HL2's localised voice chat?

[laputanmachine]

Hello,

2 years ago, previews of Half-Life 2 said that the game would feature a (i think) revolutionary new voice chat technology. I don't believe it was named, but I call it "localised voice chat." Basically, the voice chat could come directly out of your player's mouth in the game-world, instead of just over a radio. It would interact with the environment just as any gunshot or grenade sound effect would. So it would be very realistic and recreate a basic human speech capability, not to mention bring us one step closer to virtual reality :-P

But since then, I've never heard about it again. And with CS Source out, the feature is absent. Does anyone have any idea where this feature went? I believe I saw the feature demonstrated in a Team Fortress 2 preview, in fact.

Thanks

PS -- localised voices is what NPCs use in all the games. HL1 was one of the first, if not the very first, I think to use this feature. NPCs spoke! and the voices came directly from their models, not from some all-connected radio. Since then, all NPCs in every FPS game do this basic feature.

 

[mmackay51]

I think that with the current models in CS:S the voice chat thingy would be useless anyways, as they have masks and helmets. I do however remember the same thing.

Not just you going mad!

 

[MetalliMyers]

Hello,

2 years ago, previews of Half-Life 2 said that the game would feature a (i think) revolutionary new voice chat technology. I don't believe it was named, but I call it "localised voice chat." Basically, the voice chat could come directly out of your player's mouth in the game-world, instead of just over a radio. It would interact with the environment just as any gunshot or grenade sound effect would. So it would be very realistic and recreate a basic human speech capability, not to mention bring us one step closer to virtual reality :-P

But since then, I've never heard about it again. And with CS Source out, the feature is absent. Does anyone have any idea where this feature went? I believe I saw the feature demonstrated in a Team Fortress 2 preview, in fact.

Thanks

PS -- localised voices is what NPCs use in all the games. HL1 was one of the first, if not the very first, I think to use this feature. NPCs spoke! and the voices came directly from their models, not from some all-connected radio. Since then, all NPCs in every FPS game do this basic feature.

One reason that something like that is absent from CS:S is because you need to be able to communicate to your teammates through a "radio" like system.

 

[laputanmachine]

I'm not sure you guys are following. In reality, you may have noticed that speech comes out of people's mouths, and into those radios. Valve said HL2 would feature this basic fact. So even when players would talk into their radios, as an enemy soldier you would be able to hear your enemies speaking into their radios. You could also opt to speak only locally, and not use the radio at all. Again, this is possible in reality. Try it out! it's fun! J/k

But seriously, i'm amazed so few people remember Valve saying this years ago. It's totally fallen off the radar, the press has totally forgotten it, no one has any clue it was ever said to begin with. But it was there in that TF2 video. It was said to be a built-in feature of Source.

 

[MetalliMyers]

I'm not sure you guys are following. In reality, you may have noticed that speech comes out of people's mouths, and into those radios. Valve said HL2 would feature this basic fact. So even when players would talk into their radios, as an enemy soldier you would be able to hear your enemies speaking into their radios. You could also opt to speak only locally, and not use the radio at all. Again, this is possible in reality. Try it out! it's fun! J/k

But seriously, i'm amazed so few people remember Valve saying this years ago. It's totally fallen off the radar, the press has totally forgotten it, no one has any clue it was ever said to begin with. But it was there in that TF2 video. It was said to be a built-in feature of Source.

I remember them saying that if you were around the other team while they were using voice chat, you could hear them. But that was back in the earlier CS days when they first introduced the voice chat system to the HL engine.

 

[laputanmachine]

It's not just being able to hear them, to clarify. Because UT2004 already features local range voice chat, and it's completely useless. But it's not localised, because the voice chat still plays without a source. It plays in both your speakers, has no direction, no source, no nothing.

At one point, people said Day of Defeat was going to support local range voice chat. That is, voice chat can only be heard by people within a certain range. This is not what I mean by localised voice chat. Localised voice chat is what we do in real life. When your cat walks into the room and meows, you hear it coming directly from your cat! That's LVC. When NPCs do it in the singleplayer HL1/HL2 games, that's what LVC would be. So I'm asking what happened to LVC, not anything else. From the looks of it, Valve just completely shut up about it and is pretending it was never said to begin with..

 

[KagePrototype]

2 years ago? The game was announced April 2003.

 

[laputanmachine]

You're kidding, right? HL2 was slated for a November 2003 release at one point! Games have a development time of 2 years+. It was not announced in April 2003. Hell, they began work on it shortly after HL1 became a huge success. That was 4-6 years ago.

 

[KagePrototype]

I ASSURE you, it was announced April 2003. They didn't tell anyone about it until then. TRUST ME, I've been following this thing since the beginning.

 

[Ames]

You're kidding, right? HL2 was slated for a November 2003 release at one point! Games have a development time of 2 years+. It was not announced in April 2003. Hell, they began work on it shortly after HL1 became a huge success. That was 4-6 years ago.

It was announced in April, but it had been developed for years already.

 

[Arrowhead]

k, whatever, back to the topic!

so yeah, I've been wondering where this localized voice chat is for some time aswell.... maybe it's just not possible/feasible for some reason or another? If anyone has a clue please respond!