Video/Voice Chat (TokBox) Problems? Check Here!

Wow, just had a session of Roll20 in a Google Hangout. I'm in the UK and both players were in the States - zero lag... My Roll20 TokBox game with all of us in Europe has 2 seconds lag minimum...

Second game in google hangouts, what a blast! :)

FYI if you are on OSX and have problems clicking the "Allow" button you can find a work-around here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tyHV_cz5gA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tyHV_cz5gA</a>

Wow, just had a session of Roll20 in a Google Hangout. I'm in the UK and both players were in the States - zero lag... My Roll20 TokBox game with all of us in Europe has 2 seconds lag minimum... Same here. UK based group and we played our first session via a Google Hangout this week. After all the faffing around with G+ (none of us are G+ users), we experienced impeccable sound and video performance with zero lag. The only downside is the amount of on-screen real estate the hangout takes up - the menu bar at the top and the video bar at the bottom. Ah well, you can't win them all :-) We've always used Tokbox up until now and have found that to be laggy, choppy, and seems to keep trying to fade players up and down based on its interpretation of who's talking.

Hey we are trying our first game and some players are having audio trouble

Were you using the inbuilt Tokbox audio, Tim, or did you launch your campaign via a Google Hangout? Also, what sort of trouble did you have? If you can give a bit more information I'm sure we can help you out.

I'm crashing every time I hit allow on flash. Getting quite annoying. Only happening on this site. Going to uninstall flash and install Adobe Air. Don't know if that will work. Nope, that didn't work. FF14 doesn't like this system at all.

Hi Nick - are you using Chrome? If so, this may be because you have a conflict between Chrome's internal version of Flash and your locally installed version. If so, you need to disable Chrome's internal Flash. This is certainly a problem I have experienced myself. Search on this forum for the keywords Chrome Flash Disable and you should come across step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

Video Chat Problem: Roll20 doesn't connect with my Webcam (Built-In on my notebook). Roll20 within G+ is no problem, video/sound work finde. Any ideas?

Are you using Firefox, Dennis? I've had some compatability problems with that and Roll20/Tokbox recently.

I tried Firefox, Chrome and IE9, same problem with all of them :(

I've tried every browser Mr G. Trust me, this is a problem with Flash as it has been reported for months. I've seen this problem on 4 computers, 1 running Linux, 2 Win 7, and 1 XP. Flash's new sandbox option destroyed it.

Have you tried launcing your game as a Google Hangout? Since I've started doing that all of my audio and video problems have become a thing of the past (with Chrome at least).

I can use the tokbox website, but it just says loading on here. It doesnt even ask for permissions...

GM A, I have found that to be a problem with Firefox. Try switching to Chrome and see if that makes a difference. Alternatively, if you launch your game via a Google Hangout all of these problems just go away.

We tried our first session last night and my players could hear me but I had no audio. We ended up going to Skype but that wasn't much better. I think I need some help getting this Toxbox think to work for me. I use Firefox exclusively and have Flash installed which presents me with an annoying little box over my avatar demanding I allow it. I'm no computer wiz, though I'm trying to learn despite my disabilities.

I did that. "Allow" is the only thing I can check to make it go away. Still no audio for me, though my players could hear me, yet I have audio on on Skype. Read the documentation and it's mostly gobbledy-gook to me.

The only downside is the amount of on-screen real estate the hangout takes up - the menu bar at the top and the video bar at the bottom. Ah well, you can't win them all :-) I need to say it: that extra space that G+ Hangouts steal to our screens is a real put off for me.

I need to say it: that extra space that G+ Hangouts steal to our screens is a real put off for me. F11 helps a little bit, but it's still a downer. One day Google will make the layout a bit more customisable I'm sure.

I've been able to see audio/video in Google Hangouts, but don't see/hear any video or audio in Roll20. For what it's worth, neither my players nor I have even seen the "Allow" pop-ups. I'm not sure what to do to make them show up.

Are you using Firefox, KidSnide? I've had that exact same issue but I switched to Chrome and all was well.

I use Chrome.

Have you tried a different browser? Firefox or IE with the Chrome frame installed? Alternatively it could be a Flash problem so worth checking you have the latest version of Flash installed. On top of that, Chrome is notorious for maintaining multiple local copies of Flash and getting its knickers in a twist about it. Search for the thread containing the key words "flash", "crash", "multiple" for instructions on how to debug that one. Good luck!

