Since Imvox has launched our newest versions with the Plugged Into Skype technology, people have naturally been curious how using Imvox is different than just using Skype. This post will attempt to clarify those differences once and for all.

Skype

Skype is built on peer to peer technology. This is great for 1 to 1 voice chat, since there is no server needed to mediate the conference. This is the perfect design for Skype since most calls are with only one other person. When you bring in more than two people total to a Skype chat, the person who initiated the call becomes the ‘host’. This person’s machine suffers quite a CPU and bandwidth hit then because they are actually the one mixing the audio and re-transmitting it to everyone else. If that person pulls up a bandwidth or CPU intensive application like Netflix or Starcraft 2, things get bad for everyone. Quality degrades dynamically, and their frame rates in-game are likely effected as well.

Skype is also made with the understanding that everyone knows and likes each other. You can’t mute each other, or kick someone from the call. Inviting additional users to the call is something that must be done by the host, and have to happen right then. Of course, Skype also lacks critical gaming functionality like Push to Talk. There’s some amazing feedback/echo/noise cancellation in there, but someone smashing on the keyboard or chugging Mountain Dew will come through loud and clear.

Imvox

Imvox operates in a client-server model. All users connect to the central Imvox servers. These servers take all the bandwidth and CPU hit, leaving you with only a single connection to Imvox which takes up a fairly low and consistent amount of CPU/bandwidth no matter if there are 2 people or 200 in the conference. No person acts as the server host, and if the person who made the server drops out, everyone else is still ok. No one user’s computer going down will damage the experience for others, and the quality can dynamically shape for each user. Users can join in at any time, and don’t require an explicit invitation from the host. You get the benefits of Push to Talk and the ability to assign moderation capability to members of the server.

What is Plugged Into Skype?

So if Skype isn’t suited for gaming, what is Imvox doing with the Plugged Into Skype technology?

Plugged Into Skype allows us to take all of the benefits of Skype, and combine them with the flexibility and power of Imvox.

Plugged Into Skype provides the amazing SILK codec, which sounds great, takes little bandwidth for a single connection, and is very low latency. You also get the benefit of world-class echo cancellation and feedback reduction. We often don’t even use headsets for non-gaming Imvox sessions. Skype’s technology is also really really good at getting through firewalls, so you can connect from almost anywhere in the world – and since it looks like Skype traffic, work won’t know you’re gaming! If your connection does get a little choppy, instead of losing the audio, it will just degrade gracefully and then return to higher quality when your connection can handle it.

There are also other countless possibilities for the Plugged Into Skype technology and Imvox. There is potential for video conferencing, interfacing with Skype itself, calling a physical phone number to reach a conference (we don’t support raiding and driving) and many more awesome things such as [STATEMENT REDACTED BY MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS].

Summary

Skype is awesome. We use it daily to connect with each other, family and friends. Yet, it isn’t tuned for gaming or large scale conferences. For that, you want Imvox.

 

An Overlay for Imvox is finally here, on both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows!

Users must install Growl for Mac or Growl for Windows in order to use the overlay. The Growl overlay enables you to see who is talking in realtime, who is leaving and joining the server, and text messages in realtime, even if you’re in a fullscreen game. No more guessing about who said, “Heal me!”

As it turns out, Blizzard disabled support for Growl in World of Warcraft last Fall, but other fullscreen games seem to work just fine. Let us know if you encounter any compatibility issues.

Just how many people can you fit into an Imvox server? Until July 1, the sky is the limit as we’re temporarily removing the 30-user server cap!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get as many people logged into you Imvox server as possible at the same time. Whoever gets the most people logged in at once will win $3 in Amazon gift cards for each user you had concurrently logged into your server.

So if you got 50 people in there, you’d win $150 from Amazon. 500 people? $1,500. We’ve got systems watching for cheating, so no funny business like creating all the accounts yourself. We’ll post the current record each day via Twitter, so make sure to follow us on Twitter for the newest updates. On July 1, we’ll announce one winner! Will it be you? Grab your friends and find out.

This is open to all Imvox users, new and old. All users can create a free server in seconds. Currently the Mac OS X software does not support creating a server, but you can use a Windows machine to login and create your server for the first time.

Contact Imvox support if you have any questions.

Contest ends at 12:01AM EST on July 1, 2011. No purchase necessary. Winner responsible for all applicable tax on winnings. Employees of Imvox and their family members are not eligible.

We have a healthy list of features we’re bringing you this month. Expect frequent patches and upgrades.

Today, we have Imvox 2.5.0.25 for Mac, with some minor tweaks and bug fixes as seen below.

