"Microphone Isn't Working" / "Can't Hear Anyone"

[Zag]

We've had a few people report issues getting their microphone to detect properly.

Here's a few steps we would suggest:

MOST COMMON 1) If you are joining via the Friends List, it's better to first load the game, and perhaps go to the server browser, and THEN join via Friends List. There seem to be some VOIP-related issues when joining friends from your desktop or by other means.

2) Make sure your microphone is set to Windows Default Communication Device. (Possibly before launching the game at all.)

3) Unplug and/or disable (in Windows Sound Settings) any other microphones that could interfere with picking the correct microphone input.

4) The default key to communicate is X. If you've rebound the action to something else, try binding it back to X and see if it functions. (Then let us know what you tried to bind it to.)

5) An additional step would be to check the Steam Voice settings (friends list -> gear icon) and see if fiddling with those settings helps at all. Spacemen does use the Steam voice API, so these could affect it.

6) VR headsets seem to be a consistent issue. We would recommend unplugging any VR headsets and disabling their microphone before launching Unfortunate Spacemen.

7) One user (Thanks Copperheart!) said: "I managed to fix my issue, however none of the things suggested worked for me. I have a soundcard (a Xonar SoundCard) that I use for both audio output and input. It's worked perfectly fine for every single game and application I've ever used, just not Spacemen. I moved the mic jack from the soundcard at the rear of my PC to the mic jack at the front of my PC that runs off the motherboard, then made sure I had the transmit volume was high enough in windows. Seems to work for spacemen now, even though in the spacemen audio options its still set to my soundcard as the capture device."

8) If on Windows 10, go to your Sound mixer options window[imgur.com] in the control panel, before launching Spacemen. Then, leave it open. We don't know why yet, but this seems to help in some cases.

9) Another user managed to fix it by plugging their USB headset into another slot on their PC (e.g. moving it from the front to the back)

10) You could try Boosting your microphone either through Windows default settings or with a third party program. To do this in your normal Windows settings, go to your Sound Control Panel, and go to Recording Devices. In there, right click your Microphone, and go to Properties. Then, go to the Levels tab. From there you can often boost your microphone gain. Some microphones will have different tabs (such as Enhancements) that could offer additional boosting options.

If none of these remedy the issue, we can start to look at other possibilities.

Hopefully that helps -- happy chatting!

[Honk]

The recent hotfix made voices in the game way too soft for me and my friends. Is there a way to manually raise the voip cap back to 2?

[Zag]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย TexMexSupreme:

The recent hotfix made voices in the game way too soft for me and my friends. Is there a way to manually raise the voip cap back to 2?

The majority of reports we've had are that the default microphone volumes are too loud, so I would recommend checking the Gain settings on your microphone, as well as checking if your Windows volume mixer isn't also set quite low. You may need to increase the game (.exe) volume in your volume mixer, and then decrease in-game SFX volume, while keeping your VOIP volume high.

[Death]

my audio mutes whenever mic in use

[Drizz]

Hello! Im currently using the GoXLR mini, together with the Shure SM7B, which just so happens to be one of the quietest microphones on the market. I've noticed that it doesn't work with your game, having the recommended sound settings, gain etc. on it. Now, I've attempted to do as said here with no success. (Note, that it does work in just about any other videogame I have)

The only other game I've had this same issue with would be "Call of duty: Modern Warfare", however they had an option to boost your audio past 100%, to something such as 150%. I believe if this was possible to implement in your game too, it would fix the issue.

If not I'd have to increase the gain on my microphone for this game only, and thus end up with static noises, which to my understanding doesn't come through game audio increase? (correct me if im wrong).

[huh??]

I can hear others but my microphone works in game. Tried everything but it doesn't work. Using the hotkey shows I'm talking but people can't hear me.

[toejam316]

Don't know if Zag's keeping an eye on this thread, but in a sample size of 5, we all have experienced the low transmit volume issue rendering the game basically unplayable. Detailed specs, DXDIAG etc. can be provided, but I'm using Realtek on board audio with a ModMic 3, loud and clear transmission in other programs, but specifically Unfortunate Spacemen is just a no go.
Rather disappointing, hopefully resolvable.

[Zag]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย WuTangle toejam316:

Don't know if Zag's keeping an eye on this thread, but in a sample size of 5, we all have experienced the low transmit volume issue rendering the game basically unplayable. Detailed specs, DXDIAG etc. can be provided, but I'm using Realtek on board audio with a ModMic 3, loud and clear transmission in other programs, but specifically Unfortunate Spacemen is just a no go.
Rather disappointing, hopefully resolvable.

Unfortunately these issues are quite difficult to track down with a wide variety of audio setups. Most people are hearing VOIP like this. [Gameplay video from a player] and most of our feedback is about microphones being too loud which leads me to believe the issue you're having is something a bit more insidious -- to do with your specific setup.)

1) First, I assume you're on the current patch (1.1.1) and not reporting an issue you experienced months back? (1.1.1 has substantially better and more reliable VOIP than any previous version.)

2) How many of the group of 5 are experiencing the issue? When you say a sample size of 5 are you saying everyone has quiet microphones, or everyone is hearing 1 player with a quiet microphone, or..?

3) Are you positive you're using your correct microphone in your Windows Sound Control Panel? Spacemen defaults to using the Default Communication Device. If you have any other device set to that, it will be picking up that microphone (e.g. a webcam microphone further away.)

4) Are you using any other audio programs or hardware for filtering or modification of the audio signal? (e.g. a virtual device, or a sound mixer device) These could be getting ignored or used incorrectly.

