Apps Ventrilo on Android - Let's make it happen!

[clearscreen]

Greetings!

My name is Daniel Sloof and together with a group of volunteers we have recently been working on a project called Mangler: a Ventrilo compatible client for linux. Mangler is driven by a C library called libventrilo3 and over the past couple of weeks I have been working on making this library compile with the Android-NDK. I am currently succesfully able to build libventrilo3 as a native library that can be used in Android applications. The JNI wrappers are a little lackluster, but they are being worked on.

The main reason for me posting on this forum (amongst others) is because I am looking for skilled Android/Java developers to assist us in working on this open-source project. We're mostly C programmers that have very little Android experience. I expect we could have something functional up within the month, most of the work has already been done: we're pretty much just writing a GUI for an existing backend (and some audio stuff, which is just feeding PCM to one of the native functions).

Thanks for reading! If by this point you're interested in participating or have any specific questions you can just post them here or drop by on IRC. You can find me on freenode #mangler (alias: danslo).

 

[clearscreen]

Time for an update and a quick *bump*.

More progress has been made making libventrilo suitable for Android usage. This primarily involves audio stuff, such as upsampling to rates that Android's AudioRecord doesn't support. Buffering in the Android App is still required but this can be done with minimal effort. Of course all of this (and future) progress can be found on our website.

There have also been some android developers peaking around in the IRC channel but no active developer has yet been found, feel free to drop by.

(PS: To moderators: I am cross-posting this on several Android Forums. If this is considered spam, please feel free to take appropriate measures.)

 

[Jonny_]

This sounds like an awesome project, good to hear somebody is doing it! What about teamspeak though

 

[clearscreen]

*bump*

 

[clearscreen]

Bump & small update!

I've just managed to record audio on my android device and send it to our ventrilo test server. Even with just 8khz quality (for testing purposes) the transmission sounds loud and clear on my ventrilo client! There is a small bit of delay but that doesn't seem to be caused by either the connection or the speed of the device (HTC Magic); it can probably be fixed with relative ease.

That being said, looks like we've found an Android developer willing to work on the project, but nothing is for certain so we're still looking for decent Java/Android developers to help out.

 

[Matenrou]

Sounds great, I hope you can get an app up and running for the public to test(or atleast me ).

EDIT: found this pic I faked some time ago, perhaps anything like this?

 

[clearscreen]

And up up we go!

Current revision in our repository can now play received audio transmissions! Once that is worked out nicely, all we'll really need is a decent GUI and some minor modifications (process more library events, etc) and we're good to go.

That spot for Android/Java developer is still available

 

[Bruin]

I can do java script ... I'm gonna have to spend a weekend learning to program java with android if no one jumps in cause I'd love a app like this...

 

[contagous]

OMG this is just what im looking for, has anyone actually got a program to do this?

 

[contagous]

any one know anything about one of these being available?

 

[clearscreen]

App is pretty usable at this point, things missing:

1) Audio mixing. This means that whenever multiple people are talking at once you will notice stuttering.
2) Ability to join channels with passwords.
3) Leaving the app disconnects from server, this is a temporary workaround.

Other than that it's mostly cosmetics, settings, etc.

It is however already possible to add servers, connect to them, join channels, talk to people, and listen to people (as long as it's one person at a time ).

We always appreciate people helping out so long as they're knowledgeable of Android development. Feel free to drop by on irc.freenode.net #mangler!

 

[clearscreen]

Very early alpha version. Do not transmit in a GSM 8KHz channel! This will get you tempbanned, other codec/rates are fine. We're working on that issue

Please submit bugs / feature requests to:
http://www.mangler.org/trac/newticket

Existing tickets can be seen here:
Custom Query ? Mangler

 

[clearscreen]

Updated alpha apk to latest svn revision. This should fix numerous bugs and add some features, and should make it a bit more stable overall.
Still don't try *talking* in GSM 8Khz channels, you WILL get banned.

People that have previously installed it may have to remove their current installation, I didn't mess with version strings so android won't know this is a later version.

