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Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

wiki.mumble.info

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Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can export and import certificate files across machines. I've done something like this in the past, and found little issue. I prefer this to something like Discord's centralized account & server system, although I know there should be better alternatives for achieving decentralization.

Right. The problem was is that the majority of my users were non-technical. So I was left with the choice of: 1) picking voip software that supports username/password authentication that they would be familiar with since virtually every other service on the internet works in a similar fashion vs 2) picking Mumble and trying to explain to them how to import/export their identity certificates for all their owned device…

> import/export their identity certificates

Experienced this for the first time last year when I started my current job at a company that is still using lotus notes. I get that it's possibly more secure than username/password but dang is it annoying.

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#92

We live and die by Mumble in Eve Online. The hierarchical chat room setup is essential for large fleets.

When I tried to get into Eve, I applied to a couple corps, and they both used discord. Maybe because they were newbie-focused?

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#93
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any idea why? Sounds stupid, considering latency losses and increased server costs.

In the online gaming space, Skype used to be a big enabler of DDoS attacks due to its P2P nature. Almost everyone used Skype back before we had Discord and other alternatives, and there were plenty of sites that you could paste in someone's name and have their IP in seconds. Even if they weren't online, Skype servers cached a bunch of previously seen IPs. Then they would paste that into a $5/mo "stress test" tool and…

this was done well after skype stopped using p2p routing

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#94
post #36

I've managed to keep a group of friends using Mumble instead of Discord, and I think we've all benefited from it. My privacy-focused friend appreciates the encryption and everyone else appreciates the ability to locally mute people if they walk away with their headset hot-mic'ed. We use discord for text communication, but when people are online for games or just to chat, we use Mumble.

I mean, you can locally mute people in Discord too so I'm not quite sure why that is in the "pro" side for Mumble. However, I'll agree that Mumble is great if all your looking for is somewhat privacy-forward low-latency voice chat with minimal bloat.

Oh, fair enough, I didn't know people could local-mute in discord, when I used it I didn't notice the feature. The low-latency and lack of bloat is still a major plus though.

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#95
post #69

I use Discord now since most of my friends are on it, but I've always been a fan of Mumble (and murmur server) since it's high quality software and open source. I also made https://guildbit.com years ago for gamers that want to just quickly spin up a temporary server with their friends. I still operate it today since there's still a few users out there. I think it would be cool if someone were to create an open sourc…

I'm a huge fan of guildbit, it makes it really easy to get a quick temporary server. We use it all the time.

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#96
Ah, mumble!

In a former online life of mine, this was one of the key components for my clan to advance into the Eurocup finals of 2006 (or maybe it was 2005?) in Rocket Arena for Q3A =)

All the other teams were on (I guess) teamspeak2, and latency was noticably higher for them due to the inferor audio/voice codec employed. I originally considered mumble and murmur attractive due to the fact that the client and server were both proper FOSS, but it proved a secret ingredient to our success back then.

I still use it to this day, but since most games include a voice chat thingie of their own these days, I can understand it isn't more popular. Awesome piece of software, and very polished for a FOSS desktop project!

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#97

I still regularly record podcasts via Mumble. It's got solid built-in recording with decent options, such as whether to record users individually or as to record the entire chat as one audio feed. Because we have users drop from time to time, having this built-in capability makes it easy for us to have at least two people on recording duty at any given time. I do take mumble.com up on server hosting, because it's so…

> I do take mumble.com up on server hosting, because it's so dirt cheap https://www.mumble.com/mumble-server-pricing.php The cheapest tier is 90 $ for 24 months, i.e. 3.75 per month. That buys me nearly two entire virtual servers.

Ah, that is what I paid. I recall it being less but I checked. The difference, of course, is that I don't manage any virtual servers, and don't even really think about my Mumble server, it's just there. And $3.75 per month is not a significant cost for running a podcast, even if you make no revenue on it.

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#98

I still use mumble with friends for general voice chat. I really wish more games implemented its MumbleLink API for positional audio between clients. https://wiki.mumble.info/wiki/Link For example, GW2 implements so people sound relative to where your characters are if they are on the same map. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/API:MumbleLink The API has also allowed for other tools such at GW2 Tactical Overlay ( http…

Spacial audio really adds a lot to a game. Day of Infamy and Resistance and Liberation are a lot of fun because of it (although RaL is pretty much dead)

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprised no one mentioned the documented reason: the VirnetX parent lawsuits, which were also why Apple had to stop using P2P in FaceTime. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/after-200m-patent-se...

Apparently patents in this form need to be abolished ASAP. Human society can't afford anything like this standing in the way of widespread usage of such well known and well available technologies. Please, let's all go and short that patent troll.

Apparently that troll also forced changes to Apple's handling of on-demand VPNs: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/apple-says-vpn-chang...

Re: Mumble – Open source, low latency, high quality voice chat software

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. In example, you've got your "logisitics" wing; in this context that's your healers. A commander ("logi-FC") within the channel issues orders to the sub-channel members, and no one outside the channel hears that. All members can still hear the parent channel. In fights with 20-50 on each side particularly, it's really something to have the "pulse of the fight" because as a healer you can tell how well that's…

That really sounds like an indispensible feature. Is Mumble the only voice chat system that provides this kind of hierarchical linking of channels, or is it available on other systems as well? If it's not available on, say, Discord, why is that? Do people just somehow make do without it? Or is there some other compensating feature?

Discord is all about being dead simple, and nested channels necessarily require more configuration complexity on both the server and client.

So, while the feature is a must-have for a small subset of users, it's probably not seen as being worth the trouble when just supporting several flat channels is more than enough for the 99% of Discord's potential user base.

I'd still hope they at least add some kind of "broadcast to several channels" option, since that seems like the simplest version that would still be useful, but I don't really expect it.

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