WebRTC Video and Voice Chat Issues

When I have just myself and 2 others in the game it works flawlessly, but in my last session this Sun with 7 connections it was a nightmare and we had to go to discord. There really doesn't seem to be enough resources dedicated to getting to the bottom of this issue and it is a significant hassle since I wasted a good 30 mins of my game time to get us all in a position to hear each other. Just not acceptable.

Just wanted to mention that this is not working for my group of 5 either. We just keep dropping connections, and also switched to a different voice solution. I find this very frustrating. I very happily pay my subscription normally, but I think voice chat issues need to be the highest priority. It used to work perfectly in the past, but the current issues are really killing my sessions. Highly frustrating.

I'd like a refund of my new subscription for my annual fee. I just had a beginning session of Mines of Phandelver bomb out - we couldn't hear each other.

William M. said: I'd like a refund of my new subscription for my annual fee. I just had a beginning session of Mines of Phandelver bomb out - we couldn't hear each other. Please email the team directly on <a href="mailto:team@roll20.net" rel="nofollow">team@roll20.net</a> for all account/finance related queries. Thanks

Just want to point out that it is kind of silly to request a refund your sub fee because of the audio/video issues. &nbsp;That is free to all users. &nbsp;The sub gets you other features. &nbsp;If those features aren't working, then there is reason to get your money back.

Mark B. said: Just want to point out that it is kind of silly to request a refund your sub fee because of the audio/video issues. &nbsp;That is free to all users. &nbsp;The sub gets you other features. &nbsp;If those features aren't working, then there is reason to get your money back. Agreed. I hate all the A/V issues, but I'll still gladly pay for the dynamic lighting alone. &nbsp;My players love it!

Chris A. said: Mark B. said: Just want to point out that it is kind of silly to request a refund your sub fee because of the audio/video issues. &nbsp;That is free to all users. &nbsp;The sub gets you other features. &nbsp;If those features aren't working, then there is reason to get your money back. Agreed. I hate all the A/V issues, but I'll still gladly pay for the dynamic lighting alone. &nbsp;My players love it! I have a cellphone/smartphone, it's designed to make calls. Now it has a bunch of nifty features that are awesome; camera, internet, GPS, etc. But it doesn't make calls. I don't have a cellphone anymore do I? Obviously, A/V is working for some, but not others, it's literally a basic function of the site. Communication is the main thing, and it's not working at all or properly depending on the user.

Level2Gamers said: Chris A. said: Mark B. said: Just want to point out that it is kind of silly to request a refund your sub fee because of the audio/video issues. That is free to all users. The sub gets you other features. If those features aren't working, then there is reason to get your money back. Agreed. I hate all the A/V issues, but I'll still gladly pay for the dynamic lighting alone. My players love it! I have a cellphone/smartphone, it's designed to make calls. Now it has a bunch of nifty features that are awesome; camera, internet, GPS, etc. But it doesn't make calls. I don't have a cellphone anymore do I? Obviously, A/V is working for some, but not others, it's literally a basic function of the site. Communication is the main thing, and it's not working at all or properly depending on the user. Well said. This has been ongoing since October for some. Having core and expected functionality not work is going to cause people to question the value of their subscriptions and if Roll20 is offering refunds due to this, subscribers should take advantage of it if they feel inclined.

Devs, any updates on a fix for this???? &nbsp;It has been over 2 weeks since the last reply. &nbsp;Can we get some sort of an update, or something new to try???? &nbsp;What information do you need to look further into this issue???? &nbsp;I think most of us are at our wits end with this issue. &nbsp;Between the length of the issue, Closing of posts (We know it is the way you track issues after new changes, but you have to have a better way...maybe a ticketing system), misunderstanding of the actual total people effected, and lately lack of communication. We look forward to some insight on this ongoing issue.

