Voice Chat

To use the voice chat system provided by MPE4S, simply enable SteamManager.UseVoice. If you are using a different voice system already, disable SteamManager.UseVoice which will disable all other voice settings included with MPE4S.

Voice audio is sent over a dedicated network channel which you can define with SteamManager.VoiceChannel that defaults to 1. You cannot send other non-voice data over the SteamManager.VoiceChannel, and it is your responsibility to make sure you do not do so.

Enable and disable your microphone with SteamManager.MicEnabled. Use SteamManager.ControlSteamFriendsVoice to handle if, when your microphone is enabled in-game, you want to mute any other voice chat you may be doing through your Steam application itself.

SteamManager.VoiceRate controls your audio decoding rate. You can manually specify a value between 11,025 and 48,000, or let it be automatically determined. Your SteamManager.VoiceRate can be automatically determined in two ways:

  1. Steam - If SteamManager.VoiceRate is lower than 11,025, Steam will automatically get an optimal sample rate for performance but audio quality may be poorer.
  2. Unity - If SteamManager.VoiceRate is greater than 48,000, the sample rate will be that which the application is currently outputting.

The voice system works based on what microphone is configured in your Steam settings. To see this, open the Steam app and from the top menu go to Steam > Settings and then click on Voice and check your Voice Input Device.

Sending

You can configure which players in the lobby should receive your voice by using SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsAll(), SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsNobody(), SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsSet(ulong), SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsSet(IEnumerable<ulong>), SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsAdd(ulong), SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsAdd(IEnumerable<ulong>), SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsRemove(ulong), and SteamManager.VoiceRecipientsRemove(IEnumerable<ulong>). You can see who you are currently sending your voice to with SteamManager.VoiceRecipients, with NULL meaning you are sending your voice to everyone in the lobby and will automatically send it to any new players that join the lobby. Whenever SteamManager.VoiceRecipients is updated, the SteamManager.OnVoiceRecipients callback is invoked.

Playback

To play back audio for a user, simply assign an AudioSource to SteamUser.Voice on a SteamUser component of that user. The SteamUser component will automatically configure the AudioSource to be set to loop, and ensure you do not manually disable looping on it. At runtime, ensure you do not manually set the audio resource of the AudioSource or stop its playback. All other fields you are free to adjust to tune the voice playback.

At any point, to enable or disable playback of a SteamUser component's voice, simply set or unset SteamUser.Voice, with NULL disabling voice playback.

To reduce the need of manually assigning AudioSource components to SteamUser.Voice fields, the SteamManager component has a helpful property SteamManager.VoiceMode. Setting this SteamManager.VoiceMode will automatically configure voice playback for all SteamUser components based on the desired settings.

Filters

To create a voice filter, create a class which extends from SteamVoiceFilter. Each SteamVoiceFilter can be assigned either globally or directly to individual SteamUser components. When assigned as global filters, the SteamFilter.Order property configures the order in which voice filters are applied, with lower values being applied first. When assigned directly to SteamUser components, their order is manually defined.

Instead of immediately trying to create a filter by extending SteamVoiceFilter, you may be able to get the desired audio effect by modifying the various properties of the AudioSource component.

Custom

For advanced users interested in custom voice playback outside of the SteamUser component, implement the ISteamVoice interface and handle registering, unregistering, and listening to voice setting changes with the SteamManager component.