Just an update here. We've been launching our game through a Google+ Hangout for quite some time now, due to general disatisfaction with Tokbox. Apart from the loss of a little on-screen real estate it's been working very well for us, until a couple of weeks ago when the Google Talk plugin started leaking memory left, right, and centre for one of our group (all of it sudden it jumps to 100% utilisation on his machine and bombs him out). [He's obviously got an issue either with his machine or network and we're going to try and diagnose it for him by building him a virtual machine on a separate partition with just a bare bones o/s installed and nothing else and seeing how it goes from there]. Anyway, last night, to help with his pain we thought we'd run our weekly game using native Roll20 with Tokbox. Oh boy, what an ordeal. The sound quality on Tokbox is incredibly poor, prone to stutter, lag, and fade outs. After an hour of different people trying different browsers and multiple restarts, it was still the case that half the people couldn't hear each other in different combinations. We were straight back to the Google+ Hangout in a flash, with its crystal clear lag-free sound (and our friend with the problem just had to be sure he hit F5 every 10 mins). Sorry, bit of a ramble there and no real grumble at the heart of it as the Google+ Hangout works so impeccably for us. Just wanted you to know that for our group at least (7 people based in the UK), Tokbox is unuseable and I'm hoping that's not putting off anybody for lack of wanting to try G+.

We've been using TokBox with very few problems and it requires nothing else but Roll20, it a matter of convenience, most of the TokBox problems seem occur with Flash. I have found that most of our players can, if they are having trouble, change to a different browser i.e. from Chrome to Firefox of vice versa. Using Hangouts still involves an extra step and as pointed out costs valuable Virtual Table Top Space. I would however love to be able to use just Names without losing audio in TokBox.

In the end we just gave up changing browsers every week. For some people it worked okay on Firefox, for others it wouldn't work at all on Firefox. Chrome was fine for some, terrible for others. Then the following week it would all change around. I don't think at any point in a session (using Tokbox) we've ever managed to achieve everyone being able to hear everyone else. On top of that the quality of the sound is just very poor. Maybe it is because we are all in the UK. In the end it was the massively superior sound quality (clear, no lag, no stutter, no drop outs) of a Google Hangout that won us over. Anyway, this isn't a moan, just an update from someone who hasn't used Tokbox for a while. I just wish Google would allow you to customise the layout of the hangout a little so you didn't lose that on-screen real estate. Mind you, for the first time last week I tried connecting my laptop to my 48" television and that made even that problem melt away.

I would however love to be able to use just Names without losing audio in TokBox. Yeah Ajax, that is a very good point. Mr G said, I just wish Google would allow you to customise the layout of the hangout a little so you didn't lose that on-screen real estate. Seconded, but I haven't heard anything about they working in a customizable Hangout interface.

The way we get around the issues with TokBox and the Issues with the Roll20 G+ App is to use seperate windows for each - use a G+ Hangout without Roll20, and then use Roll20 without tokBox - That seems to be the best of both worlds - although it requires two windows - has not been an issue with my players and has worked quite well - solves the lag issues we saw with the APP in G+ and the lag we saw with tokBox in Roll20.

Quite right, IronHelixx - the variable compatibility of Tokbox aside, the real decider was that the *quality* of the sound in Tokbox is just so poor compared to G+ (it's wishy-washy, weak, and constantly fading up and down - I think it's trying to be clever and identify who's talking and then fade others down, but half the time it gets it wrong).

The layout of Hangout had slightly changed. There is now a bit more space at the top, since the menue bar was moved to the left side.

