Add proximity voice chat with Easy Proximity Voice Chat

After this guide, players hear each other by distance, the mouth of the player who talks moves, and a microphone shows above their name. A dead player is muted until a revive bay brings them back.

The guide uses Easy Proximity Voice Chat (EPVC) 1.2, a separate plugin on Fab. MPFriendslopV2 does not include it, but it already has the hooks that EPVC needs: Set Mouth Openness on BP_FaceComponent and Set Speaking on BP_NameplateComponent.

Before you start

• EPVC 1.2 for Unreal Engine 5.8, installed from Fab with Install to Engine.
• A microphone.
• MPFriendslopV2 open in Unreal Engine 5.8.

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Turn the plugin on

1. Open Edit, then Plugins.
2. Type Easy Proximity Voice Chat in the search box.
3. Tick the box on its line.

1. Close the editor. Do not open it again yet.

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Turn on voice capture

Unreal does not record the microphone until a setting allows it.

1. Open Config/DefaultEngine.ini in a text editor.

2. Add these two lines at the end of the file:

   [Voice]
   bEnabled=true
   

3. Save the file, then open MPFriendslopV2 again.

Unreal reads this setting only when the editor starts.

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Create the voice settings

EPVC reads its settings from one Data Asset. The Data Asset points to a Sound Attenuation, which decides how far a voice carries.

1. In Content/MPFriendslop/Audios/Attenuation/, right click, then Audio, then Sound Attenuation. Name it ATT_Voice.
2. Open ATT_Voice. Set Inner Radius to 300 and Falloff Distance to 2000.
3. In Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/DataAssets/, create a folder named Voice.
4. In that folder, right click, then Miscellaneous, then Data Asset.
5. Pick ProximityVoiceConfig. Name it DA_Voice.
6. Open DA_Voice and fill the three fields of the table below.

1. Save both assets.

Field	Value	Why
Voice Sound Class	SCLS_Dialogue	It is a child of SCLS_Master, so the MASTER VOLUME slider moves the voices too
Proximity Attenuation	ATT_Voice	A voice is loud up to 3 m away and silent past 23 m
Playback Attach Socket	head	The voice comes out of the robot's head, not its feet

Leave the other fields at their defaults. EPVC muffles a voice behind any wall that blocks the Visibility channel, and the walls of the template already block it.

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Create the voice component

The voice component is a child of the EPVC component. It adds the links to the face, the nameplate and death.

1. In Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/ActorComponents/, right click, then Blueprint Class.
2. Open All Classes, search ProximityVoiceChatComponent, and pick it.
3. Name it BP_VoiceChatComponent, then open it.
4. Click Class Defaults. Set Default Configuration to DA_Voice.

1. In My Blueprint, add a variable named FaceComponent. Set its type to BP Face Component, Object Reference.
2. Add a second variable named NameplateComponent, of type BP Nameplate Component, Object Reference.

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Open the microphone of the local player

Only the player who talks turns their microphone on. EPVC then sends their voice to the other players.

1. In My Blueprint, add a function named TryOpenMic.
2. Build its graph: Get Owner, Cast To Pawn, Is Locally Controlled, a Branch, and Set Active Voice with Active ticked.

1. Click Compile.

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Connect it all at Begin Play

Open the Event Graph and start from Event Begin Play.

1. Get the owner with Get Owner. Pass it to Get Component by Class, with Component Class set to BP Face Component.
2. Set FaceComponent with the result.
3. Do the same for BP Nameplate Component and NameplateComponent.

1. Right click in the graph and search Assign On Voice Activity. Unreal adds a Bind Event to On Voice Activity node and a new custom event wired to it.
2. Connect the bind node after the second Set.
3. Cast the owner with Cast To Pawn. From As Pawn, search Assign Receive Restarted Delegate.
4. After that bind node, call Try Open Mic.

1. Add Switch Has Authority after Try Open Mic.
2. From Authority, get the BP Death Component of the owner, then check it with Is Valid.
3. From Is Valid, add Assign On Decapitated, then Assign On Revived. Their Target is the death component.

The second call to Try Open Mic is for the host. On a listen server, the host's pawn starts before its controller takes it, so it is not locally controlled at Begin Play. Receive Restarted fires after that, on the server and on the player's own machine.

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Fill the four custom events

The assign nodes created four custom events. Fill them as follows.

1. OnVoiceActivity_Event runs on every machine, for the player who talks. Add a Sequence.
2. From Then 0, check FaceComponent with Is Valid, then call Set Mouth Openness with Volume.
3. From Then 1, check NameplateComponent, then call Set Speaking. Its New Speaking is Volume > 0.

1. ReceiveRestartedDelegate_Event calls Try Open Mic.

1. OnDecapitated_Event calls Set Server Muted with Muted ticked.
2. OnRevived_Event calls Set Server Muted with Muted not ticked.

1. Click Compile, then Save.

EPVC sends a volume of 0 when a player stops talking, so the mouth closes and the microphone hides without more nodes.

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Add the component to the character

1. Open Content/MPFriendslop/Blueprints/PlayerCharacter/BP_FriendslopCharacter.
2. In Components, click Add and pick BP_VoiceChatComponent. Keep its name.
3. Click Compile, then Save.

On your own character, add the same component. It finds the face, the nameplate and the death component by their class, and skips any that your pawn does not have.

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Check that it works

1. In the Play options, set Number of Players to 2 and Net Mode to Play As Listen Server.
2. Click Play.
3. Open the Output Log. It shows Voice capture started (16000 Hz, mono).
4. Walk the two robots close together and talk.
5. Look at the window of the player who listens. The other robot's mouth moves, and a microphone shows above its name.
6. Walk away. The voice fades out past 23 m.
7. Let one player die. While they are down, the other player does not hear them. After a revive at the bay, they can talk again.

The two Play windows share one microphone. You hear your own voice through the other window. That is expected: EPVC never plays a voice on the machine that sends it.

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Use push-to-talk instead

The steps above keep the microphone open. For a key to hold instead:

1. In BP_VoiceChatComponent, remove the call to Try Open Mic from Begin Play, and remove ReceiveRestartedDelegate_Event with its bind node.
2. In Content/MPFriendslop/Inputs/Inputs/, right click, then Input, then Input Action. Name it IA_PushToTalk.
3. Open IMC_Default, add a mapping for IA_PushToTalk, and press its key.
4. Open BP_FriendslopPlayerController and add the IA_PushToTalk event.
5. From Started, call Get Controlled Pawn, then Get Component by Class with BP Voice Chat Component.
6. Check the result with Is Valid, then call Set Active Voice with Active ticked.
7. Do the same from Completed, with Active not ticked.

The template keeps every key in the player controller, and the components read no key themselves. See The controls, and adding an input.

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If you hear nothing

What you see	What to check
Easy Proximity Voice Chat is not in the Plugins window	EPVC is not installed for Unreal Engine 5.8. Install it from Fab with Install to Engine.
The Output Log has no Voice capture started line	[Voice] and bEnabled=true are not in Config/DefaultEngine.ini, or the editor was not restarted after you added them.
The capture starts, but the other player hears nothing	Walk closer: past 23 m, ATT_Voice makes the voice silent. Also check that the Windows privacy settings allow the microphone.

For every setting of EPVC, see the EPVC documentation.

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