Microsoft Sidewinder Gamer Voice

Game Voice

Manufactured By: Microsoft

Retail Price: $49.95

Review Date: 01-20-01

Game Commander was the first successful voice control device/software package to add a new level of control. The Game Commander offered voice recognition for the purpose of offering commands in games. The Game Commander also worked alongside chat software such as Roger Wilco. Microsoft's version adds a control pad for specifying chat participants and switching between the chat and voice command modes. The pad also functions as the connection center for the various plugs needed for operation.

The Game Voice has a good quality headset with both stereo headphones and a boom microphone. The mic is adjustable and can be placed directly in front of your mouth for optimum voice recognition and recording. It can also be swung out of the way when not needed. The headphones offer decent sound but do not compare to higher end headphones. Still, they are comfortable and sufficient for gaming.

Features-

• Headset
• Microphone
• Control Pad
• Channel button
• Team button
• All button
• Command button
• Microphone mute
• Volume
• Headset/speaker switch
• Connection management software
• Chat software

Appropriate For-

• Any Windows 95/98 game with keyboard commands.
• Voice chat across a LAN or internet connection.

System Requirements-

• Pentium 233MHz or higher processor with MMX
• Windows 98, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 Professional or later
• 64 MB RAM
• 5 MB available hard disk space
• TCP/IP LAN or Internet connection.
• MSN Messenger Service software required for connection management features
• Internet access with at least 33.6 kbps connection (56kbps connection or higher recommended)
• Sound card with full-duplex chip set and functional Line Out/ Microphone jacks PC
• DirectX 7.0 or later

Price -

At just under $50 the Game Voice is a small investment for what you receive. Still, you need to consider the fact that you will be required to use Microsoft utilities for communications and chat. If you're of the Netscape camp you'll need to install a few additional utilities. The hardware/software provided is well worth the investment.

Warranty-

90 day limited warranty.

Performance-

LAN/Internet Chat

**A primary feature of the Microsoft SideWinder Game Voice is the ability to chat with others. The Game Voice uses built-in compression technology that enables voice communication options for all users- even low bandwidth users. Internet connections from a 56k modem can use this feature by selecting the appropriate bit rate in the GameVoice properties. Of course higher bandwidth users can reduce the compression and increase overall sound quality.

Compression levels range from "poor" quality 1.4 kbit/sec compression to the "excellent" 32 kbit/sec (4kb/sec) compression level. I highly recommend a LAN, ISDN, Cable or other high bandwidth connection to take full advantage of speech communication and use one of the lower compression levels for higher quality communication. I used a cable connection and set the properties for Cable/ISDN compression. Sound quality was good. While talking to each other there is a very brief delay while the message is compressed, transferred and decompressed on the other user's side.

Once you've installed all software and are connected to the Internet you and other users must sign up to MSN messenger service. Once everyone has an account created you'll have a communication window similar to ICQ. Game Voice has a "start chat" button that needs to be activated in order to start a chat. Under "contact" you can select the individuals you would like to chat with. Simply double click the person you wish to add to your chat session and assign them one of the positions on the controller (1-5). You can then access that individual with a press of their corresponding number on the controller or through the "all" button.

On the controller base the buttons are numbered one to five, team, all and mute. You can also assign your contacts to a team. By assigning someone to a team you make it easier to communicate with a group while excluding "the other side". If you select the button "all" you can still chat with everyone to brag, boast, complain, etc.

The real plus of the SideWinder Game Voice is that the software works in the background while you are in a game. Unfortunately with CPU intensive and bandwidth intensive games the added stress on the system slows things down to a noticeable level. The voice chat became slow and started to stutter in Mechwarrior III, FlightSim 2000 and a few strategy games I tried. Lowering the sound quality helped a bit. You will need to experiment to find the "sweet spot" between quality and speed.

**Speech recognition

**The other feature of the Game Voice is speech recognition. The Game Voice enables macro's and key combinations to be executed with assigned voice commands. If you'd like to select a weapon in a game you have to say the name of that weapon (or any other word or phrase you assign to it) and it will be activated. When your say "impact hammer" the impact hammer will be activated when your command is recognized. The scheme that is used for voice recognition is a bit simplistic. There is no voice training in the setup. In other words, you need to train yourself. The word/phrase you assign must be phonetically correct for the software to recognize it. Depending on how you input the word and how you say it depends on the success of it being recognized. This can take quite a bit of trial and error. There are other voice command products that work much better.

