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Audio stutter problems with people talking in Echo Arena

FlAsH-FlOoD
Protege
Hi - I cannot hear what people are saying in Echo Arena as their speech is corrupted. I found a few others with the same problem but it doesn't seem common. Anyone know of a fix? Is it a codec issue? Here is a link to an example of it that was posted by someone in reddit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUAcCuD6ZLQ&feature=youtu.be
79 REPLIES 79

wasyl00
Protege
Small update from me. I’m still going through Oculus support process. I’m waiting for their response after I sent bunch of zipped logs for them to analize. 

Despite the issue I still actively play Echo Arena. The game is just too good to be discouraged by this problem 🙂 I use it as my evening exercise session. 

I noticed that choppy voice problem is directly related to amount of people who are currently connected to specyfic lobby or arena. I can get clear voice sound in the match when there are only two of us in the team. The moment third guy gets connected the chat becomes choppy. Similar happens in the lobby.

FlAsH-FlOoD
Protege
I have an update! It's disappointing though 😞

I got the final response from oculus:



Thanks for your patience on this.



Unfortunately, our teams didn't really have any sort of solid
answer for why you might be running into this.



If you're able, we recommend reaching out to the developer of
the game (Ready At Dawn) to see if they have any ideas.



I'm very sorry that we're not able to provide more assistance
here.



We greatly appreciate your understanding.



If you have any further questions or concerns, please let us
know.




I
have already tried contacting the devs on their discord channel but they didn’t respond to me.

I have another plan though. I was looking at how to investigate where the problem is and came across this software:

https://www.pingplotter.com/products/free.html

Does anyone know how i can find out what the IP address of the Echo Arena server i get connect to is? I think i need the server IP to be able to see where in the chain things are going wrong. Is there a run command or something that will tell me that?

Thanks!

wasyl00
Protege
What a bummer. I'm still waiting for them to reply, right now expecting the same answer 😞

Good to know that your still trying to investigate the issue. I understand what are you trying to achieve but thing is my ping is really good. When I connect to the local servers I get around 22ms which is a lot better than people I'm playing with. Still, they are able to communicate with each other without problems but me (with the lowest ping) - I cant understand a thing ?!? There is no logic in this?!? Also why we are not getting any visual connection problems like weird warping of things but only the bloody voice chat chop like hell. 

FlAsH-FlOoD
Protege
i don't know but my understanding is that VoIP problems can be to do with packet loss etc. so the speed and response may look good but data quality problems may be going on as it passed down the chain. I want to see if this is true and if so where. But yeah, no other problems with anything else connection wise.

I have also been trying other things with my router like setting the default DMZ server to my computer which is like having the firewall off (it didn't help). I have just had a chat with my ISP too but they couldn't help either and said VoIP problems are usually to do with NAT settings. Well the DMZ thing should have bypassed that anyway so i don't think it is a port issue.

I have also tried closing every other open programme service but it made no difference.

My ping always starts really high (like 400, 500 or even 999) and then by the end of the game is like 24. The weird thing is that it is always the same pattern whether i'm connecting to north america or europe (judging by the players). I apparently end up with the best ping of everyone even though i am on a different continent which seems fishy. Is your ping still really low on north american servers too?

Anyway my next thing is to try the ping tracing. How do i find the IP of the server i'm connected to - anyone know?

FlAsH-FlOoD
Protege
just read this in the discord chat about someone complaining that voip works in rec room but not echo arena:

RAD_DavidN - 09/21/2017

@LeftStep there maybe a bug on our end but the only time I've seen the issue was from either 1. poor server performance, 2. dropped packets, 3. dropped frames
We can go in depth diagnosing each issue one at a time
The reason other games maybe clear is because we focus on shorter latency for our voip rather then buffer up voice like other games do because we want to give team mates quicker reaction when someone says 'on you!'

Leftstep said he was running a constant 90fps. interesting to hear that they have gone aggressive on the voip.

wasyl00
Protege
Intersting. Thanks!

My pings are usually around 22-24 when I play locally. When I’m being connected to US servers (I know becuse I start recognising players in each geographic zone) my pings are around 80-100. Voip sounds exactly the same everywhere (UK/US)- weird. 

I fiddled with my router before (including DMZ and QOS) but that changed nothing. I wouldn’t blame it anyway. Don’t forget we swapped and tested ISPs router before and it was the same so I would exclude it. 

I wish to be able to test EchoA on different network but I don’t have any mates living close enough for me to justify dragging my PC+Rift for testing. That would exclude hardware(pc) or network(ISP) problem.

I think I was adjusting the packet sizes in the past according to Netgears instruction but I will look again. What the best way to monitor these? 


LeftStep
Explorer
I've had the problem since the first beta period, and while my soul weeps zero-G tears, I'm just so happy I'm not the only one!  
~ Beside You In Time ~

FlAsH-FlOoD
Protege
Whilst we are lonely robots in the arena, at least we are lonely together!

wasyl00
Protege
I think I resolved the issue of the stuttering VOIP and the news is not good guys:/

As I mentioned a few replies above I wondered if I could test my setup on the completely separate internet provider. So what I did, I connected my smartphone to PC via USB cable and set Personal Hotspot in phone's options (at the same time disabled my on-board NIC). As I have decent LTE connection here everything worked like charm. When I connected to the lobbies and arenas one by one my VOIP was perfect. So in the end its my connection is to blame. I must be dropping packets somewhere on the way I think 😐 Now I need to dig if this can be improved somehow. 

Try this method if you have an option. Flash I think you're similarly on Plusnet which may be our culprit. Any ideas how to proceed. 

Hell, we need to sort it out man otherwise we will be missing on upcoming Echo Combat too if they decide to use the same VOIP system. 

Edit: Fun fact: My pings were much worse when playing using phones connection (in a region of 100-150), still VOIP worked flawlessly.  

wasyl00
Protege
Below are two test clips I recorded when I was swapping between my ISP and Phone connection in matter of minutes. You can clearly hear the difference. I uploaded in rubbish video quality to save time so focus on the sound which should be good to hear. 

ISP connection via cable - VOIP stutter badly 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij8gz7mrgGw

Phone LTE connection via USB - VOIP perfect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hmxfAnh7BY