TUTORIAL - Getting TeamSpeak to Talk Intelligently (and other tricks)

[djMot]

I'm noticing that admins in the XI LOUNGE CHAT MESSAGE ONLY room do not respond to text messages I send them.  Okay, well, maybe they just don't want to talk to me, but I'll try to keep my paranoia about that in check for the moment.

What I really think is going on is they are not recognizing that they have received a message in the first place - mainly I suspect because the notification sound is so pathetically weak.  To fix that problem, I'm writing this little tutorial guide with two goals:

1) Show you how to adjust notification volumes, or even change the sounds.

2) Set up Text to Speech so TS can actually talk to you about what's going on.  But also to get it to shut up about stuff you do not want to hear about, because believe me, just turning text to speech on gives TeamSpeak diarrhea of the mouth!

First things first.

Most of the stuff we'll explore happens on the Settings/Options dialog.  So click the Settings menu, then Options, or click the Icon for Settings on the toolbar.  (If you don't ave the toolbar turned on, right-click anywhere to the right of the Help menu item, then check "Toolbar".)

 

Default Inbound Chat (Chime) WAV File and Volume

Setting the volume is under Options/Playback.  BUT be careful - if you are going to turn on Text to Speech, you will actually want to turn the volume down, and otherwise you might want to turn it up.

 

Changing the WAV file takes one of two things.  Either a) install a different soundpack (see the TeamSpeak website for that) or 2) directly replacing the relevant WAV file in TS's "sound" folder.  Here's the WAV file for an inbound chat from another person:

 

And here it is in the folder where it lives:
 

I suppose you could use Audacity to jack up the volume on that one, or record a new one that says "An Idiot just sent you a text message" in your own voice.  Just save it to the same filename (make a backup of the original file, first.)

NOTE:  Rugger is apparently working on something along these lines, so maybe just stay tuned for future developments on this.

Getting TeamSpeak to Talk (Intelligently) to You

Even if you do not want TS to be talking to you, you should do this first part.  Everyone should!  The reason is that, for people who do use text to speech, what you set here will be heard by them, even if you never hear it yourself.  Also, the voice-translated version of your name may sound stupid (or long-winded or both) unless you set it correctly.

Setting your Phonetic Nickname:

Go here on the menu and find "Set phonetic nickname"
 

Enter your name - phonetically - as shown below.  So for instance, you can see what I've entered.  I use words that sound like letters, "dee jay" for dj, and because TS wanted to spell out Mot (as in "em oh tee",) I had to think of something that sounds like Mot.  "Maht" seems close enough (with the typical mid-western twang, that is,) and it's something TS actually pronounces rather than spells. 

 

I noticed this morning that TS pronounced "pollinator" like "poly nater", so pollinator might want to change his Phonetic Nickname to "pollen ate or" or something that more precisely sounds like it should.

 

Point is that some experimentation my be necessary to get it to "say" what you want.  The "Play" button is your friend while doing this. 

 

LEAVE OUT stuff like "XI" and "ADM" because they just make it longer to say, and they are not really a part of your commonly spoken game name anyway.  I've noticed also that sometimes TS pronounces "XI" as "eleven" and sometimes it spells it "ex eye" so that's kind of quirky.
 

Turn on Text to Speech
 

Set it on the Options/Notifications tab and be sure to "Apply."
 

 

Help TeamSpeak Make Better Choices About What to Say
 

Once you turn on text to speech, TS will talk its damn fool head off.  So annoying!  So you have to help it make better choices.  Do that as shown below, but notice that there are A LOT of categories to drill down into.  Best rule of thumb is to turn off "Server" or "By other client" notifications.  If it still says too much, you just need to make a note of what it's talking about, then come back here, find it, and uncheck it.

 

Now Tell TeamSpeak What to Say (and not blabber on about unimportant stuff)

So basically, you should have pared everything down to just a few things, and in particular keeping chat notifications, stuff you do,  and events in your current channel checked.  But even so, it says way to much.  For instance, if I enter a room, you might hear "dee jay Maht joined your channel see oh dee five on extreme idiots team speak server."  Whew!  Why not just "dee jay Maht joined"?  Okay, no problem; we can do that!

First, make a copy of the original ini file, and perhaps rename it the way I did, or however you like to do it.  Just make a backup copy of the original ini file first.