I recently started running a new campaign, and my group has been seeing many these same issues. Today, we had loads of sound trouble (which we didn't last week with an identical setup). So we tried a hangout, and that fixed all of the sound issues...until one of the players crashed and couldn't rejoin due to a plugin issue. After failing to fix that, we all quit the game and came back in Tok mode. That magically fixed all of our issues except one, so we played like that, with the one player typing instead of speaking. Personally, I don't think that the sound quality is insufficient for a game that isn't real-time. I just wish that it were easier to troubleshoot these issues. Now that I've read this thread, I'll try the TokBox diagnostics next time, but I don't want to allocate time every session to figure out what works today. Other than that, we all love Roll20. ^^

We tried something different last week and it worked peachy for us, dealing with the problems of the Hangout eating up on-screen real estate and the horrendous memory leak. I launched a native Roll20 session (in Chrome) with sound and video disabled. Then in a second tab I launched a Google Hangout with the Roll20 app disabled. Bingo, best of both worlds. the crystal clear and lag-free Hangout audio/video, with no loss of on-screen real estate, and no memory leak. Not one of us had to resfresh or restart all night long. I'm sure this seems obvious to you guys, but I can't think why I didn't think of doing it this way before.

That method works really great if you have two monitors as well.

Definitely, Jonathan. I've recently taking to running the game through my 48" television which means on-screen space is also no longer an issue. A couple of quid spent on an HDMI cable has transformed my Roll20 experience.

Mr G, I've been putting mine on the HD big screen, too, and it is definitely the way to play. The tabletop is good enough that I am willing to use a separate chat program if needed. This thread is good news for us, because now I have several options for a maybe-permanent solution.

You're right, LM, we seem to have got there in the end!

For our last game we started in tokbox just to see if everything was working, but found that one player's voice was garbled. After switching to a hangout, however, we had no issues. There were grumbles about screen real estate, but the game went very smoothly.

We just use Roll20 with A/V disabled and voice chat over skype. No issues. havent used my 32" tv yet, but now you have me thinking!

Defintely a good idea to use your HD telly, even if just for yourself. From the GM's perspective it totally transforms the experience for the cost of an HDMI cable.

My group is running into an issue with multiple users in the same house. I run from one household, then we have 3 users in another household and a 5th user in a different one. The 5th user and I never have problems hearing each other or seeing each other. We can even hear and see the 3 person house without issue. What we are having an issue with is the 3 person household hearing us. They can usually see us well but we have had 3 sessions so far and have had to resort to typing on all 3. I know there is a good chance it is something with their internet, but are there known issues with multiple computers connecting out of one household?

Sirkamina, I gave up on Tokbox a long time ago. I just use Skype in my games. Others use Google+ Hangouts. If you use Skype, shut down the Tokbox in the settings tab (set voice to disable). If you use Google+ you will need to refresh about every couple hrs due to a memory problem that many people report using Google+. That is about all I can suggest. - Gauss

One of our members (the one with 3 people) is going to attempt to host a mumble server out of his house. We have tested it and it worked well. We just now need to see if it will hold up to a full gaming session. I will post how it works out after we try it on 1-12-13

I don't know if reviving a dead thread is&nbsp;permissible&nbsp;or not, but I am also having a problem with video chat freezing while my audio works perfectly fine.

<a href="http://www.tokbox.com/user-diagnostic/" rel="nofollow">http://www.tokbox.com/user-diagnostic/</a> just takes me to a blank page.&nbsp; There isn't even any HTML there.

Had my first run using TokBox last night and it was mostly a disaster. Voice and video kept dropping, we had terrible feedback, and we ultimately had to resort to typing in the chat box for the last hour of the run. I was using Chrome, which apparently gives some problems. But rather than try and fix those, I'm going to give Google Hangouts a try next week and see if that's better. From the comments on here, that seems like a better option. If that doesn't work, we'll move to using Roll20 for maps and visuals only and use Skype to talk.&nbsp; I'll try and give a report on Google Hangouts once we give that a try.&nbsp;

Google Hangouts was a great &nbsp;success. We had five players and a GM looked up and once we got everything set up there were no problems at all. There were a few bumps at the beginning as we has to make sure everyone had the right updates and had joined Google+. But after that, it was smooth as a baby's bottom! The connection was better than anything we'd had in months of Skype. And the rest of the Roll20 system worked flawlessly. &nbsp;Now all my players need to do is get around to setting up some macros and we should be golden.&nbsp;

I had some unusual issue last session where no matter what I did, I couldn't see or here anyone else in the game. They could use chat and move their tokens and stuff, and hear both eachother and me, by on my screen, no players video/voice box things showed up or worked.&nbsp; Not sure why, I did everything I could think of including switching browsers and restarting. We ended up just using Steam voice, but I would rather just stick with the built-in voice if I could get it to work.