If you are in a game chatting with a friend using the chat feature you can activate the command mode by pressing the "command" button on the controller. This will activate speech recognition until you press the button again, activating the chat function. There are many game-profiles that are included with the software. You can also make your custom profiles for any game you like to configure with speech recognition.

Setup-

Installation of the Microsoft SideWinder GameVoice is a breeze. However, you should make sure that you install the driver software before installing the hardware. After you've installed the software you need to connect the Game Voice to your system. Two 1/8" plugs from the headset (mic/headphone) connect to the command controller base. Two additional 1/8" plugs from the command module connect to the system soundcard mic in and speaker out. I suggest getting a splitter for the speaker out jack so you can leave your primary speakers connected and avoid having to constantly switch the connection. The connection hub offers a pass through for your speakers if you do not use a splitter. The final physical setup step is connecting the USB cable to a free USB port.

To use Game Voice over a firewall, proxy, or NAT, you will need to open certain TCP/IP ports. In some cases, you will also need to forward inbound packets sent to these ports to a particular IP address within your home/private network. Game Voice uses the same ports as any other DirectPlay application. Making these changes will also allow games using DirectPlay to work through the router. In addition, if you are hosting the session, you will need to configure Game Voice to host from behind your NAT/proxy/firewall as described below under Hosting.

Ports Required For DirectPlay and Game Voice

TCP Port 47624 (inbound and outbound)

TCP Ports 2300-2400 (all ports in this series, inbound and outbound)

UDP Ports 2300-2400 (all ports in this series, inbound and outbound)

Note: Some NATs do not distinguish between UDP and TCP ports. In this case, enabling IP traffic on ports 2300-2400 and 47624 should be sufficient.

Ports Required For MSN Messenger

TCP Port 1863.

Note: Some configurations may not require that this port be open. You will only need to open and forward this port if Messenger does not seem to allow you to log on.

Forwarding

You may have to configure your firewall, proxy, or NAT to "forward" packets sent to the above listed ports to a specific IP address within the home network. If this is the case, the computer on which you wish to run Game Voice should be the destination for the port forwarding.

Windows 98 SE Internet Connection Sharing

Windows 98 SE Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) blocks the ports that Game Voice uses by default, however there is a workaround. See the Microsoft website for details.

Hosting

If you are the host, make sure that you configure Game Voice to host from behind your NAT/proxy/firewall as follows:

• In the Game Voice software, click Game Voice Settings and then click Advanced.
• Under Host Network Address, make sure that the "Automatically Select Best Adapter" option is not selected. (If it is selected, click the check box to unselect it.)
• Select NAT/Proxy from the drop-down menu.
• Type your external IP address in the box next to where you selected NAT/Proxy.

Frustrated yet? Setting up the Game Voice on a shared connection system is a challenge. Once setup, you should not have to toy with the setting again. More and more homes connect through shared high bandwidth connections- for the Game Voice to work in these settings you will need to have a good knowledge of how to reconfigure the setup to open certain ports without jeopardizing overall system security.

Documentation-

Microsoft did a pretty good job putting together a manual for the Game Voice unit. The manual is thick but only 10 pages are dedicated to each of the 9 languages. Basic setup and use are covered. Advanced setting, creating profiles and other trouble-shooting topics are covered in the on-line help files and on the Microsoft website.

The Microsoft website lists basic features of the Game Voice on the Sidewinder pages. Microsoft has also set up a Game Voice specific web where you can get much of the advanced information on the product I covered in this review. They currently have information on beta software that should improve the Game Voice function and reduce the slow-downs. Right now no additional profiles are posted but in time they may be added to the site.

Overall Rating -

The Game Voice is a pretty good solution for internet chat. The ability to perform this function while running games is a great option in theory but requires a high end system and lightning fast connection for optimal performance. Setup requires plenty of trial and error to find just the right mix of quality and function. Voice recognition is also a time consuming trial and error experiment. The control pad is nice but its function could have been easily mapped to the keyboard already sitting on your desk.

The Control Center recommends the Microsoft Game Voice but with the notice that setup can be tricky to downright difficult, time will need to be invested in learning the optimal setup for chat, and more time will be invested in training yourself to perfect offering voice command to it. If you have a lower end system and/or a 56k modem connection you should pass.

Pros-

• Eliminates the need to memorize keyboard commands.
• Good voice recognition.
• Good voice communications

Cons-

• Requires a true full-duplex soundcard.
• Setup can be difficult on some systems with firewalls, hubs and connection sharing utilities and hardware.
• A decent internet connection is needed and some games will have a noticeable loss in speed when the Game Voice is in use.