Channels¶

Channels decide who hears who. A player can be on several channels at once, and on each one they can talk, listen, or both.

A listener hears a speaker when the speaker talks on a channel the listener listens to. One shared channel is enough, and a voice never plays twice because two channels match.

Everyone starts on channel 0, talking and listening. With nothing else set up, that is plain proximity chat.

One channel¶

Set Channel puts the player on one channel only, talking and listening. They leave every other channel.

Set Channel (New Channel = 1)

This is how channels worked before 1.3, and it still works the same way.

Several channels at once¶

Join Channel adds a channel and keeps the others. A player on 0 and 1 talks on both and hears both.

Join Channel (Channel = 1, Talk = true, Listen = true)

All the channel nodes are on the Proximity Voice Chat component:

Node	What it does
`Set Channel(Channel)`	Leave every channel, then talk and listen on this one.
`Join Channel(Channel, Talk, Listen)`	Join a channel, or change how you are on it. Your other channels stay. With `Talk` and `Listen` both off, you leave it.
`Leave Channel(Channel)`	Leave this channel only.
`Set Talking On Channel(Channel, Talk)`	Turn your voice on or off on one channel. What you hear does not change. If you were not on the channel, you join it with `Listen` off.
`Get Channels()`	Every channel the player is on, each with its `Talk` and `Listen` flags.
`Is Talking On Channel(Channel)`	True if the player's voice goes out on this channel while they transmit.
`Is Listening On Channel(Channel)`	True if the player hears the voices sent on this channel.
`Get Channel()`	The first channel the player talks on.

To start a pawn on other channels, set Channels on the component in the Details panel, under Proximity Voice Chat > Channels.

Note

Call these nodes on the owning client or on the server. Changes replicate, and On Channel Changed fires on every machine. A call made on another player's machine does not reach the server.

A channel is not a "hear from anywhere" pass¶

A voice heard through a channel still comes out of the speaker's body, with its attenuation and its occlusion. A teammate on your team channel but 200 meters away is out of earshot.

To hear a channel from anywhere, give the listener a receiver tuned to it: a walkie-talkie, a radio, an intercom. A receiver plays everyone who talks on its Listen Channel, from where the receiver is, with its own attenuation and effects. See Radios & Receivers.

Example: proximity and a team radio at the same time¶

Everyone hears everyone nearby on channel 0. Team 1 has a walkie-talkie on channel 1, team 2 on channel 2.

Leave every player on channel 0.
When a player joins a team, call Join Channel with the team's radio channel (1 or 2) on their voice component.
Add a Proximity Voice Receiver to the player's character: the walkie-talkie.
Set its Listen Channel to the same team channel, and give it a radio Output Configuration (short attenuation, radio crunch).

When a team 1 player talks, the players close to them hear their voice on channel 0, enemies included. Every team 1 player also hears it through their walkie-talkie, wherever they are. Nobody has to switch channels: each player hears both at once.

The receiver plays on every machine, so a player standing next to someone else's walkie-talkie hears it too. If only its owner should hear it, turn Receiver Enabled off on the characters that are not locally controlled.

Tip

A teammate standing next to you reaches you twice: from their body and from your walkie-talkie. Emitter Selection decides which one you hear. With Loudest Wins, lower the receiver's Volume Multiplier if you want a close teammate heard from their body. See When you can hear both at once.

Example: radio push-to-talk¶

Same setup, but the voice goes on the team radio only while the radio key is held.

When the player joins a team, call Join Channel(1, Talk = false, Listen = true). They hear the radio but do not talk on it yet.
On the radio key pressed: Set Talking On Channel(1, true), then Set Active Voice(true).
On the radio key released: Set Active Voice(false), then Set Talking On Channel(1, false).
Keep your normal push-to-talk key as it is. It calls Set Active Voice only, so that voice stays on channel 0.

Players near the speaker hear them in both cases, because the speaker still talks on channel 0.

Example: dead players¶

Dead players hear the living, but the living do not hear the dead. The dead hear each other.

On death, call Set Channel(5). The player now talks and listens on channel 5 only.
Then call Join Channel(0, Talk = false, Listen = true). They hear channel 0 again, without talking on it.
On respawn, call Set Channel(0).

This needs the voice component to stay alive with the player: keep it on the pawn they spectate with.

Know the local player's channels¶

From the Proximity Voice Chat Subsystem (a World Subsystem, get it with Get World Subsystem):

Node	Returns
`Get Local Listener Channel()`	The first channel the local player listens on.
`Is Local Listener On Channel(Channel)`	True if the local player hears the voices sent on this channel.

Use them for UI ("Team Radio 1"), or to gate other systems.

Good to know¶

Channels are plain integers. Pick any numbering that suits your game.
A player can be on up to 16 channels.
A player who talks on no channel sends no voice packets at all, so a listen-only spectator uses no voice bandwidth.
On Voice Activity and On Self Voice Activity give Get Channel as their Channel. When a player is on several channels, ask their component with Is Talking On Channel.

Tip

Channels and Occlusion work together: teammates on the same channel are still muffled by walls, unless the config they play through has occlusion turned off.

Need help?¶

👉 Join the Discord