Then edit the settings.ini file using notepad, n++, textpad, or your text editor of choice.  Just be sure it's a plain text editor.  Then find the speech definitions for all of the things you are going to let TS talk to you about.  So for instance, this:

 

becomes this:
 

Continue editing what TS says until you are happy with a much quieter and more concise set of notifications.

Okay, I think you're getting the idea now.  Have fun.  Post questions.  Have a nice day.

 

 

[Gatorgirl]

I'm noticing that admins in the XI LOUNGE CHAT MESSAGE ONLY room do not respond to text messages I send them.  Okay, well, maybe they just don't want to talk to me, but I'll try to keep my paranoia about that in check for the moment.

 

May be because when we're in game we can't see them, also may be away from computer, also may be that we don't like teamspeak........... probably nothing to do with you

[StormCrow]

they are ignoring you, be paranoid... very very paranoid

[djMot]

I'm noticing that admins in the XI LOUNGE CHAT MESSAGE ONLY room do not respond to text messages I send them.  Okay, well, maybe they just don't want to talk to me, but I'll try to keep my paranoia about that in check for the moment.

 

May be because when we're in game we can't see them, also may be away from computer, also may be that we don't like teamspeak........... probably nothing to do with you

 

- How is that different from xfire?

- Happens even when they just joined the channel, so obviously not away.

- Sorry you don't like TeamSpeak; it's a remarkably capable program.

- I was just kidding about the "me" stuff.

[Gatorgirl]

In xfire, when I'm not on computer a conversation would pop up in a separate box that i could see walking through the house.

 

In xfire, in game it would pop up in game and i could reply without leaving the game.

 

If I am surfing the internet, and someone tries to get me in teamspeak, they have a 25% chance of me seeing it.  If it makes a noise I will not hear it because I only wear my headphones while I game...It does not give you a notice in game that someone is chatting....

 

my two cents

Edited July 25, 2015 by Gatorgirl

[Damage_inc-]

were not idiots really.they just don't want to talk to you. there should be an obvious mute logo to tell you you have been muted or set to ignore.that would be nice.can you look into that and do a tutorial?

Edited July 25, 2015 by Damage_inc-

[iboomboom]

What GG is saying is that u need to poke her. Poke poke poke...

[dadda2]

You do not need to go in that channel you can use ts as you did before this is for gamers who don't want to hear ts banter or be poked during game

[Merlin007]

I'm noticing that admins in the XI LOUNGE CHAT MESSAGE ONLY room do not respond to text messages I send them.  Okay, well, maybe they just don't want to talk to me, but I'll try to keep my paranoia about that in check for the moment.

 

May be because when we're in game we can't see them, also may be away from computer, also may be that we don't like teamspeak........... probably nothing to do with you

 

Ya, it's probably just you dj.  

[LaRSin]

In xfire, when I'm not on computer a conversation would pop up in a separate box that i could see walking through the house.

 

In xfire, in game it would pop up in game and i could reply without leaving the game.

 

If I am surfing the internet, and someone tries to get me in teamspeak, they have a 25% chance of me seeing it.  If it makes a noise I will not hear it because I only wear my headphones while I game...It does not give you a notice in game that someone is chatting....

 

my two cents

well 25% that pretty good ..you about 5% chance now of getting me ...

 

Gatorgirl is correct ...

[LaRSin]

- How is that different from xfire?

- Happens even when they just joined the channel, so obviously not away.

- Sorry you don't like TeamSpeak; it's a remarkably capable program.

- I was just kidding about the "me" stuff.

TS is a good program in it's own right , but not as a replacement for xfire ..

[Gatorgirl]

What GG is saying is that u need to poke her. Poke poke poke...

When I have to go out of game to do this my game crashes sometimes as well

[iboomboom]

When I have to go out of game to do this my game crashes sometimes as well

 

Are you running native resolution of your monitor when you're in-game? Direct-X may crash when it has issues putting the device in background and then trying to recover the lost device object. 

[Gatorgirl]

It doesn't seem to matter the resolution.  Sometimes it's a directx error, sometimes it is a memory error.  I don't understand the memory error because I have cleaned the computer and deleted unwanted programs etc..  This just started happening a few months ago.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Gatorgirl

[Sonovabich]

@@djMot, this needs to go into the XI  bible, if you have not already submitted it yet m8, i think @@loaderXI might be the man to speak to.  

Edited July 26, 2015 by Sonovabich