Using Discord in-game for Voice Comms

[RedKestrel]

Hi all, I'm finally getting my hands on a headset with a microphone and I've been fiddling around with Discord on my PC for when my order comes in. When flying on multiplayer servers I've had a lot of offers or requests to join discord to coordinate from other players on the server. I've never used Discord or Teamspeak or anything like that before as I had no voice mic.

Despite my best attempts I can't find how to join a channel or server from in-game. The in-game overlay works for games you have 'added' but I can't seem to add Il-2, so I can't see an in-game overlay.

What I want to be able to do is join a Discord channel in-flight without having to leave the game or tab out if possible. When flying on multiplayer servers I've had a lot of offers or requests to join discord to coordinate from other players on the server, and I'd like to get myself all sorted out on how to do things before getting online and wasting my team mates time trying to get me set up lol.

So, any tips, guides, or rules of thumb to getting Discord set up for Il2 would be great. Or TeamSpeak as well, I haven't got that app yet but I know people use it too.

[Leon_Portier]

It would be a nice feature, but as far as I know the Discord Overlay doesn't work with IL2.

Personally I use discord to ask if someone is up to fly.

A good starting point is always the non-official IL2 Discord, it has a wing man role which allows you to message possible fly mates easily.

https://discord.gg/KxXvSuX

Edited May 29, 2019 by [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier

[56RAF_Roblex]

16 minutes ago, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

it has a wing man role which allows you to message possible fly mates easily.

 

Could you expand on that?   The reason I use Teamspeak instead of Discord is that I don't like the way Discord only allows you to use one channel so it can be hard to co-ordinate with everyone else flying beside you while others on the channel are on a different sortie or discussing last nights TV.    Teamspeak allows me to set up Whisper channels so I can listen to everyone in my channel or sub-channel but also use a different key to talk to just the aircraft on my mission or just my wingman.     Are you saying Discord has a feature giving me some of that functionality?

[Leon_Portier]

@56RAF_Roblex

I agree, the TS whisper is a great function!

Something alike is in the discussion in Discord and may be implemented, so TS is still very useful.

The thing I was reffering to is the wingman role specivic to the unnoficial IL2 discord,

basically you can assign youself that role, so you anyone looking for a flight can just write "@wingman" and you´ll get a notification.

That way you can organize fly mates easely. (See pic)

 

Edited May 29, 2019 by [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier
Picture smaller

[RedKestrel]

2 hours ago, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

It would be a nice feature, but as far as I know the Discord Overlay doesn't work with IL2.

Personally I use discord to ask if someone is up to fly.

A good starting point is always the non-official IL2 Discord, it has a wing man role which allows you to message possible fly mates easily.

https://discord.gg/KxXvSuX

So the only option for joining a channel or server is to tab out of Il-2, join the server, and then pop back in?

[Leon_Portier]

6 minutes ago, RedKestrel said:

So the only option for joining a channel or server is to tab out of Il-2, join the server, and then pop back in?

As far as I`m aware, that's correct for both TS and Discord.

[RedKestrel]

Just now, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

As far as I`m aware, that's correct for both TS and Discord.

Well, as long as I know. Just gotta remember to engage autolevel if Im in flight and hope no one bounces me lol.

[Leon_Portier]

1 minute ago, RedKestrel said:

Well, as long as I know. Just gotta remember to engage autolevel if Im in flight and hope no one bounces me lol.

Thats how I would do it too lol.

Usually I do check/ask before flying if some of my buds on the inofficial IL2 discord are going to fly or already flying and join them.

[RedKestrel]

19 minutes ago, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

Thats how I would do it too lol.

Usually I do check/ask before flying if some of my buds on the inofficial IL2 discord are going to fly or already flying and join them.

Well, I've been flying more and more online lately and trying to coordinate via chat, and a few times guys have offered to let me join their discord when I'm in flight to coordinate. So that's where I'm coming from mostly.

