Online player vs desktop app

killingmockingbirds · July 31, 2021, 8:32pm

Online player: We don’t like it. During a playing sound, we all don’t hear the same sounds at the same time. For instance, if a Troll is making combat grunting noises, we all get different grunts at different times. This leads to situations where one person is talking about a sound not even the DM has heard. It’s also way too finicky to set up for 7 players, especially when they are all not super computer-savvy and on varying operating systems.

Desktop App: We love it. As the DM, I am the only one that has to do ANYTHING to get sounds to work. I pump it over zoom with sound only sharing and original sound turned on, and it sounds perfect. And we all hear exactly the same sounds at the same time.

One gripe with the desktop app: Where did the soundboard go with spell sounds on the side!? I used that constantly and now it’s gone!?

benjamin · August 4, 2021, 7:07am

The OneShots that show in the Desktop App depend on what content you have installed. Check out our FAQ page for the specifics here… but probably, you just need to install Bugbear Battle…?

Let me know if that helps.

NOTE: we are working on a MUCH simpler way of getting your players in the game and getting the sound to your players.

RE LATENCY: this obviously depends on your Player’s internet connections… when a sound is FIRST played… the Online Player App, downloads that sound before it players… then thereafter it is Cached and will be much more accurate. Soooo… maybe play through a few expected MOODs at the beginning of the game while people are just prepping (with the volume RIGHT down low) (that’s what I do)

Either way, GLAD you are enjoying the sounds! That’s the main thing!

killingmockingbirds · August 22, 2021, 5:13pm

Thanks for the reply Ben!

As far as we have experienced, I don’t think latency is the issue? I think if an element has say, 10 different sounds it can play in its sounds list, the issue is that not every player is sent the same sound?

For instance, on an element with lots of Troll combat grunts, one player might hear “SINDIKK!” while another hears “Graaah!” at the same time. I’ve noticed this, because my players will react to noises nobody else heard, as they might all be hearing different noises from the same element.

For the global one-shots, I guess I was in an odd soundset at the time that had NO global oneshots present. I went to a different soundset and there they were… facepalm lol.

Simpler to get into the game is crucial- running a game with lots of players over the internet is currently… untenable using the online player. Using the genre desktop players over zoom is a piece of cake in comparison.

benjamin · August 24, 2021, 11:26am

This sometimes happens when a play joins a game late, OR has to restart their Online Player App. A warning shows in both their player AND the DM’s player when that happens. Stopping all sound and restarting fixes that.

Either way, if you are getting the quality you need out of Discord, then you are sorted anyway.

jackyjoy826 · September 20, 2021, 10:31am

killingmockingbirds:

As far as we have experienced, I don’t think latency is the issue? I think if an element has say, 10 different sounds it can play in its sounds list, the issue is that not every player is sent the same sound?

For instance, on an element with lots of Troll combat grunts, one player might hear “SINDIKK!” while another hears “Graaah!” at the same time. I’ve noticed this, because my players will react to noises nobody else heard, as they might all be hearing different noises from the same element.

For the global one-shots, I guess I was in an odd soundset at the time that had NO global oneshots present. I went to a different soundset and there they were… facepalm lol.

Simpler to get into the game is crucial- running a game with lots of players over the internet is currently… untenable using the online player. Using the genre desktop players over zoom is a piece of cake in comparison.

thanks for the awesome information.