Radio and voice

Estelar Online has two ways to listen to music and two ways to talk. The ship radio plays just for you, in flight; the bar jukebox plays for everyone inside. For talking, local voice connects whoever is at the same site or in the same bar, and channels connect pilots anywhere in the universe.

Ship radio

The radio opens with [’] by default (change it in SETTINGS › KEYS) or from the Esc menu, under RADIO. The music comes from Audius, an open platform for independent artists, under the Audius Open Music License; the screen shows the artist, the copyright notice and the link for each track.

Tab	What it does
NOW PLAYING	the current track, with its credit, and your queue
SEARCH	search Audius; add the track to the queue or to a playlist
DISCOVER	stations that refill themselves
PLAYLISTS	your own, the ones you saved from other pilots and the one that’s open

When the queue runs out, the chosen station adds more songs: random, featured, by genre (20 genres, from electronic and lo-fi to jazz and classical), a playlist or your corporation’s station. The radio accepts tracks up to 20 minutes long. The queue and the station are kept in the browser.

Playlists and likes

Each pilot has up to 30 playlists of their own, with up to 200 tracks each, and can save up to 100 playlists from other pilots.
A playlist is public or private. Public ones can go to the feed and appear on your public page, where they play straight from Audius.
The songs you like go to the LIKED tab on your public page.

Bar jukebox

Inside a kiosk’s bar, [F] on the JUKEBOX (the interact key, which you can change in SETTINGS › KEYS) opens the Audius search. Each pilot adds one song at a time to the queue, which holds up to 20 pilots, and everyone hears the same track at the same point. The bar accepts tracks from 30 seconds to 8 minutes long. Leaving the bar takes you out of the queue, but the song that’s playing runs to the end. With no songs in the queue, the default soundtrack plays.

Local voice

On foot, you talk to and hear whoever is at the same surface site or in the same bar. These are the on-foot keys (defaults; change them in SETTINGS › KEYS):

Key	Action
[V]	turn the microphone on and off
[C]	turn the camera on and off
[T]	share your screen
[X]	watch the selected pilot’s screen

Each pilot shows up with a small circle next to their name: their camera or their initial. Click the circle to select them; double-click enlarges the camera. Anyone sharing their screen gets a red LIVE circle, and clicking it starts watching right away. One watched screen at a time. Muting or hiding someone is saved to your account.

Communication channels

In flight, the CHANNELS panel (JOIN A CHANNEL) takes you to channel conversations, with voice and camera, at any distance.

Channel	What it’s for
General	open conversation among all pilots
Exploration	discoveries, routes and systems to visit
Pirate hunting	getting people together to take down pirates and captains
Trade	ore, cargo and colonies
Help for newcomers	asking questions of those who’ve been flying longer

There are also private channels: type in a code, and only those who know the same code can join.

The panel has volume, microphone, camera and the RANGE of your transmission: 0.1, 1, 4, 10 or 25 light-years, or the whole channel (the default). Anyone outside your range doesn’t hear you. Each pilot hears up to 50 people at once, the closest ones that reach them. Someone’s camera only comes through while they’re talking.

On the PILOTS tab (or by hovering over whoever is talking) you can mute someone just for yourself, block them (you stop hearing and seeing each other) and report them to the team.

Push to talk

In SETTINGS › MICROPHONE, choose between ALWAYS ON and PUSH TO TALK. In the second mode, a microphone that’s on only transmits while you hold [K] (default; change it in SETTINGS › KEYS). It applies to both local voice and channels.

Browser permissions

Microphone and camera need your permission: click the padlock next to the site address and allow both. If music doesn’t play, try another track or station (Audius sometimes goes down) and check the volume in SETTINGS.