Linden calling: Second Life voice to launch by June
By Adam Reuters
SECOND LIFE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Linden Lab said on Tuesday it will launch integrated voice capabilities within the next several months, including effects to prevent a cacophony of overlapping voices.
A private beta-test will begin next week ahead of a larger public trial, with a formal launch by the end of June. Second Life users can already use voice through third-party solutions such as Skype, but Linden Lab said an integrated offering would offer “a richer, more immersive virtual environment.”
The new capabilities, provided by virtual world communications firm Vivox, are intended to make it as easy as possible for users to determine who is talking, and where. Using 3D audio technology from DiamondWare, sound will come from the right or left stereo channel depending on where the speaker is located, and voices beyond a certain distance will not be audible. Indicators and animations will also reflect when someone is talking, and how loudly.
“We wanted an integration that would allow you to discriminate individual voices out of a large number of them,” said Joe Miller, Linden Lab vice president for platform and technology development, in a phone interview. He said the calculations to provide voice services take place on a separate server which should not contribute to lag or additional system load.
Voice will be available on islands and parcels of land where the owners choose to make it available, along with group conference calls and one-to-one personal communication similar to Skype. Unlike the rival virtual world There.com, which has long had an integrated voice feature, Second Life will not offer lip synching.
“We decided not to do lip synching until the implementation could be believable,” Miller said.
Introducing voice could expose the broadening language gap in Second Life, where more than half of users now speak a first language other than English. Also, some in Second Life have argued that integrating voice could break the “magic circle” that makes the world so convincing, by pairing real voices with virtual avatars.
Miller said the company would eventually offer voice masking, so that users can choose what they sound like. Vivox, which has already launched several virtual phone booths within Second Life that can call real-world numbers, has promoted the concept of “voice fonts” that let users choose from a variety of vocal tones.
“There will be individuals who choose not to share their voice, we understand that,” Miller said. “The ability to design a voice for your avatar that’s intelligible, we will offer that. Today the technology isn’t there. You can sound like Darth Vader with a head cold, but it’s really just a toy.”