[Hawk-2a]

About discord overlay, it works but not by default:

 

If you have the game running (that's a "must" for this to work), tab out and check here (sorry it's german): <---- This only needs to be done ONCE ---->

 

Options -> Game Activity -> Then choose IL-2 Game from the dropdown list -> Add game -> and then switch on the overlay (shown in green as i did it already, where it says "overlay: an"

 

and here you set how the overlay will look and how to open it (keybind):

Make sure the overlay is activated (slider ON)

You can also change the used Keybind to open the Overlay and change how, when and where it should be shown

Edited May 29, 2019 by =FC=SteelFalcon
part 2 added

[RedKestrel]

1 minute ago, =FC=SteelFalcon said:

About discord overlay, it works but not by default:

 

If you have tha game running, tab out and check here (sorry it's german):

 

Options -> Game Activity -> Then choose IL-2 Game from the dropdown list -> Add game -> and then switch on the overlay (shown in green as i did it already, where it says "overlay: an"

I'll try that again tonight. When I tried to add the game before Discord wouldn't recognize it. Is your version through Steam?

[Hawk-2a]

Just now, RedKestrel said:

I'll try that again tonight.

Added the 2nd part to my post

[RedKestrel]

6 minutes ago, =FC=SteelFalcon said:

Added the 2nd part to my post

Oh and just to be clear...you can sign into a new channel via the overlay? Sorry if this is answered somewhere else, I just can't seem to find it.

[Hawk-2a]

17 minutes ago, RedKestrel said:

Oh and just to be clear...you can sign into a new channel via the overlay? Sorry if this is answered somewhere else, I just can't seem to find it.

 Yeah you can change channels, check text channels and hell, even switch servers. Here's a screenshot of mine right now (in game):

Edited May 29, 2019 by =FC=SteelFalcon

[Leon_Portier]

@=FC=SteelFalcon Wow, I didn´t know that. Gotta try it too!

[RedKestrel]

Thanks for the help Leon and SteelFalcon! I think I've got it all figured out. Next time I'm online I'll give it a whirl.

[RedKestrel]

OK, got the overlay to work. I can switch between servers but I think to join a NEW server I've never belonged to before I need to go into the App itself, which kinda makes sense. 

I haven't tested in live comms with other players yet, but I tested it with my wife's discord and she could hear me fine. I can't hear myself in my own headset, is that normal? I can hear myself when I do the mic test in Discord but not when I'm talking normally. I want to be able to regulate my volume so I don't disturb other people in the house but I'm not sure how loud I am or have to be to be heard.

[Hawk-2a]

50 minutes ago, RedKestrel said:

I can't hear myself in my own headset, is that normal? I can hear myself when I do the mic test in Discord but not when I'm talking normally. I want to be able to regulate my volume so I don't disturb other people in the house but I'm not sure how loud I am or have to be to be heard.

Havent tested joining a completely new server via in game overlay, don‘t know if it works.

about volume: in discord you can adjust the volume settings.

But this also highly depends on your type of headset (if they isolate alot, like mine as example) so i basically can‘t hear shi* from the outside when i have them on. I guess you‘d need to find your sweet spot. This might involve lowering in game volume (to not blast out your eardrums with the engine sound). I lowered mine to 15% and is still decently loud paired with the windows sound settings.

 

[Pict]

On 5/29/2019 at 4:38 PM, RedKestrel said:

So, any tips, guides, or rules of thumb to getting Discord set up for Il2 would be great. Or TeamSpeak as well, I haven't got that app yet but I know people use it too.

 

I've been using Team-speak without a problem and recently had Discord suggested to me and I installed it, but made up my mind to remove it when it loaded itself automatically at my windows startup then decided to call home with a very dodgy looking message "discord abstracting the rummage disc" and would do nothing else until it had. I found a way to prevent this behavior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjdtMxazucU but really am not happy about having to go to such measures. On further examination of Discord I found it to be bloatware that uses massive PC resources that I don't intend to spare it. Then there is all the stuff I have zero need or desire for, the facebook/steam type of thing that I don't want on my machine. I just want to have radio style comms for flying no more no less  

 

NB some people will really like this kind of thing and that's fine by me...I just can abide it and hopefully that's fine with them  

 

PS I just went to uninstall Discord and surprise surprise, it doesn't want to leave. Reminds me of Norton AV...real bloatware 

 

=============================

 

Team-speak on the other hand is far more simple and intuitive. It gives you the option to install stuff like "Overwolf" which from what I can gather is some kind of cross-platform social media hook-up and just more invasion-ware/bloatware junk that I like to avoid, but at least it's an option not right up there in your face asking you what games you play and can they have that info, like Discord.

