7.1.9.10325451220 - WebRTC Voice

Release Notes

WebRTC Voice

WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communications) is the predominant telephony protocol used by web-based applications, such as Google Meet. It’s built-in to Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and many other web browsers, and allows voice communication as well as data and video.

This project adds WebRTC as the primary voice provider for SecondLife, replacing the dated Vivox-based voice system we’ve had for a decade and a half.

Currently WebRTC voice may only be experienced in the region: WebRTC Voice 1 (more being added)
Please see our blog post for more details https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/15626-coming-to-an-agni-region-near-you-an-update-on-changes-to-voice/

Features provided by WebRTC include:

• Improved NAT hole punching.
• Audio/video device selection.
• Improved spatialization.
• 48khz audio bandwidth providing cleaner sound.
• User control over audio noise reduction - high reduction for noisy environments, no reduction for clean audio sources (performers, etc.)
• User control over automatic gain control - less need to individually tune other user’s audio levels.
• Improved audio echo cancellation.
• Improved security - person-to-person communication goes through our servers, and won’t leak personal details such as IP addresses.
• And many more.

Most of the same features are still available:

• Spatial in-world voice.
• Peer to peer sessions.
• Voice conferences with multiple others.
• Group voice (including moderation)

Feature changes:

• Voice morphing is not included with WebRTC. (There are many apps that provide these services.)
• Conferences and group voice calls are limited to 50 participants.

Known issues:

• https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/1890 Users except creator are dropped from ad-hoc voice conversation on Vivox
• You can’t make P2P calls from WebRTC enabled viewers to vivox-only viewers.
• Group and conference calls default to WebRTC or Vivox depending on whether the call was initiated by someone running the webrtc viewer.
• When establishing a p2p/group/conference call with WebRTC and then TPing to a Vivox region, the voice drops.
• On some systems, there is an occasional ‘stutter’ in frame rate when crossing parcel or region boundaries.
• The “Speak” button in the conversation floater is displayed as disabled after connecting to the IM, Ad-hoc, and Group chats.
• If you do have issues with voice, disable and re-enable voice.

Resolved Issues

• viewer#1090 [WebRTC] Voice input/output is not using the Windows-Default device when set to 'Default'
• viewer#1451 [WebRTC] Add a warning that voice font's are no longer supported if user has voice fonts enabled.
• viewer#1732 Crash after toggling Voice Echo Cancellation off and on
• viewer#1776 Viewer crash when connecting to webRTC voice with certain settings.xml
• viewer#1788 Disabling the Media preference should not disable the Noise Suppression preference
• viewer#1806 BugSplat Crash: SecondLifeViewer!LLIMModel::LLIMSession::initVoiceChannel(799)
• viewer#1828 [WebRTC] Mic Volume slider does not affect transmitted audio loudness in WebRTC mode
• viewer#1926 WebRTC viewer has an Audio Driver Version older than than what's in Release
• viewer#1968 Debug setting VoiceMorphingEnabled should default to True
• viewer#2195 The "Voice morphs are not supported by this viewer" notification does not have a correct description in the settings 'Always show/Never show' for notifications
• viewer#2203 Crash at LLVoiceWebRTCConnection::breakVoiceConnectionCoro()(2438)
• viewer-private#115 WebRTC - logging - Very little webrtc logging around voice state
• viewer-private#248 The "Speak" button in the conversation floater is displayed as disabled after connecting to the Ad-hoc and Group calls
• viewer-private#254 User A does not see the "User B has declined your call" message after clicking on the "Ignore" button on the notification calling floater
• viewer-private#255 The p2p voice call does not work correctly for user who initiated a call