[HJ]-Petz
14-04-2003, 15:33
When a league im in decided to put up a public voice server. They put it to a vote to decide on the best one to use. TS2 RC2 is running well in the vote at the moment just behind 1.5 by about 2 votes out of over 100. Some of those participating in the vote mentioned it was hard to setup.
So I just want to suggest adding a walkthrough configuartion to the next release of TS2 making life easy for newbies. Nothing to extrodinary or impossible to code. A good example of this is roger wilco. Which is ready to connect to a server almost instantly after installing it as the setup process is walkedthrough and explained step by step.
For TS2 I think the basic stages that require configuration/setting up the first time the client is run are(in order).
1.Default Guest Nickname or Allow server to assign nickname when you dont specify one. This is important for those who use the teamspeak:// links posted on websites. If this value is not set then you will likely get a error because the program dosn't know what nickname to connect to the server with.
2. Ask the user which Sound card there microphone is plugged into and have them select it from the list. Ask which sound card they want sound played back to.
3. Output volume. Simply have a screen with a slider for the volume and have a wav file playing(looping) a voice recording. Ask the user to position the slider where they hear the voice at a volume that they would like to hear when talking to others. When the user is finished they click next entering stage 4.
4. Input Testing. The most important of the lot. To many times have I seen people with voice activation set to low so that everyone can hear there breathing patterns(also known as Darth vader syndrome). Ask the user if they want to have there voice transmitted automatically when they speak or whether they want to have transmit linked to a button on the keyboard that they have to press when they want to speak. User selects the option they want.
If they select Voice activation. Display a slider for transmit sensitivity(The slider should be set all the way to the left ie. most sensitive and local loop back mode should be activated so that the user can hear them selves speak). Ask the user to move the slider to the right slowly while speaking normally until the begining and end of the words they are speaking get cut off. When this happens move the slider back a notch at a time until what you are saying is played back without the begining and end of words being cut off.
5.Bandwidth.
----------------------------------------------------------------
By having a walkthrough explaining these important details and configuring them the first time the program is run. It not only assits the newbies to get up and running but familiarises them with the settings in TS2 should they need to change them later. Having clear explainations at each stage of the walkthrough is a must!
Lastly. Im not sure how TS2 deals with the following but you might want to add something in to handle these situations. Adding them to the FAQ section of TS2s help might also be a good idea.
-Setting the sound cards recording to microphone. I see this alot. The user cant speak to other people because there sound card is set to record from line-in not the microphone jack. Perhaps provide an option in the walkthough that when set. Will set the sound card to record from the microphone jack every time TS2 is started(just incase someone has changed it). Or warn the user when the sound card is not recording from the microphone jack when TS2 is loaded.
-Setting the record level and mic boost for the sound card. This can dramatically effect the quality of sound transmitted and cause problems when setting the voice activation level.
-WAVE/Direct sound. Im not sure if anything is really needed for this anymore. In RC1 I had trouble using direct sound causing me to transmit loud & annoying static. I have creatives newly release sound drivers and RC2 now and don't seem to have the problem anymore. But if the problem is still there with other sound cards. Having a autodetect function or including it in the walkthrough could save alot of technical questions and desperate users.
Example. You have a bad quality microphone and even when voice activation sensitivity is set to the lowest end of the slider, you still cant hear yourself in a loop back test. However the solution might be as easy as increasing the sound cards recording volume/turning on mic boost.
Having a walkthrough setup when TS2 is started for the first time and a way of handling the last three problems from inside TS2. Saves newbies alot of effort trying to work out whats going on and can greatly increase there experience with the software. Which in turn means they will tell there friends and the software becomes more popular.
So I just want to suggest adding a walkthrough configuartion to the next release of TS2 making life easy for newbies. Nothing to extrodinary or impossible to code. A good example of this is roger wilco. Which is ready to connect to a server almost instantly after installing it as the setup process is walkedthrough and explained step by step.
For TS2 I think the basic stages that require configuration/setting up the first time the client is run are(in order).
1.Default Guest Nickname or Allow server to assign nickname when you dont specify one. This is important for those who use the teamspeak:// links posted on websites. If this value is not set then you will likely get a error because the program dosn't know what nickname to connect to the server with.
2. Ask the user which Sound card there microphone is plugged into and have them select it from the list. Ask which sound card they want sound played back to.
3. Output volume. Simply have a screen with a slider for the volume and have a wav file playing(looping) a voice recording. Ask the user to position the slider where they hear the voice at a volume that they would like to hear when talking to others. When the user is finished they click next entering stage 4.
4. Input Testing. The most important of the lot. To many times have I seen people with voice activation set to low so that everyone can hear there breathing patterns(also known as Darth vader syndrome). Ask the user if they want to have there voice transmitted automatically when they speak or whether they want to have transmit linked to a button on the keyboard that they have to press when they want to speak. User selects the option they want.
If they select Voice activation. Display a slider for transmit sensitivity(The slider should be set all the way to the left ie. most sensitive and local loop back mode should be activated so that the user can hear them selves speak). Ask the user to move the slider to the right slowly while speaking normally until the begining and end of the words they are speaking get cut off. When this happens move the slider back a notch at a time until what you are saying is played back without the begining and end of words being cut off.
5.Bandwidth.
----------------------------------------------------------------
By having a walkthrough explaining these important details and configuring them the first time the program is run. It not only assits the newbies to get up and running but familiarises them with the settings in TS2 should they need to change them later. Having clear explainations at each stage of the walkthrough is a must!
Lastly. Im not sure how TS2 deals with the following but you might want to add something in to handle these situations. Adding them to the FAQ section of TS2s help might also be a good idea.
-Setting the sound cards recording to microphone. I see this alot. The user cant speak to other people because there sound card is set to record from line-in not the microphone jack. Perhaps provide an option in the walkthough that when set. Will set the sound card to record from the microphone jack every time TS2 is started(just incase someone has changed it). Or warn the user when the sound card is not recording from the microphone jack when TS2 is loaded.
-Setting the record level and mic boost for the sound card. This can dramatically effect the quality of sound transmitted and cause problems when setting the voice activation level.
-WAVE/Direct sound. Im not sure if anything is really needed for this anymore. In RC1 I had trouble using direct sound causing me to transmit loud & annoying static. I have creatives newly release sound drivers and RC2 now and don't seem to have the problem anymore. But if the problem is still there with other sound cards. Having a autodetect function or including it in the walkthrough could save alot of technical questions and desperate users.
Example. You have a bad quality microphone and even when voice activation sensitivity is set to the lowest end of the slider, you still cant hear yourself in a loop back test. However the solution might be as easy as increasing the sound cards recording volume/turning on mic boost.
Having a walkthrough setup when TS2 is started for the first time and a way of handling the last three problems from inside TS2. Saves newbies alot of effort trying to work out whats going on and can greatly increase there experience with the software. Which in turn means they will tell there friends and the software becomes more popular.