 

With any of these things it's important to set up your mike correctly and your volume. In TS go to tools/options, then playback and capture to do this. If you hover your mouse cursor you will get tool tip info, it's really straight forward.

 

 

I would suggest setting it to PTT (press to talk) which is both more realistic & avoids your breathing of bumping the mike style issues that crop up when it is set on auto. It also takes up less CPU power  Setting it up for auto-activate the mic is easy too, you just slide the bar until it suits your needs. Continuous transmission is the other option, but it's a non-option really, unless you want to annoy everyone. It takes more CPU too, so the worst of all worlds.

 

 

Volume settings are equally important. For me there are three settings that need attention, one that I sometimes forget is on my microphone cable  , there's the one in TS in the playback section of the options and I set that to max, same with the hardware mic cable control. That way I can have all my software volume control in the Windows mixer (see below) and still have an easy to reach hardware overall control to kill the sound while I'm flying if needs be.

 

 

And the Windows sound mixer that can be found if you click on the speaker logo in the system tray, then "mixer" at the bottom, Windows 7, no idea about others.

 

After you have all that sorted, it's simple to connect to a chanel, like TAW for instance. If you go with TS and have any dramas with it, I'd be happy to help if I could... on Team-speak  

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by Pict
Spelling, tweaking etc.

[Nocke]

I'd like to jump in in defense of discord:

 

The message about "rumming the disc" or similar on startup is just one of several startup messages supposed to be funny, it has no real meaning.

The behaviour of starting with windows is just a setting. Switch that off in settings and it will not do that again.

I did uninstall discord some time ago thinking un- and reinstalling could fix some trouble with the overlay i had then. It uninstalled just fine and very obediently.

Last but not least I do not see any significant cpu load at all.

[RedKestrel]

57 minutes ago, Pict said:

 

I've been using Team-speak without a problem and recently had Discord suggested to me and I installed it, but made up my mind to remove it when it loaded itself automatically at my windows startup then decided to call home with a very dodgy looking message "discord abstracting the rummage disc" and would do nothing else until it had. I found a way to prevent this behavior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjdtMxazucU but really am not happy about having to go to such measures. On further examination of Discord I found it to be bloatware that uses massive PC resources that I don't intend to spare it. Then there is all the stuff I have zero need or desire for, the facebook/steam type of thing that I don't want on my machine. I just want to have radio style comms for flying no more no less  

 

NB some people will really like this kind of thing and that's fine by me...I just can abide it and hopefully that's fine with them  

 

PS I just went to uninstall Discord and surprise surprise, it doesn't want to leave. Reminds me of Norton AV...real bloatware 

 

=============================

 

Team-speak on the other hand is far more simple and intuitive. It gives you the option to install stuff like "Overwolf" which from what I can gather is some kind of cross-platform social media hook-up and just more invasion-ware/bloatware junk that I like to avoid, but at least it's an option not right up there in your face asking you what games you play and can they have that info, like Discord.

 

With any of these things it's important to set up your mike correctly and your volume. In TS go to tools/options, then playback and capture to do this. If you hover your mouse cursor you will get tool tip info, it's really straight forward.

 

 

I would suggest setting it to PTT (press to talk) which is both more realistic & avoids your breathing of bumping the mike style issues that crop up when it is set on auto. It also takes up less CPU power  Setting it up for auto-activate the mic is easy too, you just slide the bar until it suits your needs. Continuous transmission is the other option, but it's a non-option really, unless you want to annoy everyone. It takes more CPU too, so the worst of all worlds.

 

 

Volume settings are equally important. For me there are three settings that need attention, one that I sometimes forget is on my microphone cable  , there's the one in TS in the playback section of the options and I set that to max, same with the hardware mic cable control. That way I can have all my software volume control in the Windows mixer (see below) and still have an easy to reach hardware overall control to kill the sound while I'm flying if needs be.

