You may want to never use Vent again....

So I was recently forced to try, after much kicking and screaming, Teamspeak 3.0. And holy CRAP was I impressed, suddenly people who'd sounded like a bad radio program came in perfectly clear, and it was SOOO much easier to use, with far more functionality.

So is everyone aware of this, or is this a new development? I now have a private teamspeak server, so I'd be happy to give a demo to anyone who'd like to compare, and I'd encourage people to add their experiences, positive or negative, below.

Here are the advantages I've noticed so far...

1. Cheaper (500 simultaneous seats available for free on full version)
2. Easier to set-up and use, both on client and server side
3. Far superior voice quality (both much clearer AND none of those volume issues so far)
4. More advanced features (avatars, simple file transfer, recording, ...)

If anyone is aware of any reason to prefer vent (besides intertia), I'd love to hear it!

How is it on bandwidth/system usage?

Do you know if it has a REST API? :P

Has anyone tried Jabber? I've heard good things about it from fleet members.

Actually, this would do nicely.

I don't actually pay for our Vent server. It's generously donated by one of our founding members, Bradley1701.

Perhaps a testing team should be put together for this Teamspeak program, the gaming network may benefit, at least before Teamspeak's premium services arrive.

Teamspeak sounds like it might be worth a try. :)

Quote by NicholasJohn16

Has anyone tried Jabber?

They are beginning to use this where I work. Looks easy enough, though I know some are not keen. Haven't used it myself though.

Wow, love the enthusiasm and smart questions! Here are some responses:

Kasandaro: I used to be a VoIP engineer MANY moons ago, and I'm amazed at the progress the technology has made in the meanwhile. We're using a Speex open source codec at maximimum-quality (32 kHz ultra-wideband), and it only requires 7 kB/s (although that's without packet, overhead, I'm pretty sure). Pretty incredible stuff. And the sys admin who's managing our virtual private server has spent a ton of effort optimizing resources, so our trials have been near perfect.

Nick: I'm aware of Jabber the original XMPP messaging protocol (my old org used it before SIP came along), but I'm not aware of any client being released by the jabber.org organization, although there are a number of jabber-compatible clients out there. Do you know which client your friends were thinking of? As for Teamspeak API support, I couldn't see any explicit references to REST (or SOAP), but there is the php stuff you found.

Zander Hawk/Starfish1: A testing team sounds like a great idea. In fact, if anyone wants to give it a quick shot, feel free to grab some friends and try it on my server, just mention my name if anyone's around (John/Araa).

Client download: www.teamspeak.com
Server location: gateway.novacoresystems.com
Password: crimsonrain

Or, send me a message online (@strangetango) and I'll be happy to take you on a tour through some of the cooler features. I'll ask people to post their experiences here after they've tried it... good OR bad.

Quote by Araa

Nik: I'm aware of Jabber the original XMPP messaging protocol (my old org used it before SIP came along), but I'm not aware of any client being released by the jabber.org organization, although there are a number of jabber-compatible clients out there. Do you know which client your friends were thinking of? As for Teamspeak API support, I couldn't see any explicit references to REST (or SOAP), but there is the php stuff you found.

Oh wow, I'm not sure what I was thinking. I meant Mumble!

PS: Nick is spelled with a C. :P

Apologies for the typo, I've been hanging out with my bud Rik too much lately!

And yes, also heard good things about mumble, but never tried it personally. I glanced through their feature set and didn't see anything distinct from TS, but it's probably also worth a look by the testing team! ;-)

So did anything happen with this while I was away? If anyone took a look at the TS/mumble alternatives, I'd love to hear what you thought.

If you're interested, I'm happy to give a demo to anyone that'd like to see life on the less staticy side, and help get the fleet out of the vent dark ages!

The group I raid with in WOW uses Mumble for chat. Actually, that's the chat program the entire guild uses. We also have vent if we group with any non-guild members. We really like it and the voice component is very clear. I like it much better than vent but I've never looked into the technical side, just know it works well. :)

Quote by KestrelWolf

Alternatively, skype could be used in a pinch I suppose. Though I'd guess getting everyone together in a conference call would be too much of a hassle.

Our linkshell used to use Skype conference calls for events. The only advantage to it was that we could control who was on the call, but: the bandwidth was sometimes awful, to the point that twitch abilities were gambling; the host's computer limited the number of people on the call (some people could host four people, some could host a dozen); and if the host had to put the call on hold, everyone was put on hold. It was a massive p.i.t.a.

So it sounds like we have 100% support for either TS or Mumble from people who have already had cross-platform experience.

I loved Zander_Hawk's suggestion to put a testing team together. Do we have a champion on the leadership team that'd be willing to lead this? I'm pretty convinced that it'll be a significant improvement to the fleet, and may help to reignite interest in our voice communications.

Myself and NicholasJohn tested teamspeak a few weeks ago. We found the sound quality to be very much below par of what we have come to expect from Ventrilo.

It wasn't any easier to set up or use and I don't see any benefit gained from moving.

Skype isn't really a feasible option as it requires dialogue before connections can be made and would render the public-open part of our Ventrilo extinct.

Wow Halish, I'm totally surprised.

Thanks a ton for the initiative, although I would have been more than happy to help you guys with the process! But it does make me wonder if your test server had been appropriately configured (both hardware and software options), because a well run system is so clearly better than the vent we're using that not a single person has suggested otherwise up to this point. As you've seen, everyone who's tested both and responded on this thread has preferred TS or Mumble, as have the ~10 people, fleeties and non-fleeties that I've introduced to TS. Literally zero vent defenders except you two!

I hope you used a recently updated TS 3.0 server, that you noticed that the voice quality vs. performance quality is configurable per channel through the client interface, and that the server has pretty extensive options that have been tweaked to allow hardware reservation to optimize voice quality. Did you have admin permissions on your server? I'd be happy to show you a highly-optimized server and see if you have the same reaction.

And yeah, skype's totally not a feasible option for us, but it sounded like mumble could potentially be an option as well.

As an ex-VoIP engineer, I was thinking of setting up a few quantitative and qualitative tests to avoid any subjectivity that can inevitably leak into these kind of assessments. Let me know if I can help.

P.S. The reason I get a bit excited over this is that I used to be a total pro-vent guy and REALLY didn't want to be bothered to install yet another new client. When someone finally dragged me over, despite me really trying very hard to hate it, I was seriously impressed. And converts are the always the loudest. lol. Must be the German engineering!

It sounds like something went quite wrong with your testing, and I'd be happy to take you through a few test runs on a highly optimized server to let you experience what the rest of us do. Believe me, as everyone who's has significant experience with both on this thread has said, there's no comparison.

There's also the question of mumble, do you plan to give that a shot as well? Seems to be on par with TS based on the feedback I`ve heard and read.

And I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people willing to help, including possibly an admiral/FC or two, so think about letting us get involved!

I guess I may not have done too well in my search, but where exactly is the Vent info? I couldn't find the server info or password anywhere. :side:

http://fleet.stonewallgaming.net/welcome-center/guides-and-tutorials/setup-ventrillo

vent info is near the bottom of the link

I've used vent for a good while. It's always had good quality audio and been very dependable, I don't personally think we require something else. But that's me.

Dolby Axon

I was doing some research for my job and ran across this. I'm not sure anyone knows about it but it looks pretty interesting.