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Original post by Anonymous Poster Yes, the same basic speech to text could be used for NPC interactions (and self spell casting...) -- solving another one of the clumsy parts of these games (raw typing to NPCs or using menu controls). The language translation being done on the client side VR (may need a localized grammar parser to handle differences in sentence structure, etc...) is yet another bonus.

Ah, I actually missed that. You're suggesting that to translate the languages so that they are unqiue sounding to different races, each player's client (whether or not they are streaming sound files to other players of their race)
would be constantly processing the VR and if other players from different races were nearby, they would hear not a distorted stream, but a systematically translated reenactment. =]

My major concern would be the variety of voices available, but besides that this seems to help solve a lot of our problems. What is your name? I appreciate the suggestions! =P

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Original post by Anonymous You might think of creating a middleware VTV system for sale on the side. I would consider this kind of feature as one of those great leaps forward in computer games (too many times have I played a MMORPG in a party adventure and when the real action got going not being able to coordinate tactics becaise of the clumsy typing interface).

Well, in many of our MMORPG experience, this was something that we always had to do third party. Unfortunately, I think that it detracts from your immersion in the game, since no matter where you are or what you're doing, you have this omnipresent conversation going on. Our idea for an in-game voice streaming system allows us to limit it to being spatial, in that you must be within eyesight of a player to hear them. Coordinating attacks or a raid type of event would work just as well but with particularly realistic reprocussions to location and enviornment. Not only that but every player is able to participate, not only the technologically savvy. What stops players from getting 3rd party voice programs on the side? Well, that a separate issue we could tackle. =]

I am beginning to like the idea, of implementing both types of systems though. Stream if you like, or T2S or S2T if you feel more comfortable. =]
Either way NPC interactions and foreign languages utilize the latter function (though it would be nearly impossible for a player to gradually learn another language since there would be no intermediary steps between, the foreign language and the clear stream).

Now back to the bandwidth issues!

Thank for the feed-back btw! =D

In There, voice chat works exactly like you describe.

Yea, I'd like to get into contact with your people hp. =]
A PM with the contact info would be very much appreciated.
Thanks again.

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The question is whether the players would attempt to hack our client to speak each spell perfectly each time or things of the sort.

And the answer is "yes".

On another note, I use firefox exclusively, in both linux and windows, and I've never lost my login?

Well, if that will certainly be the case, then we will have to implement some method of confirming that the spell was executed properly. Perhaps we can scan the client files at startup similar to what EQ2 does, to ensure that they have not been tampered with. Since players will have no sort of direct command line access, we may be able to limit the modifying of certain features. It will be an obstacle for sure but that is ok. 0_o

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Original post by Raduprv The problem is, if you want to apply filters and cast spells by speaking the words, the server will have to receive the sound, process it (see if it's a spell), add the appropriate filter for EVERY player in the range, then send the modified sound (each player hears it differently, depending on race, language skill, etc.) to the players in the range. Now, unless you require broad band as a requirement for the players (ie. no dialup and ISDN) and have a LOT of bandwidth on your server, this will be impossible.<!–QUOTE–></td></tr></table></blockquote><!–/QUOTE–><!–ENDQUOTE–><br><br><br>Have the voice recognition &#111;n the client, it processes and validates prior to sending the command to the server for action. This way it never leaves the client until it has been recognized as a valid incantation.<br><br>– Eric 'Wackatronic' Tomlinson<br>

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Original post by Anonymous Poster I think it would be cool to have speech in a MMORPG. But it should not be all or nothing. Speaking spells or saying things to NPCs should be a simplifying supplement to doing it with the keyboard much like a hotkey. Since having hotkeys for every spells would be impractical (read "impossible", it would probably be easier or quicker for him to say the name or the words of power for the spell than to type it in or open his spellbook and select the spell. If it's the only way to cast the spell you make a lot of problems for peolpe with poor soundcards, bad pronounciation, a cold or a lot of other things along those lines.

Everytime a caster learned a new spell, you could have the voice recognition be trained. this way you won't have to worry about pronuciation becuase what you get when trained is how the player pronounciates the spell words.

-- Eric 'Wackatronic' Tomlinson

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Original post by JJacobo I've just had a thought on perhaps simplifying our voice server/ range issue. Let's say that each map in our MMORPG has it's own chat server where all the clients are connected at once (of course invisible to the players themselves). As any one player comes close to any other player their particular streams are simply unmuted, or initiated. There should be a dynamic limit to how many streams you can hear at once of course, and you're free to mute any player you would rather not listen to. Anon, As for the speech-to-text idea, why not allow this system to not only allow players to interact with their environment, but for players who are unable to speak for whatever reason to supplement the voice streaming with it. Therefore, if English isn't your primary language (although we'll have different servers running in different countries with different primary languages!) you can type simple commands, which will be rendered (hopefully convincingly) and heard by the other players. As long as it wouldn't sound mechanical, we would be open to an idea like this.

This type of communication is great. I was thinking that now when a server is maked as RP (Role play), it will be more immersive because now people have to act in character, play in character and speak in character.

I like this guy. :D
Thank you for the input, I understand what you're saying about filtering the speech on the speakers client so that it IS an entirely new and encoded piece of information when received by listeners of another race.