Mumble - Voice Overlay in FGII & Free Server!

[Jonny Tenebrous]

I've been working hard lately on setting up my first DMing campaign through Fantasy Grounds 2: D&D Encounters Season 2 - Dark Sun. I plan to begin in about a week, GMT+1 timezone, and will likely have some slots available... so keep an eye out in the Guild House if you're interested. I've got custom tokens, maps, visual references, charts... the whole nine yards, hopefully. I've also decided to use VOIP instead of text chat. I've played games using either system, and appreciate the ups and downs of both.

Anyhow, one of the things I've found disappointing while using Ventrilo, Skype, or Teamspeak in Fantasy Grounds was the lack of an in-game overlay function, highlighting who was speaking, when, and which player character they were associated with. I suppose it becomes second nature after playing a campaign with the same group for a long time, but during RPGA modules and similar situations, it's enough to break the immersion. Sure, the mentioned programs have 3rd party apps/plugins that can be stuck together with bubblegum and string to create an overlay that works in some programs (not FGII, in my experience), on some systems, after a lot of technical troubleshooting with the players... not worth the pain. Enter Mumble (https://mumble.sourceforge.net/).

This is an open source gaming-centric VOIP software that's been gaining immensely in popularity of late, and which combines many good features of Ventrilo/TS3. The latest stable version (1.2.2.) offers a built-in Overlay feature that actually works (mostly) in FGII. I've tried out the latest test builds, and they appear to be taking this feature even further. We all know that FGII has some funky ways of dealing with DirectX, and Z-Order, and other things that I don't really know what I'm talking about (I'm not a programmer) that make FGII want to "Always Have Priority to Stay Above Every Other Window". In the Mumble preferences, making sure your "Advanced Options" are enabled, you can position the Mumble Voice Overlay right above your Fantasy Grounds II "Text/Chat and Die Rolling Field". Make sure also that, in Mumble, you only "Grow Right" and "Grown Down" as positions for the Overlay (The default options are "Grow Left" and "Grow Down"). So long as your Mumble Voice Overlay is positioned above your Fantasy Grounds II "Text/Chat and Die Rolling Field", the voice overlay will work (mostly) properly while you are running FGII. While it's working properly, the names of all players will stay gray and translucent while they are silent, and become highlighted while they are speaking. Mumble also supports "whispers" between players/GMs, indicated in the overlay with an alternative color highlight.

Now, I did mention that should all the above be set up correctly everything "MOSTLY" works as it should. The "Mostly" means that the Overlay will only correctly refresh between neutral and highlighted while your FGII mouse cursor is also inside the "Text/Chat and Die Rolling Field". This apparently makes FGII automatically refresh (this is a good thing). A manual refresh will also occur if your mouse is anywhere over the FGII table and you click the mouse (giving window priority back to FGII, rather than the Overlay). This is a somewhat minor nuisance, however, and hopefully if a Fantasy Grounds Developer is reading this, they could implement a bit of code for these two programs to exist in harmony.

And the other good thing about Mumble? You can find freely hosted dedicated servers around the net. Currently, UK Game Servers (https://www.ukgame.com/voice_servers/murmur_mumble_voice_servers.html) are hosting free 50-slot Mumble servers for anybody who wants one. I set mine up earlier today.

Attached is a .jpg screenshot I took to illustrate how a properly setup Mumble Voice Overlay will look in Fantasy Grounds.

I hope this is helpful to some others here. Cheers~ Jonny

[EugeneZ]

Thanks for posting this. It looks quite interesting. I installed the client and was surprised by the versatility of the audio configuration. It allows for any configuration I could possibly think of, and the default setup resulted in a much cleaner and smarter stream than Skype.

I'll try it out for a few of my games and see how it goes.

[Zeus]

Cheers for this. Sound quality is very good. I particularly like the background noise reduction capabilities this app offers. I'll be testing this out on Friday with one of my groups hopefully. I'll let you know how I get on.

I created my server over at UK Game Servers so I am all set. I'll also be piping CombiWave output (sound effects and bg music) into the channel so we'll see how it all balances out.

Its a shame the overlay doesn't refresh automatically unless you left click or hover over the chatbox but I guess if a plugin was made available it would cure the issue? Let's hope so.

[Jonny Tenebrous]

I'm glad it's working out for you two already. I agree, I think the audio quality is for very good considering its low latency. Please report back on this thread after your sessions to let us all know how it went, as well as your personal suggestions.

@DrZeuss: You noticed the plugin architecture of Mumble as well, with profiles for loads of games. I think that must be primarily for setting up positional audio in those games. I admit, it'd be very cool to be able to assign pan-able positions to the players around our "tables". But maybe there's also the ability in there for somebody who was code-savvy to create a auto-refresh plugin for the overlay in FGII. Or, since it's open source... maybe somebody could make a custom-build that gives the overlay the necessary tricks to auto-refresh anywhere within FGII?

Also, thanks for the suggestion of CombiWave. Similarly, I experimented for many hours last night with a program called MorphVox Pro, and its optional plugin "Morphvox DJ Streaming"... which adds CombiWave type features to the main program. It's a program primarily designed to morph the voice of the speaker and add effects like reverb, etc. So I, as the GM, can use my own voice, or (with hotkeys), switch to sounds that theoretically (when adjusted properly) make me sound female, orcish, childish, demonic, and so on. It takes a bit of fiddling around to make each voice sound right with your own voice, but I can see the potential. At the same time, there are separate outputs (with independent volume controls) to trigger one-shot "sound effects", and another to play looping "backgrounds". With the DJ streaming plugin operating simultaneously, I can play an eerie/calm .mp3 song in the background, loop the sound of water droplets reverberating in a cave, trigger a sound of splashing footsteps, and then begin speaking in the voice of "whatever lurks in said cave"... you get the drift.

Anyhow, this program has its own very effective noise reduction/background elimination/echo cancellation and whatever you need to cleanup your output. Then, in Mumble, you set the Microphone input to "MorphVox", turn off the options to attenuate sound from other applications, and turn off "noise reduction" in your Sound Ouput settings. You can test your whole configuration by setting the option to hear a loopback after the Server, so you can hear whatever anybody on the server would hear, and at what latency. With these settings, the CombiWave/Morphvox DJ Streaming Music sounds just like it should.

I look forward to experimenting in ramping up the overall audio-immersion of FGII, and to hearing everyone else's input on the subject.

[Stitched]

I know a lot of guys who use Ventrilo/Teamspeak use Playclaw to show who is talking. Mumble sounds pretty sweet, though.

[Jonny Tenebrous]

If you have Playclaw, could you test the Overlay and see if it works in Fantasy Grounds? Many utilities don't, but it's worth knowing which ones do. Also, the fact that it's a retail solution, rather than a free, open-source one like Mumble makes an impact. Still...

[Stitched]

Playclaw is free to use, or at least I have never had it bitch at me to pay for it. Will let you know if it works in FG2. Works a dream with our ARMA 2 Clan using Teamspeak.

[Jonny Tenebrous]

Thanks Stitched. I just downloaded the trial, and unfortunately, it exhibits the same refresh issue in Fantasy Grounds that Mumble does. At least this may still present an option for those who run Teamspeak/Ventrilo.