Ventrilo Tutorial

Ventrilo is the program used by the clan to communicate by voice. It is easy to use and stuff.

Start here.

http://www.ventrilo.com

Click the "Download" link.



Now click the first link for 32 bit windows, because I am pretty sure the others don't work. Maybe they do, anyone else in the clan staff, feel free to edit any mistakes.



Now agree.

Now save it to your computer.



Run the installer, just keep clicking next until you hit finished.

Now open vent.

Step one is to make your username. This is simple. Click the button marked on the following image.



Now click the "new" button, and enter some info. Obviously, yours will be different from mine.



Now click the arrow button by server, and you should see an empty form, click the "new" button and enter the information the same as I have it.



Now you can click settings and change the button bound to talk (Default: Left ctrl) and other settings. Have fun and enjoy talking to BoC!

Settings, this is where you change your talk bind:

I have a question about this, but I'm not sure where to post it...

Can someone help me understand what the benefit of ventrilo is over the usual in-game, team voice channel? Does using ventrilo prevent one from hearing or speaking on the in-game team voice channel?

Thanks. (and let me know if this has been addressed elsewhere on the forums, I searched but couldn't find anything.)

ILL Clinton

We do not support all talk in our servers, we could be on different teams and love to trash talk. We have a much better time in vent than in game. It also supports our community much better. We use it for meetings, playing different games, on different maps. its a gay old time in there.

gotcha, so it's like for just talking, but you still use the in-game voice for team communication?

so i set up ventrilo and connected to your server, and i was kicked for spamming? haha, i was just clicking around the servers, but idk if that did anything. i'm gonna stay off it though until i can get a mic that's not from the 90's.

thanks for the tutorial

Spend some more time playing the games we have rather than posting.

Now that you have Ventrilo setup:

1. Read Turtle's tutorial on How to Equalize Vent
2. If you are a Windows 7 user, see this post by Maud'Dib

For any new users who are having trouble seeing the server and port number (I know I did) it's:
chicago-ventrilo/nuclearfallout.net
Port Number 4340

Maybe someone can take a new, bigger screen shot and replace the one up there?

Er, chicago-ventrilo.nuclearfallout.net, no slashes.

This tutorial is meant to SUPPLEMENT the above tutorial on setting up Ventrilo, NOT replace it!!! The below text is meant to aid the typical user in solving an issue created in Windows Vista / 7 (regardless of service pack, architecture of the OS or distribution of the OS (e.g. Basic, Home, Professional, Business, Enterprise) and any installed hardware) causing an auto-reduction of sound, auto-adjustment of controls related to playback / recording devices on the system.


THIS TUTORIAL DOES NOT APPLY TO WINDOWS 2000/XP!!!

A little background on the issue:
Microsoft got the "bright idea" when releasing Windows Vista / 7 that, too many people have issues with running multiple applications the require sound. Their idea was this, "The collision of sound between applications makes it difficult for the average user to perform the required/desired tasks on their machine." This has proved two things... Microsoft needs to stop thinking, and their thought process doesn't include anyone who actually knows how to use a computer... So to simplify this cluster they created read below.

The first thing you need to understand is that Microsoft has decided to give various applications priority to your sound device based on the current running processes and services in your system at the time of use. English... What your running right now defines how much of a cluster your issue becomes. Your system will try to reduce the volume of applications that Windows decides are "background applications", even if they are the primary application in use. This reduction can be either 50% or 80%, both of which are quite annoying to gamers who use Vent/Team Speak/XFire in conjunction with in game voice applications and as some of us might, even messenger services (e.g. yahoo) on top of this. If you are like me, you have Winamp, multiple instances of Ventrilo, Yahoo Messenger and in game voice applications running. Sounds like a big problem when your system tries to fight itself to decide what is a background application and what is a primary application and should take priority over the sound device! SIMPLE FIX FOLKS!!!

Mkay, I use Windows 7 Business - Service Pack 1 x64 Edition, the steps for Vista are virtually the same if not absolutely identical to the below tutorial. There is no difference in these steps from the x86 (32bit) and x64 (64 bit) version of the OS, or the distribution of the OS (e.g. Basic, Home, Professional, Business, Enterprise), they are all treated the same!

Open Control Panel:
Goto Start > Control Panel

Now this step can vary depending on the setup of your system, but that's OK, we'll look at it from both variations.

For users who have control panel in Classic View (Large or Small icons from the listbox):
Click Sound
Select the Playback Tab
Select your sound device (e.g. speakers, Headphones etc.), click properties (To make sure you are selecting the correct device just play some music, your current default playback device will display a green bar measuring the current volume as the song plays)
Click the Advanced tab, and UnCheck the "Allow Applications to take exclusive control of this device" box
Click OK.

Now click the Recording tab,
Select your microphone from the list, (Usually there is only one listed, in the event of multiple devices, speak loudly into the mic, most systems may auto-monitor this device producing a volume indicator beside the device as you speak, this is the device that needs to be edited), click properties
Click the Advanced tab, and UnCheck the "Allow Applications to take exclusive control of this device" box
Click OK.

This will prevent the computer from trying to auto-adjusting your playback and recording devices based on the applications you're running, however we aren't quite finished.

From the Sound window:
Select the Communications tab, (This controls the volume reduction within applications on your system. Most systems default the reduction to 80%) Select "Do nothing"
Click OK.
You may want/need to restart all applications that are current using your sound device (games, vent, music players etc) for these settings to take full effect. A system restart is not required!

For users who have control panel in Category View:
Click Hardware and Sound
Click either Sound as the primary header or Manage audio Devices as the sub menu
From here, all steps on removing the system control over your devices and preventing auto-reduction in sound are the same as from before.

It took me a while to figure this out originally. I would be talking to people while in game and on Ventrilo and after a short period of time I couldn't hear people on vent due to their extremely quiet nature. I began snooping around my settings and the above is what I found. I've been using this for a year or so now and it works wonderful. If anyone has any additional tweaks / questions / comments on this, feel free to post!

That's pretty handy, Alex, even if you don't currently have an issue with Vent/TF2/Windows being stupid. I've often wondered if that annoying aspect could be removed (but was too lazy to look.)

Remember, it's Microsoft, they LOOK for new ways to tinker with unbroken software and controls, system performance in an ongoing effort to make the life of a gamer a living hell... As for not having an issue, sometimes the system changes the priority of the "assumed" primary application back and forth, and manages to do so without any real notice in change by the user. I would still recommend using the above fix, as I've had people explain they "Don't have this current issue" and then later it arises. Just a heads up. But hey look at it this way, at least now, you don't have to take the time to look through Microsoft's scrambled mess, someone else already did that for you!