We tried again last night with four of us. Individual connections regularly dropped in and out and we almost constantly had to have everyone reconnect. (e.g., I would lose the feed from certain players and vice versa, repeatedly). Eventually we gave up and went back to using google hangouts in a separate window.&nbsp; AD

Thanks for the update Kristin. :) I look forward to the simplicity of once again being able to use the built in video.

Very good! Sounds like a plausible root cause and an appropriate action. Keep it up folks! Are there any time plans at this moment?

IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! With 3 persons (me included) A/V chat worked for 10 minutes, and then it suddenly dropped me from the call. Me refreshing the browser tab (i.e. whole piece of shit) brought one player back, and after painfull refresh hullabaloo which took about 20% of our gaming evening we got all connections to work. Took about 3 refreshes. (That total of 9 refreshes because there were 3 of us.) <a href="https://test.webrtc.org/report/AMIfv97LJxHi1jP9FR1" rel="nofollow">https://test.webrtc.org/report/AMIfv97LJxHi1jP9FR1</a>... I'm also thinking about cancelling my subscription, because why am I paying for service which doesn't work? And for those who say requesting refund because of service doesn't work as promised is silly, are silly. Personally paying for PRO doesn't offer me anything other usable than character sheets for game we play. We tried dynamic lighting and it was a gimmick. If the BASICS don't work I don't think there are any reason to pay for other features. If I'd have working A/V chat with working dice (our game uses custom dice), and character sheets we are able to play. It would be wonderful if all that would be integrated to one service, but if A/V problems force us to use multiple services, then I don't see a problem to give up roll20. I already instructed PCs to copy their character sheets to google docs sheet, also for backup, because this piece of shit doesn't offer export/import character sheet to external safe place. And I have zero trust to roll20 backups. (You have lost a one campaign, and few characters, and multiple maps from me. That alone is a reason to stop paying you, but I'll still give you a change. But the moment I file a divorce is nearing.) Also, where are those maps you have deleted from me during the few years I've been user? Also, why the hell does roll20 show I've been a member since 2/14/16, because I was a member for few years before that... I became a paying member 2016. *sigh* The roll20 quality... Edit: My connection details: Ping 16 ms, upload 21.54 Mbps, download: 10.05 Mbps. Edit2: Mac Os X 10.11.6, Google Chrome&nbsp;Version 56.0.2924.87 (64-bit)

Kristin C. said: Hello everyone. I wanted to let everyone know that we're still actively working on ways to improve stability and minimizing bandwidth requirements for WebRTC. The feature clearly doesn't work for a percentage of our userbase, so that's not something that we can simply let lie as is, nor put a "Task Complete" stamp on it development-wise. WebRTC is still pretty new, with very sparse documentation available, so advancements to make this feature better is going to progress in awkward jumps and stalls. The Roll20 admin team is very small, with two coders alongside Roll20's co-founder Riley. They have to hold the line on several fronts in regards to the bugs that crop up on the platform and designing future development. Correct procedure: 1) Drop all future development,&nbsp; 2) fix buggy WebRTC implementation, which obviously wasn't implemented correctly, 3) When it's discovered 100% working, then 4) continue other future development. This is obviously management issue, where team leader doesn't understand the basic software engineering premise. If you have made an architectural mistake, you fix it ASAP, even if it's arduous to fix, as it will multiply the problems in production in long run, and eventually make development impossible. (I'm currently working as consulting developer in project where only way to save the software is to make a total rewrite. Only because architectural mistakes made years ago have caused bugs which were later fixed with quick fixes, resulting architectural nightmare where one small UI change can cause show stopping performance issues (it being SaaS, it's quite opposite of nice).)

