Linden Lab to enable Second Life Voice

Linden Lab is happy to announce that players will soon have the opportunity to communicate with each other better if they wish to. And no, we’re not talking about chat or instant messaging here. Second Life will soon have voice capabilities that will prove to be ground-breaking, invaluable, and immersive.

The company added that the voice technology is going to be 3D proximity-based, meaning a more realistic in-world experience. It will use spatial awareness and take distance and direction into consideration. Likewise, avatars will become animated depending on the intensity of the speech volume.

Furthermore, a limited beta program on a test-grid will commence next week, for 1,000 users. In case you missed that, a Grid-wide beta trial will follow before the technology is officially launched in Q2 2007. Some features of Second Life Voice are:

• Voice will be enabled throughout Second Life, and will be available to all Residents.
• To use the voice option, Residents must have a computer headset connected to their PC or Mac. Residents simply log into the Second Life Grid and can automatically start speaking to others on voice-enabled land.
• Mainland “parcel” landowners can choose to disable the voice option on their land at their own discretion.
• Private island owners will have the option to enable voice on their own land, dependent on the terms of their subscription.
• Scenario 1 – Residents can teleport to voice-enabled land, and automatically start speaking, with the volume of speech modified according to their spatial relationship with others. Up to 100 users can be present in the same audio channel at once.
• Scenario 2 – Group conference calls for two or more Residents. This enables Residents to communicate with large groups across geographical boundaries (e.g. concert setting, or between pockets of land etc).
• Scenario 3 – One-to-one personal communication. This enables Residents to privately share a conversation, which can be initiated by an Instant Message. Residents don’t have to be on voice-enabled land to do this.
• Core voice capabilities are provided by Vivox, under the terms of a service agreement with Linden Lab, incorporating 3D voice technology from DiamondWare.

Linden Lab is happy to announce that players will soon have the opportunity to communicate with each other better if they wish to. And no, we’re not talking about chat or instant messaging here. Second Life will soon have voice capabilities that will prove to be ground-breaking, invaluable, and immersive.

The company added that the voice technology is going to be 3D proximity-based, meaning a more realistic in-world experience. It will use spatial awareness and take distance and direction into consideration. Likewise, avatars will become animated depending on the intensity of the speech volume.

Furthermore, a limited beta program on a test-grid will commence next week, for 1,000 users. In case you missed that, a Grid-wide beta trial will follow before the technology is officially launched in Q2 2007. Some features of Second Life Voice are:

• Voice will be enabled throughout Second Life, and will be available to all Residents.
• To use the voice option, Residents must have a computer headset connected to their PC or Mac. Residents simply log into the Second Life Grid and can automatically start speaking to others on voice-enabled land.
• Mainland “parcel” landowners can choose to disable the voice option on their land at their own discretion.
• Private island owners will have the option to enable voice on their own land, dependent on the terms of their subscription.
• Scenario 1 – Residents can teleport to voice-enabled land, and automatically start speaking, with the volume of speech modified according to their spatial relationship with others. Up to 100 users can be present in the same audio channel at once.
• Scenario 2 – Group conference calls for two or more Residents. This enables Residents to communicate with large groups across geographical boundaries (e.g. concert setting, or between pockets of land etc).
• Scenario 3 – One-to-one personal communication. This enables Residents to privately share a conversation, which can be initiated by an Instant Message. Residents don’t have to be on voice-enabled land to do this.
• Core voice capabilities are provided by Vivox, under the terms of a service agreement with Linden Lab, incorporating 3D voice technology from DiamondWare.