New 'voice' Encoding Options With Steam., And information on how to enable them! Options

[WolfWings]

Here is a mailing-list archive entry about the Speex voice-compression codec, where it details how to enable and use this new and vastly improved speech compression with Half-Life. It will eventually replace the existing voice-compression, and become the only option. Until then, it is not the default option, but available for all Steam-powered servers. In general, reducing bandwidth usage for voice down to 6000 bits/second (quality 2) still sounds better than the current codec, while truly high levels of compression (2400 bits/second) sounds equivilantly bad, but in a different way than the current compression method.

As a quick comparison, it used anywhere from 7.5% as much bandwidth to 47.5% as much bandwidth as the current 'voice' compression, and at less than 25% the bandwidth usage sounds generally better than the current voice compression. It does use a higher portion of server CPU, but only 1-2% in most of my tests.

And as Yet Another Note: 56k modems generally have around 20000 bits/second of upload space available, and around 40000 bits/second of download space available, once you factor in TCP/IP and PPP headers and everything else. So these new codecs are MUCH more friendly for modem users.

Unfortunately, it's only available for Steam-compatable servers. Anyways, for those that don't want to read that mailing-list for more information, here you go:

First, switch your server to use the Speex encoder:

sv_voicecodec voice_speex

Now, you're running in Speex mode. The next choice is how much bandwidth do you want Speex to use, which is a direct trade-off with the voice quality.

sv_voicequality 1 //2,400 bits/sec, 7.5% of current usage
sv_voicequality 2 //6,000 bits/sec, 18.75% of current usage <-- Ideal Choice
sv_voicequality 3 //8,000 bits/sec, 25% of current usage
sv_voicequality 4 //11,200 bits/sec, 35% of current usage
sv_voicequality 5 //15,200 bits/sec, 47.5% of current usage

And for comparison, the original MILES 'codec' which is 32000 bits/second, and the untouched base sample I used for this test, which is 128000 bits/second, for your convenience.

Heavilly edited to make convenient links for the comparison values, and more information on bandwidth consumption. Removed all other messages in thread except those holding files, moving all information up to this post.

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Oct 4 2003, 07:36 PM

[WolfWings]

sv_voicequality 1, 2400 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:11 AM

Attached File(s)

 2400.zip ( 33.04K ) Number of downloads: 362

 

[WolfWings]

sv_voicequality 2, 6000 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:10 AM

Attached File(s)

 6000.zip ( 33.7K ) Number of downloads: 478

 

[WolfWings]

sv_voicequality 3, 8000 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:10 AM

Attached File(s)

 8000.zip ( 33.83K ) Number of downloads: 214

 

[WolfWings]

sv_voicequality 4, 11200 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:10 AM

Attached File(s)

 11200.zip ( 33.98K ) Number of downloads: 163

 

[WolfWings]

sv_voicequality 5, 15200 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:10 AM

Attached File(s)

 15200.zip ( 34.02K ) Number of downloads: 370

 

[verbose]

Speex is a Good Thing. If you've used TeamSpeak at all recently, you're probably already familiar with speex and how it blows the other codecs away in terms of quality/bitrate. Granted, it's only good for human-voice ranges, but use the right tool for the job, 'eh?

[WolfWings]

MILES compression, 32000 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:09 AM

Attached File(s)

 Miles.zip ( 33.47K ) Number of downloads: 364

 

[WolfWings]

Original source WAV file, 128000 bits/second

This post has been edited by WolfWings: Sep 30 2003, 04:08 AM

Attached File(s)

 Base.zip ( 33.76K ) Number of downloads: 309

 

[Drek]

This is totally cool. Finally a reason to like Steam! My buddy on dial-up has had to basically sacrifice his voice communication in order to be able to play HL, and he loves talking, so it is a big sacrifice. This looks like it might give it back to him.

Thanks for the tip WolfWings!

[billcat]

I'm using this on my server, under linux HLDS/steam, and it seems to work just fine. It was a bit choppy under the 1 setting so I turned it up to 2. Still doesn't seem to cut into the BW much at all.

Thx very much for the tip.

[devicenull]

This is kick-****,
The voice quality sounds like never before,
All servers should have this on!!!

[Iced_Eagle]

I highly support this! I love how this sounds love love love

i think that if your server has this put [SPEEX ENABLED] in your server name or at least [SPEEX] cause that would so want to make me play there

[WolfWings]

Glad to know everyone likes this little feature I found for Half-Life servers. Hopefully more and more will transition to using it, once they transition to using Steam at all. =^.^=

[SuicideDog]

I have to say this is killer .. this with the combination of the rate manager seriously improves my server performance.. it is a CS server (/me dodges the tomatos).. but it majorly helped my server too.

[Boneless]

I wonder why this is not the default codec already on Steam servers...

[WolfWings]

Probably because it's the first version that has support for Speex enabled. They don't want to suddenly force everyone to the new standard without some chance for people to play with it, and get a feel for it, I think.

Also, as a side-note... anyone, feel free to link to this post, use this link when posting this topic to other forums.

[Niteowl]

thanks for posting this! we'll try it on our servers

[Hypergrip]

I was testing with speex and voice_quality 2 and 3. The quality was ok, but although the CPU usage was raising only a few % there were some quite bad lags and crashes. I'm not sure if this is really related to speex, but after i reverted back to voice_miles and voice_quality 2 all seems to run fine as before...

[WolfWings]