Photon Voice not loud enough.

ChiselyChisely ✭
in Photon Voice
Hey there.
I'm using Photon Voice with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive and I've run into a problem with loudness. The voice chat is borderline unhearable .

I've checked the Rift and Vive microphones on both machines to make sure they are running with max sensitivity. I made sure that Photon Voice audiosources are set to 2D to remove any spatial falloff. The volume is set to 1 (max in unity). I tried running calibration after the player prefab is spawned, but this changes nothing. I've reduced the volume of all other audiosources in my game by 0.5, but this is still not enough to make the voicechat clearly legible.

Is there a way I can increase the volume of the Voice Speaker? It would be best if there was a multiplier of base setting, kinda like PlayOneShot works in audio source.

Comments

  • vadimvadim ✭✭✭
    Hi,
    You can "amplify" data in audio buffer before passing it to Photon Voice.
    The simplest way is modifying MicWrapper.GetData method. Multiply each element of buffer after this.mic.GetData(...) call by amplification factor.
    Or use this approach http://forum.photonengine.com/discussion/comment/32592/#Comment_32592

    We changed Photon Voice "internal" api. So both solutions should be updated with next Photon Voice release. Sorry for that.

    PhotonVoiceRecorder.LevelMeter allows measure current audio signal level passed to PhotonVoice.
  • ChiselyChisely ✭
    Thanks a lot Vadim, I did just that.

    Would love to have amplification factor as a property I can edit in future Photon Voice version.

    Cheers.
  • SpaggiSpaggi ✭
    Hi,

    I have the exact same issue with HTC Vive. Would you mind sharing your coding for the amplification?
  • ChiselyChisely ✭
    Spaggi said:

    Hi,

    I have the exact same issue with HTC Vive. Would you mind sharing your coding for the amplification?

    A long overdue, but I'm going to paste the solution here for others looking for it.

    At the start of OnAudioFrame method in PhotonVoiceNetworks.cs I added these lines:
        for(int i =0; i < frame.Length; i++)
    {
        frame[i] *= (AppSettings.VoiceChatVolume * 5);
    }

    Where AppSettings.VoiceChatVolume is my static float (0-1 range) that players can change to adjust the volume of the voice chat.
  • JohnTubeJohnTube mod
    @Chisely thank you for sharing your solution with us. Maybe we will add this and the amplification factor you mentioned.
  • shafyshafy ✭
    What's the best way to increase volume in Voice 2.0? (As OnAudioFrame method doesn't exist anymore)
  • JohnTubeJohnTube mod
    edited January 16
    Hi @shafy,

    In Photon Voice 2.x OnAudioFrame has been moved to Speaker.OnAudioFrame.
  • shafyshafy ✭
    Cool, thanks a lot @JohnTube
  • jarileonjarileon ✭
    I also find volume being too low even when it set to 100%. Is this OnAudioFrame hack still the only way to control the volume in Photon Voice? If so, please add it as a feature. Hacking and modifying Photon Voice code is not very good solution because they are lost whenever you update to new version.
  • JohnTubeJohnTube mod
    Hi @jarileon,

    Thank you for choosing Photon!

    What Photon Voice version do you use?
    We recommend updating to latest versions either 1.17 or 2.2.

    Does this happen using Photon MicrophoneType or Unity MicrophoneType?

    Also what Unity version do you use?
    Do you notice the low volume in Unity Editor or in a build?
    If it's a build, what is your target platform and what is the device model and OS?
  • jarileonjarileon ✭
    I am using Photon Voice v2.1.3 (December 7th, 2018). Microphone type is set to "Unity". Unity version is 2018.1.0f2.

    The volume is low both in Editor and in Standalone Windows build. I´m using Windows 10 on MSI GS63VR 7RF.




  • JohnTubeJohnTube mod
    edited January 17
    Hi @jarileon,

    You should try Photon MicrophoneType first.

    Then if it did not help, add this SimpleAmplifier component to the same GameObject as the Recorder to avoid having to change Photon Voice code every time.
  • jarileonjarileon ✭
    JohnTube said:

    Hi @jarileon,
    Then if it did not help, add this SimpleAmplifier component to the same GameObject as the Recorder to avoid having to change Photon Voice code every time.

    Thanks @JohnTube, but the provided code does not work. The "public class SimpleAmplifierEditor : Editor" gives error "'Editor' is a namespace but is used like a type". This goes away by removing the "namespace Photon.Voice.Unity.UtilityScripts", but then other error emerge.


  • JohnTubeJohnTube mod
    edited January 18
    Hi @jarileon,

    Could you try putting the file under "Photon/PhotonVoice/Code/UtilityScripts/SimpleAmplifier.cs"?
    What Unity version are you using?
    I have tested this on Unity 5.6.0f3.
  • jarileonjarileon ✭
    @JohnTube Thanks, the script started working when it was placed in Photon/PhotonVoice/Code/UtilityScripts/. And I was able to boost the level, it just took a while to find a good value (it was 10 for me).

    Now, the question is why is not a feature like this a built-in feature in Photon Voice? I would suggest you consider adding this, at least I had to use a lot of time to find out why the volume level is so low, then ask about it in the forums, then exchanging some messages etc.
  • JohnTubeJohnTube mod
    hi @jarileon,

    Thank you for your feedback.
    The SimpleAmplifier will be added to Photon Voice in the future.
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