What about a built in voice chat?

[Dadalama]

A lot of people use skype and ventrillo to do this, it might make it easier for some people to get into a game without downloading another program.

it would have a list of all the people on the server. The DM grants permission to use the voice chat (to reduce trolling) and use a "Push to talk" system (to reduce feedback).

[aliasmask]

That has been discussed before and it is a consideration, but only if it'll be an easy integration with some open source java code. They are looking in to a sound engine to add sound effects, but I think this won't be done until after the first release of 1.4 which will be a restructuring of the existing functionality and no (or very few) new features.

But both skype and ventrillo are very easy to use and setup, so having them run separately isn't really a big deal in my mind.

[Dadalama]

Oh you know if they use a sound effect system, the Wilhelm scream will be in every campaign.

I did a forum search for "sound" which brought up the sound effects topic and "voice" which didn't really didn't find anything.

[CoveredInFish]

Yeah, the forum search is a bit tricky. Consider using google and the site-restriction.

IIRC a common opinion was that building a really good voice chat into MT would require a huge amount of work. Work that couldnt be spend on features unique to maptool (or vtt in general) with the result beeing probably no match to the big voice chat solutions out there.

[Dadalama]

That makes sense... I was just thinking it would be a good idea since some people use skype and some use ventrillo.

[nathal]

I get everybody on google+ hangout.

That makes sense... I was just thinking it would be a good idea since some people use skype and some use ventrillo.

[Benz72]

Not a programmer,
How difficult would it be to have the MT interface able to perform basic operations for some of the more common programs (hot key - shrotcut type of thing)?

If Google+, Skype and 1 or 2 others really popular ones have basic functions 'supported by maptool' within the MT interface itself then the application can be run in the background without having to switch screens.

thoughts?

[Azhrei]

If Google+, Skype and 1 or 2 others really popular ones have basic functions 'supported by maptool' within the MT interface itself then the application can be run in the background without having to switch screens.

I'm not sure if this is possible. There would need to be some way for the JVM to execute operating system-specific functionality in a way that isn't operating system-specific. This seems like a non-starter to me.

Or, if it is possible on just one or two platforms, then someone who uses those platforms would need to provide the code and be willing to support it when it breaks. I could do that for OSX, and maybe/possibly/kinda for Linux, but I can't think of any way off-hand to accomplish it. (Other than creating fake keyboard events to insert into the data stream so that the windowing layer thinks the user typed them. And that seems very unsecure so I can't imagine most windowing systems allowing that kind of thing!)

[Lee]

Funny you should say that, Azhrei, while making my new project, some of my hotkeys triggered running programs in the background; one of which was the ATI Catalyst Control center (accessed by Ctrl+Alt+C). I guess, in the end, as you say, it depends on how a program listens in.

To Benz72, I'm not sure about Google+ as it is dependent on the access method (e.g. browser used etc), but if Skype (or other such software) implements a similar method of listening in on keystrokes, then it should be doable. Though the method of input would have to be done by an actual user because, as Azhrei pointed out, handing over and giving access to such things on the program level is a practice that has been rooted out a long time ago for the obvious security reasons.

[Jagged]

I use Skype for my regular sessions and to be honest I see absolutely no benefit to including voice chat into Maptool and some possible disadvantages.

If we get to have sound effects playable through MapTool, great. But I'd rather keep general communications as distinct applications.

[Azhrei]

In an ideal world, MapTool would be able to create a channel from the server to each client (created by the client when they connect) and somehow "export" the access to this channel so that other applications could piggyback on top of it.

This would allow Skype, jlgui (Google for it), and other applications to borrow the channel. The big advantage is that once MapTool is connected there would be no need to create/use additional ports. (People still could if they wanted, but they wouldn't have to.) This would help in a lot of different ways.

But I'm not sure how practical this is. MapTool could open local ports, but can Skype be told to use a local port which MapTool then transports? Unlikely -- Skype has indirect nodes so that it can be used by people who can't port forward (you call the indirect node who then acts as a middleman) and other applications are probably the same.