Player voice chat "Ducking"

[Nyanto]

This is something i use quite often. i dont know how many other people out there in steam use the voice chat feature, but whenever i suggest the idea to other random people they look at me with a crazed look.

Voice Chat in steam is an important utility in steam. it allows friends to chat voip through the steam client with a single person or many through group chat.

I am writing this suggestion to help improve this feature by adding a couple custom settings that games utilize.

-Ducking; This is the main reason. Reduces in game volume while another person's mic is active.

-Custom volumes; In a few games i've played each persons mic can be set at a different volume. this helps when a friend has a poor mic and another has a good one.

Now i know this is a simple suggestion but i feel its one i have to mention.

[Hextravert]

Great suggestions.

Maybe that's why many users prefer other programs over Steam.

Frankly, I also only pick Steam as a last resort when it comes to voice chatting.

DNA Instinct a écrit :

This is something i use quite often. i dont know how many other people out there in steam use the voice chat feature, but whenever i suggest the idea to other random people they look at me with a crazed look.

Voice Chat in steam is an important utility in steam. it allows friends to chat voip through the steam client with a single person or many through group chat.

I am writing this suggestion to help improve this feature by adding a couple custom settings that games utilize.

-Ducking; This is the main reason. Reduces in game volume while another person's mic is active.

-Custom volumes; In a few games i've played each persons mic can be set at a different volume. this helps when a friend has a poor mic and another has a good one.

Now i know this is a simple suggestion but i feel its one i have to mention.

[xaxazak]

Ducking will probably be quite hard to implement on its own (due to how games don't send their audio through Steam), although a Steam API callback would work for devs that wanted to support it.

Custom volumes sounds like a great idea. Of course, when someone gets told to turn their mic up because they're too quiet and you've already adjusted them =

[Gwarsbane]

I've seen a few games over the years do this with their own in game voice system and I can tell you its freaking annoying. Specially if you have someone with an always on open mic and they mic is right in front of their face and they are breathing.

Your volume keeps going up and down up and down up and down.

If a game wanted to do something with voice chat, they would add it into their game, if they don't have any voice chat in their games they are not going to mess with something like this.

And there would have to be an ability to turn it off once you figure out that its freaking annoying to have your volume going up and down up and down all the time.

You might think you would like it, but you won't. Those games that had it, eventually got rid of it as too many people were complaining about it.

I just turn my game volume so that I can hear things in game and so that I can hear people on voice chat. If I can hardly hear them, I asked them to turn up their volume, if they are too loud I ask them to turn it down.

Being able to individually turn up and down each person in the steam chat would be more handy then what you are suggesting here. Same with being able to do it in a games voice chat feature too. And included muting a person if they are annoying.

[Nyanto]

@Gwarsbane. I feel that your bad luck in this situation doesnt contribute to defects of the idea. Steam still has the option of push to talk, and if your friend doesnt know how to get a mic out of their mouth, then you should tell them. problem solved and move on to the actual topic.

Your experience is probably that of random people that do this. in a steam chat room it would be a couple people that you know.

[xaxazak]

Make ducking a per-talker option alongside volume, then. Perhaps also allow controlling the per-talker ducking volume reduction. That way you can just turn it off for the heavy breather.

[Nyanto]

that just makes things more complicated than it has to be. Steam already has, one, a push to talk option, and two, a voice detect sensitivity. a simple feature that we need is ducking, and everything else is solved through playing with the current settings.

And also, for every other problem out there, i mean really guys, youre already talking to the other person in the voice chat room, you might as well talk to your friend on how to set up their mic so it doesnt annoy you. or just ask your friend to use either push to talk to to move the mic so you dont hear breathing.

[Gwarsbane]

Its not just breathing either, its also sound of the game in the background. Breathing was just one example.

And not everyone wants to use a button to push to talk, cause they don't have a gaming mouse where they have easy access to a button to press while they are still moving around.

So no this "ducking" thing is not a good idea, it just creates more problems for people. The only way it would be ok, is if you can turn it on and off and that its off by default.

[Nyanto]

having an option to turn it off is fine, but i suggest you learn more about headsets. with all the annoyances you list, youre putting an argument with no technical flaws, just user error. "Feedback" as you explain is due to someone using a headset at high sensitivity with sound comming out of computer speakers. even on automatic chat if the sensitivity is lower you will still hear the game, even on push to talk you will still hear the game. there is no way to fix THAT issue without having the person change their personal settings.

Lets talk about issues you personally have control over ok? no more hipotheticals and stop bashing this idea. you've pitched your concerns but they are personal.

Ps. you dont need a gaming mouse for push to talk. i use Z.or hey maybe, just maybe, you can buy one of those cheap ones online for about 5-8 dollars. i mean, you are on steam, and you do play games, you might as well save up some change to buy yourself a mouse with more than two buttons.

[Gwarsbane]

I've got a gaming mouse and pretty much all the buttons within reach are being used on the keyboard with specific game related keys. So if I do that well others might also.

And no I will not just drop all the personal preference stuff. This is a discussion area and I'm discussing why I don't like the idea and why I don't view it as needed.

And no what I have brought up is not hypothetical. Everything I have said does and has happen. I have had people who don't use push to talk because they don't have a gaming mouse with the extra buttons. Or they do and they use the buttons for something else. So they always have an active mic, and some of them have headsets, others have speakers and you hear breathing or you hear the sound of the game in the background. When they have a fan on in the background, you can hear it blowing into the mic. And yes I have asked them to do something about it and most do. Over all my years of gaming I have heard it all over my headset.


You've never even covered the simple thing you can do, turn down your own game volume so you can hear people talking normally. Do you need to have it so loud that when someone talks your game volume drops down and then goes right back up again. Seems like a lot of useless programming for a feature I doubt may would like.

[Nyanto]

i sorry you feel that way, but i doubt all of that you explain happens on a steam chat. what youre explaining sounds like a CoD lobby. if you have issues with other people upsetting you then you can deal with it. i am talking about a chat with 1 or 2 people that are mature enough to know how to work all the features. and i play my games at about 10% volume while chatting with friends. the reason for ducking is so you CAN have your volume louder without intruding on your chat. a typical casual lobby has banter at most once every minute. and for all these features that i mention. all the other main stream voip programs make use of it. Skype, Team speak, Discord, Ventrillo. why should i submit myself to a lesser chat as steam when there are better ones out there? because steam is not a third party program. i play my games on here i might as well use this chat. this is not just a silly idea. it has and is being used by many many other people. just not on a "Steam Chat" not whatever youre talking about. youre probably just using an in game chat. i doubt with your combined over 5000 hours of playtime on shooter games you go through the trouble of inving every single person that enter and plays then leaves your games to a steam chat. additionally this feature wont only be usable on games, it would be good for videos and music too if you feel like watching a video at the same time as a buddy online while being able to chat about whats going on in the film. the only options youre even providing is a "No" where is the positive feedback? do you just come to the suggestion forums to bash on people for fun when youre between games?