• Pressing backspace now deletes characters properly during server search
• Audio notifications now come from the proper selected audio device instead of the default system device
• User and server profile images now display their proper unique images
• Recent servers are now properly saved, so you can reconnect to a favorite server easily
• Push to Talk will properly stay on, even if additional keys are pressed
• Several memory leaks have been fixed, lowering memory footprint and increasing stability

Mac and Windows gamers now together- Version 2.5.24

 

I’m a big fan of Rockstar Games, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series, Dead Red Redemption, Bully, Max Payne and many other great games. Their most recent release, L.A. Noire caught my attention. I remember a few years ago speculation/wishing on several forums being that the next ‘Grand Theft Auto’ game would be from the perspective of a police officer. This game is the realization of that dream but I don’t think its quite the game that many had imagined. In some ways it far exceeds anything users could have imagined or hoped for, and in other ways falls a bit flat. A great deal of what you think of this game will depend on what type of gamer you are and your expectations coming in.

One of the most important things to keep in mind while playing this game is that is it not another Grand Theft Auto game. Yes-  the UI, controls, driving, and general game feels a great deal like Grand Theft Auto but it is fundamentally a different game that is in many ways closer to Heavy Rain than GTA:IV. The pacing is significantly slower, missions are much more involved and detailed and you need to remember more than the basic goal of shooting something. Greater focus is put on interactions with the citizens of L.A. than was ever present in the GTA series.

Radio stations are notably missing which struck me as very odd. When you’re in the car, you’re stuck with whatever music is playing. The 40′s soundtrack was highly endearing to me in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but its fallen flat for me here. The real tragedy here is the mission talk radio stations. Maybe those weren’t actually that popular in the 1940′s actually, but I really enjoyed the humor in the GTA series from those stations and the huge soundtracks really helped me get into the world. Overall, humor seems pretty absent from the game and the tone is very serious. I guess when you’re solving horrible crimes it doesn’t really mesh with humor, but I do appreciate the effort put into making a serious adult game.

The game is set in the late 1940′s after WWII in Los Angeles. Instead of playing as a criminal seeking his way to the top of the underworld, you’re a cop fighting to put criminals behind bars. Your character’s background as a vet in the war is slowly unveiled through a series of cutscenes between major cases that you’re assigned. Your motivations behind being a cop aren’t as terribly obvious as Niko’s motivations as a street criminal, but over time they become apparent.

Rockstar has done a solid job in making L.A. feel very vibrant and alive, but it does lack something for me compared to the New York City portrayed in GTA:IV. Maybe its because I haven’t been to L.A. but I just feel a little disconnected from the real vibe of the city. As always, streets and landmarks are accurately done and no doubt Rockstar did their research here in making sure houses, slang, outfits and cars are period correct.

The disconnect however feels to come from multiple directions. For one, at least as far as I’ve gotten in the game you don’t have a ‘home’ that we experience. We hear about your wife and kids, but at least at this point in the game I haven’t seen them and don’t know their names. GTA games often had a huge number of side tasks spanning from showing off your driving skills, to skydiving, working out at the gym, eating dinner, going on dates, shopping for clothes, pimping your ride, riding bicycles, and defending your turf. Rockstar has really stripped it all down for this game and removed a great deal of grind. Yet at the same time, they removed a lot of spice from the city.

Certainly, there are side tasks such as finding newspapers, film reels and responding to police radio calls but overall the tasks feel limited and yet worse the overall motivation just doesn’t feel there. Why do I care about responding to police radio calls? Getting some points and a higher rank (which does seemingly nothing for you aside from giving you ‘intution’ which can help you through finding clues or a tough interrogation. I can’t tell if how well I do on story quests actually has any real effect overall on the game. Does it matter if I send the wrong guy to jail? While it feels a bit like Heavy Rain at times, I can’t tell if your decisions effect things in the same way.

Another downside is that driving just isn’t that fun anymore. So far I’ve had my partner drive about 60% of the time. Oh yea, you’ve got a partner to help you out. They aren’t as helpful as you’d hope, but they don’t hold you back much either. But back to driving. Ever drive a car from the 40′s? Most of them really are big boats that aren’t that fun. There’s a relative lack of types of vehicles to drive as well. No horses, trains, helicopters, airplanes (I guess there are a few, but its uncertain if you can fly them), boats, bicycles, jetpacks or motorcycles that I have found yet. Also, it seems that cars in the 1940′s were built much better than modern times and with seat belts that really work! No matter how hard I’ve run a car into another (or a wall) I have yet to be ejected or cause an explosion. At worse the car catches on fire for a moment and stops working, but no explosions.

This all must sound terribly negative by this point, but there are a lot of positive things about the gameplay that do make it a highly rewarding experience.

The graphics of the overall world and city aren’t significantly different or better than GTA:IV. Surely some things have been cleaned up, but overall these are about the same. The characters however are completely redone and some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen in any game. They used a great deal of face capture technology in this game to attempt to get every detail of emotion out of each and every one of the actors. The people look very realistic.

A large portion of the gameplay focuses on your interviews and interrogations of citizens and suspects of L.A. Your interactions with them directly effect the outcome of the case and its easy to mess up. The first few ones will throw you off and make you think that it will all be easy, but soon it becomes apparent that this isn’t the case.

Overall this is a really fantastic game. Don’t expect Grand Theft Auto. Instead expect a more vibrant and lifelike version of Heavy Rain and you’ll be a happy detective.