Not sure what has changed since Wednesday but now Firefox will not show video (previous it was working). I get the connection is not secure message on the app.roll20.net site, I can disable protection for this site, share the webcam and I can only see avatars not video. Tested on two different computers (windows 10 on both), same result. Loaded up Roll20 in chrome, video works fine on both machines. Unforunately, I need firefox to run OBS window capture in order to stream the game as that option is not compatible with chrome. I believe I have tried all of the options on the video and voice troubleshooting page. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

@Kristin Thanks for the update! My players like video, having it work reliably will be a nice bonus. We're not foolish enough to rely on roll20 audio, that's what Teamspeak is for :). @Jukka I get your frustration as this is a core feature for you. Just understand it isn't a core feature for everyone. I see discord, I see Skype, and the occasional teamspeak out there (even hangouts, may Dog have mercy); I have yet to see a game that relies on roll20 for audio. Yours clearly does and so this impacts you, hard. Fair enough. As long as the devs keep working on it, I think it's all good. Don't hold up other work because of it. This is an important feature, as it can remove the need for another app alongside roll20. It's not a showstopper when it doesn't work, however. That might change with time. If the roll20 audio/video ever gets to be so reliable that people use it as their primary method (which would also need to include a way to pipe in syrinscape / music), then breaking it may become critical. I'm not holding my breath for that :).

After a short-ish hiatus of about 2.5 months over holiday's and hectic start to the year, in which I kept my Pro status up, my group is about to start back up, and we find that voice/video is not working. &nbsp;I have a new player joining as well. &nbsp;Voice and Video had the occasional issue in the past for us, but now is completely down. &nbsp;Any thoughts on an ETA for the fix? One item of note, is I changed from Always Allow access to cam and mic to Ask, and never get prompted.

Hi Scott, Caveat: I'm just a user with an opinion. :) To be honest, the built in voice/video seems to be a long-term problem. Until it is resolved and you know longer see the many bug reports and complaints in threads like these, my recommendation would be to use something like Skype to handle it. There are many ways to cleverly arrange windows to allow for this on a single monitor. Currently, however, Roll20 is still slogging away at the problem with no significant progress in some time. I am confident it will eventually be resolved, but I wouldn't let it hold up my game by waiting, if I were you. Just pretend the built in option doesn't exist for now, and plan accordingly. It's what I'm doing for the time being.

Keith, we used Google Hangouts to do character generation and will be using an alternative solution, no worries there. &nbsp;The voice/video was good for us for a long time. &nbsp;A few hiccups before we went on hiatus just after Thanksgiving, but nothing we couldn't work with. &nbsp;I liked the small video windows that it provided, though not really a needed thing, it let you have just one app open and there they were. &nbsp;I really like MapTool, and especially like the fog of war tools it provides. &nbsp;I also find it fairly easy to code to, while I am not really a web developer so making a character sheet for Roll20 isn't really my forte. &nbsp;Still though I like the system and find other things easier to use in it, if not as powerful as MapTool. Just wondering if there was any "light at the end of the tunnel" as some of my players are not all that IT savvy, and when Google Hangouts APIs are no longer available, well, we shall see what we use for voice &/or video, there are a plethora of tools we can opt for.

Yeah, the fact that not all my players are terribly tech savvy is one of the primary reasons we switched to Roll20 from MapTools. Opening a browser and logging in is something they can do without a lot of handholding. When the video is working, the experience will be even simpler.

In game chat has been unusable for my group. Disabling video can help (but less than ideal). Two users (including myself) had multiple soft lock of the tab in Chrome requiring a page refresh.

We had a game yesterday, and again had to revert to appear.in to get usable audio/video. Example problems: a player's audio and video randomly drops. Sometimes multiple players drop out. In both cases sometimes restarting the browser (or shift-refreshing) helps, sometimes not. Everyone is having at least 10 Mbps connection. Other A/V services using WebRTC work. We usually have 4 players (including GM (me)). When I'm playing a solo session, with just one player, the A/V usually work. With 3 players it's usable, but with 5 it's totally useless never working at all. (This tells me the implementation is not at all scalable.) It also seems there are zero tolerance for problems in connection. Sad thing seems also to be that problems escalate. When one person has problem with connection, it may make everyones playing impossible. It would be nice to hear how fixing this is progressing, because I haven't seen much progression since problems were introduced. (I'm not saying there haven't been progression, just that I haven't personally seen it.)

