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Mumble? Better than TS3 and Ventrillo?
Mar 9th
Roundup – VOIP applications
By Mitchell Vleeskens – Tue Mar 9, 2010 2:19pm
Gamers are a social bunch. Society might think we sold our vocal chords for some quick cash to get the latest Grand Theft Auto, but we know better: gamers love to talk. Indeed, it’s often more difficult to get some of you to shut up!
In a competitive environment, there’s no substitute for team communication. Whether you’re bombing sites on de_dust , or wiping in Molten Core because somebody didn’t realise they were the bomb, typing on the fly doesn’t cut it. So what do you do when you want to “voice” your concerns?
Welcome to a three-way fork. Well, really, it’s a three-way fork with a dark alley behind a few crates off to the side that your mother warned you about. Ahead of you are three roads: an over-populated tollway, Ventrilo; the road everybody used before, TeamSpeak; and the cool road that the edgy crowd uses because nobody else has heard of it, Mumble. Let’s start with Mumble.
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Mumble
Could Mumble be any cooler? For a start, it’s open source. Add in the Mensa puzzle logo and the ability to skin the interface, and we’re talking ice cold. Thankfully it’s free of the pretension.
Mumble’s greatest asset is its simplicity. Setup is painless, as the wizard will help you configure volume and whether you want a push to talk button, and the UI makes sense in a simple but functional way. The in-game overlay in Mumble continues this theme using plain text and an avatar pic. It’s easily the best overlay of the big three because of how unobtrusive it is. You can also configure the font and colours if you so desire. However, a few games will crash or not display correctly when the overlay is enabled – for a full compatibility list check out mumble.sourceforge.net/Games.
Mumble’s audio quality performed the best of the three in our testing, thanks to its implementation of the Speex codec, one handy feature of which is positional audio. Mumble will adjust the direction and distance your teammates voices will come from in correlation with where you stand in the game. Got a couple of mates backing you up? Hopefully they’ll sound like they’re right behind you so you know they’ve got your back instead of letting you rush to your death. Or if your team splits up – a few to the left, a few to the right, while you hang back – you will be provided with instant audio clues as to where the action is. This obviously has more benefit and utility in an FPS, but MMOs also appear on the list of supported games, of which there are currently about 26. Gimmicky? Maybe. Necessary? Maybe not. Awesome? Hell-yes!
Options at first glance appear pretty basic, but hit the inconspicuous “advanced” checkbox in the bottom left corner and you can access more audio and plug-in options. Mumble’s downfall however is its server – Murmur. It’s not for the faint hearted or those not willing to delve into .ini files or plug-in apps. You’ll need to dedicate some time to setting it up. Commercial hosts will help ease the pain if you want an easy way out.
Why choose Mumble? Completely free, great quality, simple but useful client-side UI, best looking overlay, positional audioHopefully from here, things will only get better as more games are added to its compatibility list.
Score 4/5
Hydra Lives
Mar 5th
http://www.vimeo.com/6700209 I first heard of this new chipset via ‘this week in computer hardware‘ and was very interested. After some digging I have learned that this all started back in 2008 when LucidLogix accounted plans to introduce ground breaking parallel graphics technology, followed by the first preliminary performance tests in in late 2009, and now the first board using this technology is up on newegg.
Most of the reviews say this hardware is not quite ready for prime time, as the price/performance level is not yet at the mass market level. Additionally, the current dev/driver team is rather small, so there are some hardware support issues and which are taking awhile to get patched. However buggy it may currently be, the idea behind it is very impressive. If the company manages to keep the line alive, it could be a very interesting thing to see in 4-5 years time. Check it out.
Microsoft Unveils SideWinder X4 Keyboard
Feb 2nd
Sixty bucks snags you backlighting, macro recording, profile switching, and a new ‘anti-ghosting technology’ that’ll likely only be of use to Korean StarCraft masters:
What gamers request most is better control in-game, and today Microsoft Hardware launches the SideWinder X4 Keyboard, a keyboard designed to give gamers more control over their gaming experience with the industry’s most advanced anti-ghosting technology. Developed by the Applied Sciences Group, this new technology ensures gamers’ most complex key combinations will be recognized by the computer to keep the game in action. The new keyboard also offers other advanced gaming features such as macro recording, mode and profile switching, and adjustable backlighting.
I Ain’t Afraid Of No Ghost
The Applied Sciences Group, an interdisciplinary research and development team that works across the Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division doing applied research for Microsoft Hardware, Microsoft Surface and Xbox 360, developed the anti-ghosting technology with gamers in mind. The advanced technology takes anti-ghosting to the next level by allowing gamers to press up to 26 keys at once. Because each key is scanned independently by the keyboard hardware, each key press is correctly detected regardless of how many other keys are being pressed at the same time. The SideWinder X4 Keyboard excels where other keyboards fail, letting users execute key combinations and taking full advantage of their skill and speed.
“We’re always looking for new and novel ways to enhance people’s interactions with their PCs,” said Steven Bathiche, research manager of the Applied Sciences Group at Microsoft. “We know that ghosting can be a problem for gamers, so we wanted to develop a way to eliminate this issue and improve the overall gaming experience, and we’ve succeeded with the new anti-ghosting technology in the SideWinder X4 Keyboard.”
Precise Gaming Keyboard With Advanced Features
The SideWinder X4 Keyboard also offers more of the features gamers need to stay at the top of their game. Macro recording lets them string together multiple moves into one press of a button, and the new automatic macro repetition feature lets them repeat the macro over and over as needed with one key. Mode and profile switching also provides easy ways to customize the keyboard for different games and users while adjustable backlighting lets gamers select the lighting level that meets their needs.
Pricing & Availability
The SideWinder X4 Keyboard will be available in March 2010 for the estimated retail price of $59.95 (U.S) and will be available for pre-sale on Amazon.com later this week. The SideWinder X4 Keyboard is backed by a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty.
