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Controlling voice chat audio

To fully implement EOS voice chat, you'll want to allow the user to configure which audio devices they want to use for input and output, and allow them to mute or block other remote players during gameplay.

Get the current or available audio devices​

To get the current or available audio devices, on the IVoiceChatUser instance, use the following functions or blueprint nodes:

  • GetAvailableInputDeviceInfos()
  • GetAvailableOutputDeviceInfos()
  • GetInputDeviceInfo() (Returns the currently used input device)
  • GetOutputDeviceInfo() (Returns the currently used output device)
  • GetDefaultInputDeviceInfo()
  • GetDefaultOutputDeviceInfo()

The functions for getting the current and default audio devices might return an empty device info if the user does not have any audio devices (e.g. if they have no microphone plugged in).

Adjusting the audio input device​

To set the audio device used for input, retrieve an audio input device from one of the above functions, and then pass it's Id value into VoiceChatUser->SetInputDeviceId.

Adjusting the audio output device​

To set the audio device used for input, retrieve an audio output device from one of the above functions, and then pass it's Id value into VoiceChatUser->SetOutputDeviceId.

Adjusting the volume for input or output devices​

To change the volume for the selected input or output audio device, you can use VoiceChatUser->SetAudioInputVolume(Volume) and VoiceChatUser->SetAudioOutputVolume(Volume). The volume is a value between 0.0f and 200.0f, which means silence and "2x gain" respectively. A value of 100.0f means the volume is unadjusted from the input or output device.

You can get the current volume with VoiceChatUser->GetAudioInputVolume() and VoiceChatUser->GetAudioOutputVolume().

caution

The input device volume can be set to any of the values above, but the only value that impacts the volume is 0.0f, which silences the microphone. Any other value is treated as 100.0f. This is a limitation of the EOS SDK.

Muting the input or output devices​

You can mute the input or output audio devices using VoiceChatUser->SetAudioInputDeviceMuted(bIsMuted) and VoiceChatUser->SetAudioOutputDeviceMuted(bIsMuted). You can get the current mute status with VoiceChatUser->GetAudioInputDeviceMuted() and VoiceChatUser->GetAudioOutputDeviceMuted().

Detecting if a player is talking​

To detect if either a remote player or the local player is talking, use VoiceChatUser->IsPlayerTalking(PlayerName).

The value to pass into the PlayerName argument is the stringified version of the player's unique net ID. You can get it by calling ToString() on a unique net ID.

caution

The "is talking" status will only work if you have at least two people in a channel. It will always return false if you only have one person in a channel by themselves (regardless of whether echo is turned on or not).

Detecting if a remote player is muted​

To detect if either a remote player or the local player is muted locally or by the dedicated server, use VoiceChatUser->IsPlayerMuted(PlayerName).

The value to pass into the PlayerName argument is the stringified version of the player's unique net ID. You can get it by calling ToString() on a unique net ID.

Muting or unmuting a remote player​

To mute or unmute a remote player across all voice channels the local player is currently in, use VoiceChatUser->SetPlayerMuted(PlayerName, bMuted).

The value to pass into the PlayerName argument is the stringified version of the player's unique net ID. You can get it by calling ToString() on a unique net ID.

Blocking or unblocking a remote player​

To block one or more remote players, use VoiceChatUser->BlockPlayers(PlayerNamesArray). To unblock one or more remote players, use VoiceChatUser->UnblockPlayers(PlayerNamesArray).

The value to pass into the PlayerNamesArray argument should be an array of stringified unique net IDs. You can get these values by calling ToString() on one or more unique net IDs.

Controlling which channels are transmitted to​

You can limit which channels the user's microphone is transmitted to using the following functions:

  • VoiceChatUser->TransmitToAllChannels()
  • VoiceChatUser->TransmitToNoChannels()
  • VoiceChatUser->TransmitToSpecificChannel(ChannelName)

You can get the current transmit mode with VoiceChatUser->GetTransmitMode(). If you are transmitting to a set of specific channels, you can get the list of channels with VoiceChatUser->GetTransmitChannel() (comma-separated). If you are transmitting to all channels, GetTransmitChannel() will return an empty string.

TransmitToSpecificChannel is cumulative in EOS. Before you call TransmitToSpecificChannel, you should call TransmitToNoChannels to reset to no channels for transmission. Then, you can call TransmitToSpecificChannel to enable transmitting for each channel you want to enable transmission on. This allows you to transmit on 2 or more channels, even though the Unreal Engine API isn't designed for it.

Controlling audio features​

To control features like echo cancellation, noise suppression, auto gain control, DTX and platform AEC, call SetSetting with one of the following setting names:

  • EnableEchoCancellation (defaults to true)
  • EnableNoiseSuppression (defaults to true)
  • EnableAutoGainControl (defaults to true)
  • EnableDtx (defaults to true)
  • EnablePlatformAEC (defaults based on Project Settings)

You can retrieve the current status of these features using GetSetting. To turn these features on, the value must be true (exactly, case-sensitive). Any other value is treated as false.