With only a small amount of setup you can add fully working voice chat using only blueprints into your game without any C++ knowledge using any version of  Unreal Engine 4.

Before we Start

Unreal Engine’s voice chat only works correctly when your multiplayer game uses the session system. To learn about the session system in Unreal Engine 4 click here.

Setting up Voice Chat

Config Files

To tell the engine that we want to enable the voice chat features there are a few configuration files (.ini) that need to be changed. The files we need to change are DefaultGame.ini and DefaultEngine.ini. No additional software is needed to change these files. Notepad works fine.

To find these files open your project folder and navigate to the config folder.

Here are the two files we need to edit:

To edit them, right click the file and select open with then click notepad:

DefaultEngine.ini

Once open, scroll down to the end of the DefaultEngine.ini file and copy and paste this section to enable the voice system on the engine. Save and exit this file.

[Voice] 
bEnabled=true

[OnlineSubsystem] 
bHasVoiceEnabled=true

DefaultGame.ini

DefaultGame.ini is last file that needs to be changed. Open this using the same method as DefaultEngine.ini and paste one of the sections below to enable or disable push to talk.

Enabling push to talk gives your players the ability to only send their voice when pressing a button down.

Disabling push to talk sends voice data all the time regardless if the player wants to send their voice or not.

It is recommended that you enable this as most players prefer their voice data only being sent when they are ready to talk.

To enable push to talk, copy and paste this section:

[/Script/Engine.GameSession]
bRequiresPushToTalk=true

To disable push to talk, copy and paste this section:

[/Script/Engine.GameSession]
bRequiresPushToTalk=false

Save and close the file.

Open your project from the .uproject file in your project folder and wait for the engine to load.

Finishing Touches

Blueprint Setup

If you have enabled push to talk in the DefaultGame.ini file in the above step, you will need to setup key press input to start and stop push to talk. If you did not enable push to talk you can skip to the conclusion.

The first step is to open your player controller blueprint. In my project I have created a new player controller named PlayerControllerVoice.

If you do not have a custom player controller, simply create one from the content browser and assign it to your game mode.

Adding the Voice Chat Key

Once your player controller blueprint is open on the event graph right click anywhere on the empty space and type the name of the key you want your players to press in order to talk. In my case I used the V key.

From the pressed and released pins of the input key event create two “Execute Console Command” nodes.

At this stage it should look like this:

In the command input of the pressed “Execute Console Command” node type:

ToggleSpeaking 1

In the command input of the released “Execute Console Command” node type:

ToggleSpeaking 0

Now when your players press the input key (in my case V) they will start sending voice chat information. When they release the key they will stop sending voice chat information.

Example Video

Download the Project Files

These example projects have fully working voice chat using the Steam online system using Unreal Engine 4.23.

Conclusion

Voice Chat is now fully working. Completing the additional steps gives you the option of enabling and disabling sending your player’s voice through push to talk!

To improve this system you could do the following:

• Add positional voice chat to your system.
• Add the Advanced Sessions Plugin which gives access to blueprint nodes of many C++ only voice and online features (muting other players, friends lists, inviting players) found here: https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/community-content-tools-and-tutorials/41043-advanced-sessions-plugin
• Use Input actions for push to talk allowing players to rebind their keys

The post The easy way to add Voice Chat into your multiplayer Unreal Engine 4 Game appeared first on Couch Learn.

Configuration

Config Directory

All files that we will be creating or editing will be in the config folder. To find this folder navigate to your project folder and open the config folder.

Enabling the Features

Here I will show you how to enable the new audio engine for each platform.

You only need the folder and files for the platform that you wish to build your game for.

Here are the platforms and their folder names:

Inside the platform folder that you wish to use we need to create the configuration file for that platform.

To create these folders right click in the folder and create a new text document. From there you can change the name and extension to make it work with the engine.

Configuration File Names

Windows Folder – WindowsEngine.ini

MacOS Folder – MacEngine.ini

iOS Folder – IOSEngine.ini

Android Folder – AndroidEngine.ini

Make sure the extension is exactly .ini for the engine to understand the file.

If this alert box shows press YES to create the file.

If done correctly the file type should be “Configuration setting”.

To edit .ini files, right click the file and click on the edit option.

WindowsEngine.ini

Open WindowsEngine.ini, copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerXAudio2 

MacEngine.ini

Open MacEngine.ini, open copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerAudioUnit

IOSEngine.ini

Open IOSEngine.ini, copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerAudioUnit

AndroidEngine.ini

Open AndroidEngine.ini, copy and paste this into the text editor then save and then quit:

[Audio]
AudioDeviceModuleName=AudioMixerAndroid

This is all you need to tell the engine what audio engine to use. The next step is to enable the plugins so the editor gives you access to the blueprint nodes and additional audio blueprint classes.

Enabling the Plugins

To access the plugin browser press Edit then plugins from the drop down menu.

The two plugins we need to enable are in the Audio section of the plugins browser:

Enable the sound utilities and Synthesis and DSP effects plugins

The final step left to do is to restart the editor.

Conclusion

You are all set! There are many powerful tools in the new audio engine for you to now use in your new or existing projects. My main use for the new audio engine is to control the VOIPTalker component with audio effects through a source effect chain.

As the new audio engine is experimental not much documentation exists. I encourage you to create a new blueprint and look through all of the synth nodes and make something new. The best way to learn how these systems work is to dive headfirst and play around with it.

The post How to enable the new audio engine in your Unreal Engine 4 Project appeared first on Couch Learn.