Hi all, I'm new to Roll20 and really excited about using this to compliment my DnD games in the future. I loved the idea of having webcams and audio but seem to be having issues. When I create a game it just puts my Avatar down in the lower left hand corner with my name rather than starting my webcam. &nbsp;I am using a MacBook Pro to play and using Google Chrome as the browser. &nbsp;Can anyone suggest something I may need to try to get this feature to work? &nbsp;I installed Windows 10 in a virtual machine just to test to see if using a Mac was the problem but I'm getting the same results in that.

Elfuthark said: Hi all, I'm new to Roll20 and really excited about using this to compliment my DnD games in the future. I loved the idea of having webcams and audio but seem to be having issues. When I create a game it just puts my Avatar down in the lower left hand corner with my name rather than starting my webcam. &nbsp;I am using a MacBook Pro to play and using Google Chrome as the browser. &nbsp;Can anyone suggest something I may need to try to get this feature to work? &nbsp;I installed Windows 10 in a virtual machine just to test to see if using a Mac was the problem but I'm getting the same results in that. Hi Elfuthark and welcome to Roll20. For the audio/video feature to 'kick in' you'll need at least two people logged into the VTT at the same time.

Kristin C. said: Hello Everyone! Here's another update on where we're at with WebRTC troubleshooting: Currently, we're hammering away at two ongoing "call" issues that are likely part of the headache that some of you are dealing with presently... Thank you for the update!

20 minutes of a 3 hour one-shot session completely wiped out last by the inability to communicate. I'm a pro-user, so I'm not getting this service for free. I am a pro-user because the integrated voice and video was what drew me to Roll20 over Fantasy Grounds. If I have to use discord or Google Hangouts to play a game then I'm going to just use Fantasy Grounds, which for a DM, pound for pound offers more automation and integration with the 5e Ruleset than Roll20 does. The integrated voice and cam was the killer feature here. Without that then who knows.

I just find it annoying that I'm forever being ad spammed to buy the new 50 quid integrated "Tales of the Yawning Portal" add on while basic features of the service don't actually work. It's clear to me where the dev resource is being focused.

Mark P. said: I just find it annoying that I'm forever being ad spammed to buy the new 50 quid integrated "Tales of the Yawning Portal" add on while basic features of the service don't actually work. It's clear to me where the dev resource is being focused. This should sum it up for the majority of us. &nbsp;Why is so much time and resources being put into add on features, and neglecting the basic foundation of the site? &nbsp; I would love to know how many hours it takes to create content from Wizards to integrate into R20. &nbsp;I know there are job openings posted, but no updates on this issue &nbsp;(other than the standard, we know there are issues with the calling features, but this was identified like a month ago). &nbsp;I did see that the weeks of 02/27 and 03/07 we have been updated on the Tales of Yawning. &nbsp;I also saw that&nbsp;rileydutton is moving on, is this or is this not related to the audio/video issue? &nbsp;What is the priority of the AV issue, and the development of new content. &nbsp;It looks like to me the AV is a medium or low priority and new development is more of a high priority. &nbsp;Not to mention that new items are being offered (monster manual and Volo's Guide, but still basic PHB items are missing (Hail or Thorns, and no listing of Ranger spells). &nbsp;From the outside looking in; it seems like the wheels have fallen off, and R20 is worried about the paint job.