 

 

And the Windows sound mixer that can be found if you click on the speaker logo in the system tray, then "mixer" at the bottom, Windows 7, no idea about others.

 

After you have all that sorted, it's simple to connect to a chanel, like TAW for instance. If you go with TS and have any dramas with it, I'd be happy to help if I could... on Team-speak  

 

Thanks for this. I plan to get TeamSpeak going as well. It seems there's enough groups that use one or the other that having both available will be good if I want to jump in with somebody.

[Hawk-2a]

Well both are useful tools. It just comes down to how you want to use it and personal preference. If you need whisper -> TS

if you don‘t, then discord offers a lot more options with no real drawback (don‘t think it uses much resources either, but depends on the pc build).

find what fits your situation best.

[Leon_Portier]

@Pict

Its understandable to uninstall Discord, at times its one liners can be aggressively unfunny lmao.

If you are using win7 like me, open the system settings -> Programs and Functions.

(EDIT: Could be named slightly different, I`m german and did translate it.)

 

Then select Discord from the list and hit the uninstall button, it will straight up commit sudoku, even if its still running. Just tried it out and had to re download the client! ?

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier

[Pict]

29 minutes ago, [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier said:

it will straight up commit sudoku

 

Thanks for the basic advice Leon, but no it wouldn't. I had to surgically remove it from my machine in a fairly brutal and lengthy process, which I'm competent enough to perform, but just feel that I shouldn't have to.

 

I'm not alone either, a quick internet search for something like, cannot remove Discord, will show that.

[Leon_Portier]

Well, closing discord and deleting the Discord folder in you user folder -> AppData -> Local should do it too, my dude.

And there is some temporary Data in User -> Roaming -> Discord if you wanna clean up.

Thats what I got figured out by googeling it, that should work independently of your win version, man.

Edited May 30, 2019 by [N.O.G.F]Leon_Portier

[Pict]

It leaves keys in the registry too Leon. It leaves stuff all over place in fact. Like I said, it reminds me of Norton and that's not a compliment.

 

I'm just glad I never used it and gave them the opportunity to sample my voice. I really don't trust that software.

Edited May 30, 2019 by Pict

[JonRedcorn]

On 5/30/2019 at 5:15 PM, Pict said:

It leaves keys in the registry too Leon. It leaves stuff all over place in fact. Like I said, it reminds me of Norton and that's not a compliment.

 

I'm just glad I never used it and gave them the opportunity to sample my voice. I really don't trust that software.

LOL I bet you have a facebook, but just to keep in touch with the grand kids right?

[Pict]

LOL I don't have either facebook or grand kids 

 

I don't have twatter either, or any of those anti-social media bits n bobs.

 

PS how much were you willing to lose?

Edited June 1, 2019 by Pict

[JonRedcorn]

3 minutes ago, Pict said:

LOL I don't have either facebook or grand kids 

 

I don't have twatter either, or any of those anti-social media bits n bobs.

 

PS how much were you willing to lose?

Discord is way better than teamspeak, teamspeak was always crap, I hated it back in the early 2000s and I still hate it. The interface is crap and archaic. I'll pass, Ventrillo was far superior in every single way. But nobody uses Ventrillo anymore since it costs money. Who wants to pay for anything these days.

[Pict]

"NB some people will really like this kind of thing and that's fine by me...I just can abide it and hopefully that's fine with them "

 

That was part of my original post. I hope you will be decent enough respect my opinion as I do yours, as that's all it is, the way we see things.

 

You have zero idea about my family or what other software I do or do not use, so why try to speculate about it? So you like Discord, fine, no need to try and make me look like an idiot for not liking it.

 

I won't respond to you any further on this.

[JonRedcorn]

2 hours ago, Pict said:

"NB some people will really like this kind of thing and that's fine by me...I just can abide it and hopefully that's fine with them "

 

That was part of my original post. I hope you will be decent enough respect my opinion as I do yours, as that's all it is, the way we see things.

 

You have zero idea about my family or what other software I do or do not use, so why try to speculate about it? So you like Discord, fine, no need to try and make me look like an idiot for not liking it.

 

I won't respond to you any further on this.

Give me a break, you came in here to a thread about discord and just decided to crap all over it. There was no need for it.