Nearby voice

Hear the voice chat around a player while you watch them — what your game server needs, how to switch it on, and which staff can use it.

On this page

Two things to weigh first
Switching it on
Using it
What cannot be heard
If it is not working

Live view is silent on its own. Nearby voice lets staff who are watching a player hear the voice chat around them: that player, and anyone close enough for the player to hear.

It is off everywhere until you turn it on for your server, and then still off until a staff member turns it on for one particular watch. The player is told nothing, the same as with the picture.

Two things to weigh first#

It opens your voice port. FiveStaff listens by connecting to your game server's voice the way a player's game does, and FiveM only accepts an outside listener when mumble_allowExternalConnections is on. While that is on, anyone who can reach that port can listen to any voice channel on your server — including staff channels — with a free Mumble client and no password. We cannot close that; only Cfx can. Firewall the port to FiveStaff and nothing else. If you cannot firewall it, do not turn this on.

It hears everyone nearby, not just one player. Anybody close to the player is heard, and a clip taken from live view keeps that audio. Worth telling players in your rules that staff may listen to and record voice — in the UK and EU that disclosure is a legal requirement, and several US states need everyone in a conversation to agree before it is recorded.

Switching it on#

Open your game server's voice. In server.cfg, above the ensure lines for your voice resource:

# Lets FiveStaff listen to in-game voice for live view.
# While this is on, anyone who can reach this port can listen to any voice
# channel — firewall it to FiveStaff and nothing else.
setr mumble_allowExternalConnections true

Restart the server afterwards. Setting it from a live console does not stick.

Firewall that port. Your voice shares the game's public connect port. Restrict inbound traffic on it to FiveStaff's voice address and leave the normal game-connect path open — your host's firewall panel or iptables will do it. This is what keeps the line above from being an open door. Ask us in Discord if you are not sure of the address to allow.
Turn it on in the panel. Go to Settings → In game → Nearby voice in live view and switch on Let staff listen to nearby voice.
Choose where the voice is. The game server's own voice is the default and right for nearly everyone — FiveStaff already knows the address your server connects from, and shows you the one it will use, so there is nothing to fill in. Pick A separate voice server and enter an address and port only if something sits in front of your server, or your voice runs on its own host or port.
Give the permission to the roles that need it. Nearby voice has its own permission, Listen to nearby voice, in Settings → Team → Roles. No role has it until you grant it — not even roles that can already watch.

Using it#

While watching a player, press the speaker on the picture. It applies to that watch alone:

it starts off every single time a watch opens, and is never remembered;
turning it on and off is written to your audit log, with the staff member, the player and the time;
several staff watching the same player share one connection to your server, so it costs the same whether one of them is listening or five.

On the phone the control is Listen and Mute, beside Stop, and behaves the same way.

What cannot be heard#

Radio and in-game phone calls between players are not heard either. Those are sent to named people rather than to everyone in an area, so they are not part of the voice around a player.

If it is not working#

The speaker is not on the picture. Work down this list — it only appears when all of it is true:

nearby voice is on for the server, with an address that resolves;
your role has Listen to nearby voice;
you are watching — the control is on the picture, not on the player's page;
your server has connected to FiveStaff at least once, if you are using the game server's own voice. Until it has, we do not know its address, and the panel says so in place of one.

The speaker is there but you hear nothing. This is almost always the first step: mumble_allowExternalConnections is not actually on. Check that it is setr rather than set, that it is in server.cfg rather than typed into a console, and that the server has been restarted since. After that, check the firewall is allowing FiveStaff in rather than blocking everyone equally.