 

[clearscreen]

To the people wanting to use it but don't understand how;

Either get barcode scanner (market) and scan the following barcode with your camera,

Or just download the apk directly from the link and install through adb.
http://danslo.org/Mangler.apk

That said, latest changes:
- Latency should be a LOT better now. At least I am getting the same talk delays that I'm getting on Windows Ventrilo client. It can't get much better.
- Couple of memory leaks that would cause phone to become unresponsive after a while have been resolved.
- You can join passworded channels.
- GSM 8Khz bug is fixed.
- A lot of other stability fixes.
Have fun! It should be pretty usable at this point.

Just throwing this out there:
There have been requests for BT headset functionality. None of the developers currently working on it have one as far as I know. Either get someone that has one to write some code, or send us one

 

[clearscreen]

Quick bump, but APK has been updated yet again..

We now have audio mixing! You can hear multiple people at once without stuttering. From here on it's mostly cosmetic changes.

 

[Bales]

Quick bump, but APK has been updated yet again..

We now have audio mixing! You can hear multiple people at once without stuttering. From here on it's mostly cosmetic changes.

you guys are awesome. I've been following this for the past month or so.

Just a couple of thoughts:
Is there anyway to do an "always on" talking mode, like in vent for windows, that utilizes sensitivity? Basically a way to not have to click a button every time i want to talk.

How about options about where you want your inbound sound to go. Either using the earpiece, speaker, or as you mentioned a BT device?

Also I was looking for a place to give feedback, and have discussions about this app. I'd like to help in any way that I can but I'm not a big IRC'er and your forums didn't seem to be very active about Android development.


Anyways, keep up the good work

 

[clearscreen]

you guys are awesome. I've been following this for the past month or so.

Just a couple of thoughts:
Is there anyway to do an "always on" talking mode, like in vent for windows, that utilizes sensitivity? Basically a way to not have to click a button every time i want to talk.

How about options about where you want your inbound sound to go. Either using the earpiece, speaker, or as you mentioned a BT device?

Also I was looking for a place to give feedback, and have discussions about this app. I'd like to help in any way that I can but I'm not a big IRC'er and your forums didn't seem to be very active about Android development.


Anyways, keep up the good work

Feel free to submit suggestions to our Trac page:
Mangler

 

[clearscreen]

So yeah, first 'proper' alpha release

Link: http://www.mangler.org/downloads/mangler-1.0alpha1.apk
QR Code:

Bugs can be submitted to our Trac page:
http://www.mangler.org/trac/newticket
Or just drop by Freenode #mangler.

This release has many cosmetic and bug fixes, including but not limited to; allowing orientation changes and should no longer crash on 1.5 devices.

Have fun

 

[Ninsassin]

You program works great! Keep up the good work!

 

[mOrbidmOuse]

I never subscribe to threads, until now. This is amazing Good work!

 

[clearscreen]

Here we go, alpha3! Try it and please report bugs to our trac page.

Please be advised that this release will send crash reports to a remote server. We only send a stack trace though! If you feel this is still an issue, wait for a non-alpha release!

Obligatory QR code:

And alternatively, here's the direct apk link:
http://www.mangler.org/downloads/mangler-1.0alpha3.apk

Happy testing!

 

[xtarsia]

working great on my galaxy s. (alpha 3)

except that i cant talk, says "unsuported recording rate for hardware 32000hz"



The chat woprks though and i can hear everyone clearly

 

[clearscreen]

working great on my galaxy s. (alpha 3)

except that i cant talk, says "unsuported recording rate for hardware 32000hz"



The chat woprks though and i can hear everyone clearly

Fixed in svn and will be in alpha4 soonish

 

[xtarsia]

set the channels to GSM 22khz and i can now speak but its inaudible, massive amounts of stuttering.. we're talking 2 seconds of silence and 0.2s of sound (repeating)

but i'll wait for the next release and see how that goes

The chat works fine though.

 

[contagous]

OMG this is amazing thank you so much for making this happen, You guys rock...

works great on my HTC Incredible, very sleek look and clear audio , can talk no problems, and listen no problems, can also change rooms, and join chat no problems, if you need me to test anything for you clearscreen, don't hesitate to ask.

this is so cool