, showing no one receiving.

[Dragzor]

@martinistripes I had one successful voice chat msgs. On both of us, sending and recieving msgs worked. Box was turning red when sending and when recieving box turn green. Thats how it worked for me and the other guy. We stood close to each other on the same airfield, just to test that thing  

[Gizzy]

For Info:
DCS 2.9 VoiceChat totally dead in all modules my end and other group members. GUI popupwindow not showing, mic test okay but no comms in game MP same or multi aircraft type.  For our group test mothing works..... what did was a very low squelch break click  on using PTT.

[dogsbody59]

In radio options when i press the sound filter options test my computer crashes everytime

[BIGNEWY]

1 minute ago, dogsbody59 said:

In radio options when i press the sound filter options test my computer crashes everytime

please make a new thread and attach your dcs log or crash zip from saved games dcs log folder. 

We will look into it. 

thank you

[darkman222]

I feel that we need some audible feedback if someone stepped on a transmission pretty urgently in the next versions. Otherwise you dont get that a radio call was possibly truncated.

I dont know how realistic it is for mordern radios but at least in the F16 its a thing. Same goes for the sound you hear in SRS when starting and stopping a transmission. It gives nice feedback if your finger accidentally slipped off the transmission button.

And the deluxe version would be the option via slider to balance the different radios between Left and Right. Guessing that this could be the least realistic feature, but it helps a lot distinguishing between different channels.

Edited October 25, 2023 by darkman222

[CarbonFox]

I can't get the VoIP menu or assigned functions to work. I set-up my headset and mic to where I could atleast hear normal AWACS radio chatter after realizing the Default settings weren't working. Not sure if I missed any steps as the L-Ctrl, L-Shift + Tab button assignment isn't working to bring up the radio menu itself.

[BIGNEWY]

Just now, CarbonFox said:

I can't get the VoIP menu or assigned functions to work. I set-up my headset and mic to where I could atleast hear normal AWACS radio chatter after realizing the Default settings weren't working. Not sure if I missed any steps as the L-Ctrl, L-Shift + Tab button assignment isn't working to bring up the radio menu itself.

make sure voice is ticked and turn servers enabled in audio tab in dcs

then check the server has voice chat enabled, otherwise you wont see it pop up 

[martinistripes]

41 minutes ago, CarbonFox said:

I can't get the VoIP menu or assigned functions to work. I set-up my headset and mic to where I could atleast hear normal AWACS radio chatter after realizing the Default settings weren't working. Not sure if I missed any steps as the L-Ctrl, L-Shift + Tab button assignment isn't working to bring up the radio menu itself.

I noticed a lot of the big MP servers are still using SRS and have voice chat disabled; need to check before joining that it's enabled.

[Masterdoddy]

@BIGNEWY I am having similar problems to others where it seems to work randomly one time then not another. The reason for the tag is I was wondering if you would consider adjusting the PTT box colour outlines, which indicate status, to fill the box with a colour instead or have a symbol added? I have severe red/green colourblindness and so with such a thin outline I can't differentiate between them. It's making it difficult diagnosing the problems because I can't tell my friends what I can see on my side. 

Thank you. 

[BIGNEWY]

4 hours ago, Masterdoddy said:

@BIGNEWY I am having similar problems to others where it seems to work randomly one time then not another. The reason for the tag is I was wondering if you would consider adjusting the PTT box colour outlines, which indicate status, to fill the box with a colour instead or have a symbol added? I have severe red/green colourblindness and so with such a thin outline I can't differentiate between them. It's making it difficult diagnosing the problems because I can't tell my friends what I can see on my side. 

Thank you. 

Hi Masterdoddy, I will mention it to the team, but can not make any promises. 

edit: the team agree and will look to tweak it on a future update.

thank you 

 

[SignorMagnifico]

The game crash during the microphone test appears to have been solved with the latest update. Thanks for the progress, devs!

Unfortunately, when I try to test my microphone, regardless of which option I select, either Default or my microphone, the dB bar at the bottom does not move during the microphone test.

I have multiple audio hardware audio sources including my webcam, monitor connected via DisplayPort, and a headset microphone connected via a 3.5mm jack. I have disabled all microphones except my headset microphone in Windows settings, so Windows only sees my headset microphone. In the DCS menu, I can either choose "Default" or my headset microphone. 

My microphone is working properly, as I can hear myself when testing it in Windows, and it works with Discord and SRS.

Anyone have any troubleshooting ideas? 

Edited November 17, 2023 by SignorMagnifico

[Japo32]

Here in my group still we have issues of people talking and not be heared. They have set the devices as they should, assigned the voip controls in each aircraft, and set the voip volume more than 0%, and press the antenna icon to be green. But nothing. Specially people with the F16.

A shame as we would like to change from SRS, no because SRS is a bad program, that is not. It is great! but we wish to use less parallel programs running with DCS