5) Has everyone maxed out their in-game VOIP volume levels, both outgoing and incoming? (In the settings menu)

6) Have the players with low microphone volume tried applying Gain/Boost to their microphone from the Sound Control Panel? (Right click on device -> Properties -> Levels tab)

[Honk]

When I had this issue none of the players in our group had secondary mics, no secondary programs (decided to use in-game voice instead of Discord because it has proximity voice chat which is a really cool feature btw), and when I increased the gain on my mic it was slightly louder but much worse quality. Would it be possible to add a wider range for the VoIP in the game like it was before?

[Just A Pig]

I play the game on linux and while searching for the solution it seems to be a problem for other linux users as well.

What can a linux user do in this case?
Is there any solution for this problem if you are a linux user?

I hope you'll see this, thanks in advance, nice game.

[Zag]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Just A Pig:

I play the game on linux and while searching for the solution it seems to be a problem for other linux users as well.

What can a linux user do in this case?
Is there any solution for this problem if you are a linux user?

I hope you'll see this, thanks in advance, nice game.

We don't have any official support for Linux. We're using pretty standard UE4 stuff, so presumably your emulation program isn't correctly picking up the Windows Default Device.

[Jet_Seijuro]

The game played fine when all of a sudden my friend wanted to rehost, sent an invite, and my steam overlay crashed. Rejoined by a direct invite and ingame mic and player voice coms stopped working. Tried all of the steps mentioned above and other suggestions with no luck.
Solution!!!!:

From desktop Launch Game from steam Library (Not through invite)

Then to join a friends lobby, open steam overlay and right click to join your friend or click on invite.

GL mates, happy hunting.

[toejam316]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Zag:

1) First, I assume you're on the current patch (1.1.1) and not reporting an issue you experienced months back? (1.1.1 has substantially better and more reliable VOIP than any previous version.)

2) How many of the group of 5 are experiencing the issue? When you say a sample size of 5 are you saying everyone has quiet microphones, or everyone is hearing 1 player with a quiet microphone, or..?

3) Are you positive you're using your correct microphone in your Windows Sound Control Panel? Spacemen defaults to using the Default Communication Device. If you have any other device set to that, it will be picking up that microphone (e.g. a webcam microphone further away.)

4) Are you using any other audio programs or hardware for filtering or modification of the audio signal? (e.g. a virtual device, or a sound mixer device) These could be getting ignored or used incorrectly.

5) Has everyone maxed out their in-game VOIP volume levels, both outgoing and incoming? (In the settings menu)

6) Have the players with low microphone volume tried applying Gain/Boost to their microphone from the Sound Control Panel? (Right click on device -> Properties -> Levels tab)

1) Yep, latest patch, just installed and tested on the NB Aus server.

2) All 5 individuals are presenting quiet VOIP output, and receiving quiet VOIP in turn.

3) 100% - I don't know the specific details of other users, but I'm using the realtek onboard front panel input of my Asrock X570 Taichi with a Mod Mic 3, 100% volume 0dB of gain successfully with Skype for Business (for Working from Home), as well as with Mumble and Discord.

4) Tested with Mumble and without Mumble running, tested with the Windows mixer opened and not, validated all settings in real time including using voice loopback, etc. The only enabled audio devices are the Stream Streaming Microphone and the Realtek Mic, everything else is disabled, no software running that could modify or impact.

5)Yep, set in game volume to 1.0, and when rubbing individual character models up against each other, I would say that you'd be able to hear the VOIP comparatively clearly if you set the in game master volume to 20%.

6) Gain isn't a viable solution, because it brings up the noise floor significantly while not correcting the audio issues. Unfortunate Spacemen is the only software presenting this info, so I suspect it's to do with the specific implementation breaking down. As I mentioned, I'm happy to supply a DXDiag so you can get some specific config issues, and you're welcome to add me on Steam if you'd like to do some testing, the individuals in question are all within NZ/AU East timezones.

[thecheesiestburger]

It's important to note that step 1 refers to Windows Default COMMUNICATION Device; not just the default device. This is a setting that's almost completely deprecated, so you kinda have to do some digging to get to it. Start Menu -> Settings -> Search for "Sound Settings" -> Click "Sound Control Panel" on the right side. Then go to the Recording tab, find your device, right-click -> Set as Default Windows Communication Device. Relaunch the game and see if that fixes the problem. It did for me!

[Derial_ch]

Hey Zag, first off I wanted to thank you for making this little bundle of fun that my friends recently introduced me to!

I have followed every step you listed on the main page but I am unable to sadly get my microphone to work (even to the point of restarting my pc to ensure the settings come into effect since windows can be weird sometimes)

I can hear most people just fine in game, I am only suffering a microphone related issue where no one can hear me.

1) I have set the microphone to the windows default

2) Using the advanced settings I specified the microphone to be used for this game in particular.

3) This seems to be a bit outdated since the game does not let me alter these settings at all for which device to use.

4) I did not touch this keybind option. All my tests were holding down X

5) I also set this up as according.

6) My RiftS is unplugged and with the new windows sound systems I cannot find a way to further disable the microphone.

7) I cannot plug my headset into my motherboard directly due to the setup being connected to a game DAC. Though this would be the first game to ever make this an issue.

8) Tried this also during testing

9) Tried this

10) Attempted even during very quiet times (and me actually shouting to check this) and neither time would it be picked up.

If it helps, I am using the Steel Series Arctis 7 with the game DAC

[Undesignated]

Hi Zag, a friend of mine had an issue where an AUX input mic couldn't broadcast, but a USB mic worked fine. I wonder if this is a factor, or if a type of mic that's older.