And the sad thing is you have Dms like me who are going to be screwed When Hangouts dies in April , and i havent bought nor want to buy any 5e product. i just dont want to be forced into using DISCORD , it stinks on my comp. im paying 5 bucks got extra storage &nbsp;and Dynamic lighting which i dont use . So now should i reinvest in Fantasy Grounds with its steep learning curve fewer players and higher costs , or stay with roll20 and not be able to have any type of adequate AV functionality. we will definately see in April

Tim W. said: And the sad thing is you have Dms like me who are going to be screwed When Hangouts dies in April , and i havent bought nor want to buy any 5e product. i just dont want to be forced into using DISCORD , it stinks on my comp. im paying 5 bucks got extra storage &nbsp;and Dynamic lighting which i dont use . So now should i reinvest in Fantasy Grounds with its steep learning curve fewer players and higher costs , or stay with roll20 and not be able to have any type of adequate AV functionality. we will definately see in April Try out vsee.com as a replacement for hangouts. It can place the video of each player in different locations and be set as always on top.

Mark P. said: I just find it annoying that I'm forever being ad spammed to buy the new 50 quid integrated "Tales of the Yawning Portal" add on while basic features of the service don't actually work. It's clear to me where the dev resource is being focused. Me too. Only solution for us is to make enough noise so that roll20 will stop denying the problem and start fixing it. It was december, when roll20 broke the video features, which worked fine before it. Almost (Or already over?) four months is enough time to fairly large refactoring. So where the fuck is the fix? Only good option would have been to rollback the old WORKING version, and fix the new version in dev environment. You know, there are multiple environments: dev, testing, preproduction, and production, and three of those can be used without breaking everything from customers. Guess which one is not suggested to do performance testing? Though, current problems are no surprise, when one keeps in mind that number of connections made by client is not linear, but almost exponential, when compared to number of players, and connections are handled in pipeline without proper failsafes so that if one fails every connection after it fails.&nbsp;

This may be news to some or a reminder to others that the devs are working on it; <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4743372/update-3" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/4743372/update-3</a>... For myself I hope they have it sorted soon so I can run some games I'm developing where I would like to use in-house A/V.

I'd really expecting the in-house A/V to work flawlessly, as it integrates so well to the whole system. After it works well, and few kinks are pruned from jukebox, roll20 is perfect system for our game. Sometimes I'm really frustrated because of current state, because I see the huge potential there is, and would love to love this system.

Reoccuring issue to report. My players are constantly seeing some players but not others. Sometimes it works and most of the time it doesnt. We're usually spending just over an hour getting connected to a mostly usable state. Here's the latest observation from one of my players: Version 56.0.2924.110 (64-bit) Platform 9000.91.0 (Official Build) stable-channel gnawty Firmware Google_Gnawty.5216.239.109 (Chrome OS -- Chromebook) When I turn off my video/audio transmission so that I am not broadcasting anything to others, I can see everybody who is broadcasting after I hit reconnect. When I turn it back on (and hit reconnect), everyone disappears. Two others experience the same thing.

@Roland, when you test on the dev server, is the issue resolved? Roll20 are currently testing new WebRTC code there. I see you're pro and thus have access to dev server. I think everyone in the game would need Pro access to test. I'm curious enough to see whether this is fixed to volunteer. If we can get 4 to 5 Pro subscribers together we should be able to see how the new WebRTC fares. Edit: Test campaign is up. Come one come all. Let's see how it does.&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20dev.net/join/39909/N4TuJg" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20dev.net/join/39909/N4TuJg</a> Edit: @Roland, you're on a Chromebook. Now I really want to see that test. Buddy of mine in the U.K. also has a Chromebook and roll20 video/voice on there is just atrocious. If the new code runs well on Chromebook it'll likely run well everywhere. 2nd thought on Chromebook: This isn't what's causing your issue, but how are you on 56? Stable channel is 57.&nbsp; <a href="https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2017/03/stable-channel-updates-for-chrome-os.html?m=1" rel="nofollow">https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/2017/03/stable-channel-updates-for-chrome-os.html?m=1</a>

My group is experiencing symptoms similar to those which Roland posted above, in that some players can't see one another. Although I do web development for a living, including streaming media solutions, I won't guide non-technical people through going into web console and filing reports when I'm trying to not work and instead have fun. The integrated voice/video was a main selling point for me and the degradation in stability since I bought my subscription last July is making it more and more likely that I'll opt for another solution. Is there a timeline for delivery of the fixes mentioned by Kristen C. upthread? While I appreciate the transparency in what Roll20 is examining technically to address this, it's unreasonable to expect customers to understand or care about such nuances. Weekly communication on progress towards a solution would greatly help pacify demanding customers like me.

