WolfVoice
Voice that knows where you are standing. Walk to someone's left and you arrive in their left ear; walk away and you fade out. It works between WolfStorm in a browser and Firestorm on the desktop — same room, same conversation.
We built it ourselves because nothing existing did this. It is open source, and any OpenSimulator grid is welcome to run it.
Not a conference call in a field
Most voice systems mix everyone into one shared stream and send the same audio to the whole room. That is fine for a meeting, but it is not a world: everyone sounds like they are in the same place, because they are.
WolfVoice builds a separate mix for every listener, from that person's own position and the direction they are facing. It is more work for the server — that is the point.
Direction and distance
Voices come from where the speaker is, get quieter as they walk off, and fade out entirely past about 60 metres.
Across viewers
Browser and desktop users share one channel. Nobody has to change viewer to be heard, and nothing needs configuring in Firestorm.
Your own controls
Per-person volume and mute apply to you alone, and behave the same way whichever viewer the other person is using.
Turning it on
If you are visiting
- Make sure voice is enabled in your viewer's preferences.
- Allow the microphone when your browser or viewer asks.
- Press the Speak button and talk.
Not hearing anyone? Voice has to be allowed on the land you are standing on — check About Land → Sound, or ask the region owner.
If you rent from us
Nothing to do — your region is already on it. Just make sure Allow Voice Chat is ticked in About Land for your parcel, since that switch is yours, not ours.
Something not working? Tell usWhat it cannot do
Some networks block voice entirely
Voice needs outbound UDP. A few corporate and campus networks block it, and because of how desktop viewers are built there is no relay we can offer as a fallback. If you are on such a network, voice will not connect — your viewer should say so rather than sit there silently. Text chat is unaffected.
Voice is off unless the land allows it
That is a parcel setting owned by the landholder. If voice is disabled there, no viewer will even try to connect.
Group and IM voice is newer
Nearby voice is the well-travelled path. Voice inside group and IM calls works but has seen far less use, so tell us if it misbehaves.
Run it yourself
WolfVoice is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. If you run an OpenSimulator grid and want positional voice, you are welcome to it — there is a one-command installer, prebuilt Linux binaries, and documentation covering the server, the region configuration and the protocol.
It works alongside Robert Adams's os-webrtc-janus addon, which brought WebRTC voice to OpenSimulator in the first place and does the region-side half of the work. WolfVoice is an alternative mixing backend for it, not a replacement.
Built and maintained by Wolf Software Systems Ltd.