Comparison of Voice Chat Software
Well. Internet is full of different kinds of voice chat software. I’m trying to compare different software which are meant for gaming.
Mumble
Mumble is a new voice chat program, which is also open source. The gui is very intuitive and easy to use. The server program, murmur is also free. There is no extra fees for hosting a voice server. The voice quality is also awesome. It also uses less bandwidth than TeamSpeak3, but still bringing a better sound quality. Also it has had a native linux version since the deveploment started. It’s also very stable and also offers a ingame overlay.
TeamSpeak3
TeamSpeak3 is the new version of TeamSpeak. The voice quality is still bad (it hurts my ears). Also the user interface is pretty fucked up with too large buttons (do the developers think that we’re retarded ?). Also the Server licence is not free, you have to pay if you want to host larger servers, than 32 slots.
TeamSpeak2
TeamSpeak2 is the older version of TeamSpeak. It has very bad voice quality and the interface isn’t as easy to use as in Mumble. Also the server licence sucks. The server licence is almost as worse as in TeamSpeak3
Ventrilo
Ventrilo is also a commonly used voice chat program. The voice quality is ok, but the GUI of the program is pretty hard to use.
The licence is the worst of all of the previous ones, you have to pay a server licence if you want to have more than 8 people online at the same time.
Conclusion
The best choice for an average gamer would be Mumble, since hosting a server is really free, and it has a good voice quality and a small latency so you can actually hear what your squadmates are saying. Also the overlay is pretty useful in it. Also there is a native linux client of mumble, which works out pretty well (it supports pulseaudio, when TeamSpeak3 uses OSS and you can’t use any other voice applications at the same time without aoss.)
That’s all 🙂
5 Reasons why Modern Warfare 2 Sucks.
Modern Warware 2, The hype of the day. I have picked up a few reasons why it is not as good as I would have supposed.
First of all, It uses steam to deliver the game files. Some people may find that good, but for some people, with not as good computers. Why? Because steam slows down your computer a lot.
Second, The console in the game is disabled. Why? Because Infinity Ward doesnt want us tweakers to tweak the game. For example, We cannot bind all the features we would want.
Third, No dedicated servers. You have to play on prehosted ones, Which means it’s hard to get one for your clan or so.
Fourth, When there is no dedicated servers, There is no mods. That includes ingame mods, and custom maps. Playing factory maps will get boring after a while.
Fifth, The game will lag a lot, especially on weekends, because there is no dedicated servers
Many people bought the game, though. They thought it would be great, But in fact, It isnt.
Oh, fanboys, please dont whine at me, Your comments will not be shown. Thank you. I personally think that the popularity of Call of Duty series will degrade because of this. Also the graphics in MW2 are from the year 2007, Imho, The same quality as Quake 3 based games. I seriously hope that Infinity Ward would AT LEAST create dedicated servers for MW2. Period.
Howto: Compile OpenChrome under Fedora 11
OpenChrome is a graphical driver for Via Chrome chipsets. It currently offers 2D accelleration only, but it offers 3D accelleration with some chipsets through Mesa GLX libraries. Well, I’m out of luck with 3D. Well, I dont need it anyway.
Well, Let’s start.
Open up a terminal, type in:
su -
yum-builddep xorg-x11-drv-openchrome
yum install gcc make autoconf automake svn
svn co http://svn.openchrome.org/svn/trunk openchrome
cd openchrome/
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
make
make install
Xorg -configure :1
mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Now just edit your Xorg.conf to say “openchrome” instead of “vesa” or “fbdev”, under the driver section.
FAQ:
Q: Why do we compile from svn?
A: Because the svn driver is more advanced and more “to-date” than the stock openchrome driver. Also it’s faster, and does not crash with opengl applications.
Q: Can you make rpms for these?
A: Maybe, but probably not, since openchrome drivers update very frequently. A Better way would be to develop a script which does all of this.
I hope this quite was useful. If you have something to ask, just do so 🙂
Aero glass on vista basic.
Its now possible to use aero glass effect on Vista basic. This is done by editing the Aero theme file with a hex editor. Your computer still needs the proper hardware to use aero, though.
Moving to a new house
Yup, I’m moving to a new house so I am unable to blog for a while (it takes some time for my internet to arrive).
I wish good for all 🙂
Vista Basic – Aero
Yup, I discovered a bit of Vista Basic’s Registry. I found out that you can enable aero by editing registry. I uploaded a registry file that will help you to enable Aero on Vista Basic, which doesnt originally include.
Note that this can violate Microsoft’s EULA. I’m not 100% sure though.
Please use “run as administrator”, otherwise it does not work. Thank you.
Fedora 11 – Anything new?
Yup, took my ass and Installed the latest deveploment version of Fedora 11 (Still few days for official release).
Installation was extremely fast. It only took me eight minutes to install. Also the boot up times were very fast. If you need eyecandy, Plymouth bootscreen will do.
Desktop was plain and simple. It really didnt hurt my eyes, Like the ubuntu one. I changed the theme to a black one very soon, though. The theme is a bit different from older Fedora releases, but it looks very similar.
Fedora 11 ships with Firefox 3.5 beta 4. Its a lot faster than the old versions. Mp3s didnt work out of box, but RPM Fusion fixed it, Like it did for videos too. Also I noticed that OpenChrome were upgraded to the latest version from the svn. Default video player is Totem and Default music player is Rhytmbox. I changed the music player to songbird. Fedora ships with Transmission, which is the one of the BitTorrent client I have ever tried. Also Fedora comes with Pidgin, one of the most popular Instant Messengers.
Folder names are localized. For example, The Desktop folder is now Työpöytä (In my language). Also, the localization is better than the previous ones, which were a combination of English and Finnish.
There are bad things in Fedora, though. It currently ships with the latest deveploment version of GDM (Gnome Desktop Manager, The login screen), so you cant use themes with it.
Selinux also works a bit more better in this release. Firewall is enabled by default, but the proper ports are open for Web servers, etc things. Also, its possible to set automatic updates in Fedora 11. Overall, Quite good.
Compilr – The new way of making applications
Compilr seems to be a nice website. It enables you to code programs online. Currently VB.net, C# and Java are supported. Very nice to code in places where you can’t install the ide.
Best of all, It’s free. Soon it will be invite only, though. You should register there now. Also you can test your java applications as applets. Very nice way to learn programming. C++ and Fortran are coming soon. I’ll be waiting for C++. I really hope that it will be useful to you guys 🙂
Features:
OpenArena
Screenshot
OpenArena is a free clone of Quake 3 Arena with Same Engine, But with new maps and models. It has a single player mode, just like in Quake3. Multiplayer is also supported, of course. Game modes are:
Rating
Pros:
Cons:
True Combat:Elite
Yep, Real weapon crosshair
Graphics are nice.
Okay, True Combat : Elite, Usually TC:E is a mod for Wolfenstein : Enemy Territory. Its a really hard game as its realism based. Your character has stamina (Just like in Urban Terror). Aiming is made with WEAPON crosshair instead a dot on screen. Its not a heavy game, Thanks to ET engine. It runs on my shitty computer as well. There are currently 3 gamemodes: Bodycount, CTF and Objective. Bodycount is similar to TDM. The Gameplay is very fast, fastests rounds only lasts like 45 seconds or so. Sometimes it takes a bit longer. It has a lot of weapons.
Rating
Pros:
Cons:
Unrealized's random blog. 