The test campaign I put up now has four people, enough for some testing. I'll be on it for two hours today, until roughly 7 pm EDT.

Issue today with our party, we had a fully running 6 people on with video and audio working for an hour, then abruptly The DM was no longer heard in chat. Three other players could still see and hear each other, but no amount of troubleshooting was able to get the whole group back into VC again. For others, our work around is Bnet voice chat. It works and it's free.

We tried last night with our group of 6, first 4 people had not problem but when 5 and 6 came on it was fraught with issues. We always had 1-3 people who could not see or hear each other and no combination of reconnecting, logging out, refreshing the browser seemed to help, it only rotated who had the issues. We tried to get it working for a solid hour and a half to no avail. We couldn't get a reliable work around up in the time after either and just ended up calling it a failure. The DM and at least one other player are pro level so I feel bad they had to spend money on it. I feel bad and I only wasted 2 hours of my free time.

Just a note: video and voice chat is available at the free level. The features available at the Plus and Pro level are all pretty darn solid, with perhaps only Table on Tablet being a little disappointing.

For Pro members, I'll try to run a test tonight at 6pm EDT on the dev server, of the new implementation. If we can get 4-5 people, that'd be a good test. URL is&nbsp; <a href="https://app.roll20dev.net/join/39909/N4TuJg" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20dev.net/join/39909/N4TuJg</a>

Tried over the weekend with a group of six. After 45 minutes of drop-outs in audio and video we had to use Discord. I really hope this is a top priority with these Google Hangout changes.

Sorry, none of my players are Pro members, I dont have the chromebook either, one of my players does. I sent him the Chrome OS link but I wont know if it works or not until our next scheduled game time in 3 weeks (We usually play every Fri evening but the next 2 weeks not everyone is available to play).&nbsp;

keithcurtis said: Just a note: video and voice chat is available at the free level. The features available at the Plus and Pro level are all pretty darn solid, with perhaps only Table on Tablet being a little disappointing. Yes, but if the basic features are broken, It really doesn't matter if the advanced ones are working and of quality. The advanced lighting, tokens and modules are great that my DM pays for, but if I cant hear what he or half the party says it doesn't matter does it? If I there was a phone that didn't make calls but had a fantastic set of tools on it, at that point its not a phone but a small tablet. I wouldn't pay for that phone if I needed a phone.

@Roland I would not expect any improvement in the built-in audio/video until the code on dev makes it to the production server

David W. said: keithcurtis said: Just a note: video and voice chat is available at the free level. The features available at the Plus and Pro level are all pretty darn solid, with perhaps only Table on Tablet being a little disappointing. Yes, but if the basic features are broken, It really doesn't matter if the advanced ones are working and of quality. The advanced lighting, tokens and modules are great that my DM pays for, but if I cant hear what he or half the party says it doesn't matter does it? If I there was a phone that didn't make calls but had a fantastic set of tools on it, at that point its not a phone but a small tablet. I wouldn't pay for that phone if I needed a phone. I submit that the basic function of a phone is to make calls. The basic function of Roll20 is not videochat. Videochat one of the "fantastic set of tools" (theoretically—I won't defend the current implementation) that you did not pay for. If you buy a phone to make phone calls, but the calculator app sucks, well you paid for a phone, and you find a real calculator until someone makes a better app. Again, not defending the state of the video chat. It is demonstrably broken, and people have a right to be frustrated over it (I am). I'm just saying that Roll20 doesn't charge for it, so specifically lamenting lost money over it is a non-sequitur.