Voice FAQ
Everything you need to get voice chat working on Wolf Territories Grid — and what to check when it doesn't.
First, the important bit: we don't use Vivox
Most grids use a third-party service called Vivox — an old legacy voice system, and one Vivox has already said it is turning off for OpenSim. Wolf Territories Grid runs its own voice platform, WolfVoice — built by us, running on our own servers, and open source (opens in a new tab). It speaks the same modern WebRTC voice protocol that current viewers already understand, so there is nothing extra to install.
Voices come from where people are standing, and fade with distance — mixed per listener on the server.
WebRTC voice runs natively in the Linux viewer — none of the Wine workarounds the Vivox era needed.
The same voice system powers WolfStorm, our browser viewer — one conversation across desktop and web.
Why this matters for troubleshooting: advice you may find elsewhere about Vivox accounts, SLVoice.exe or Vivox server settings does not apply here. If a guide mentions Vivox, it is not describing our grid.
"My voice doesn't work" — the checklist
Work down this list in order. Most voice problems are one of the first four.
1. Is voice switched on in your viewer?
In Firestorm: Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice and make sure Enable Voice is ticked. Check the voice volume slider is up and that you have not muted yourself on the speak button.
In WolfStorm the browser will ask for microphone permission the first time — if you dismissed that prompt, click the padlock/permissions icon in the address bar and allow the microphone.
2. Does this parcel allow voice?
Voice is per-parcel. If the parcel you are standing on has voice disabled, the viewer never even tries to connect — no error, no dots, nothing.
Check World → About Land → Sound → Enable Voice. If you own the parcel, tick it; if not, ask the owner — or test somewhere you know voice works, like the Welcome Area.
The tell-tale: no white voice dot appears above anyone's head on that parcel, including yours.
3. Is the right microphone selected — and is it live?
Open Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings, pick your input device and speak — the level meter should move. If it doesn't, the problem is between your microphone and your operating system, not the grid: check the OS sound settings, and on laptops check the mic isn't hardware-muted.
Headsets that were plugged in after the viewer started sometimes need the device re-selected, or the viewer restarted.
4. Seeing "Unable to connect to www.bhr.vivox.com"?
This popup is harmless and is not your voice connection failing. When you open Firestorm's Audio Device Settings, the viewer also pokes its old Vivox module, which naturally can't reach a Vivox server from here — because we don't use Vivox at all (see above).
Tick "Do not show me this again" and carry on. Your actual voice runs over WolfVoice and is unaffected by this message.
5. Still nothing? Try a relog on a known-good parcel
Log out, log back in directly to a busy public region (the Welcome Area is a good test), and toggle Enable Voice off and on once. Voice connects when you arrive in a region, so a clean arrival gives it a fresh start.
Also make sure your viewer is current — WebRTC voice needs a recent Firestorm (7.x with WebRTC voice support). Very old viewers only know Vivox and cannot connect to our voice at all.
6. On an office network, VPN or strict firewall?
Voice audio travels over UDP. Some corporate networks, hotel Wi-Fi and VPNs block UDP entirely — on those networks voice will not connect, and we say that plainly rather than pretend otherwise. There is currently no relay fallback for fully UDP-blocked networks.
If you can, allow outbound UDP (the media ports are in the 40000–40999 range), turn the VPN off for the session, or try a different network. Everything else about the grid works fine without UDP voice — this only affects speaking and hearing voice.
Voice on Linux
Good news first: because our voice is WebRTC rather than Vivox, it runs natively on Linux. The old era of Wine wrappers and borrowed SLVoice.exe binaries is over — voice on Linux is now a first-class citizen. Here's what to check to get it going:
- Use a current viewer. You need a recent Firestorm for Linux that includes WebRTC voice (7.x series). Older builds where voice "was never supported on Linux" predate WebRTC — that limitation is gone.
-
Check your audio stack sees the mic. On modern
distributions that's PipeWire (or PulseAudio). Open your system sound
settings — or
pavucontrol— and confirm your microphone shows up under Input Devices and its level meter moves when you speak. - Pick the device in the viewer. Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings. If the list is empty or stale, restart the viewer after plugging in your headset.
- While the viewer is running, pavucontrol's Recording tab should show the viewer as an active recording stream — if it's there but silent, the wrong source is assigned; switch it right from that tab.
- Sandboxed installs: if you run the viewer from a Flatpak or similar sandbox, make sure it has microphone/audio permission (e.g. via Flatseal).
- The bhr.vivox.com popup appears on Linux too when opening Audio Device Settings, and it is just as harmless there — see item 4 in the checklist above.
How do I know it's working?
A white voice indicator shows above your avatar once you are connected to voice on that parcel.
Talk and your own indicator animates. If yours animates but nobody hears you, re-check the parcel and their speaker volume.
Walk around someone who is talking — their voice should move between your ears and fade with distance. That's WolfVoice doing its job.
Still stuck?
Tell us your viewer, your operating system, and the region you were on — that's usually enough for us to spot the problem quickly.