ts3j/ts3-client

TS3J Client

A desktop TeamSpeak 3 client built on top of the ts3j reverse-engineered TS3 protocol library. It looks and behaves like the official TS3 client and focuses first on the features that matter most: real-time voice with Opus encoding and voice-activation detection (VAD).

The project is split so the frontend can be replaced (e.g. a future web UI via TeaVM/CheerpJ) without touching the library:

Module	Artifact	Responsibility
core	ts3-client-core	Frontend-agnostic library: protocol integration, server model, connection orchestration, audio abstractions. No UI, no platform audio, no native code.
desktop	ts3-client-desktop	Desktop audio backend: Java Sound capture/playback + native Opus via the FFM API (project Panama), implementing the core audio interfaces.
swing	ts3-client-swing	Swing desktop UI + entry point. Depends on core and desktop.

The core exposes AudioBackend / VoiceInput / VoiceOutput; the frontend injects a concrete backend (JavaSoundAudioBackend) into TeamspeakConnection. A different frontend supplies its own UI and audio backend while reusing core unchanged.

Features

Voice (the priority)

• Native Opus codec via a direct Panama (Foreign Function & Memory API) binding — no JNA, no other third-party FFI. The system libopus is used when installed, otherwise a bundled copy is extracted from the JAR. Only the Windows x86-64 build is bundled by default (build with -Dnatives.all to package every platform); elsewhere install libopus from your package manager. Encoding at 48 kHz, 20 ms frames.
• Voice Activation Detection (VAD) with the same three modes as the TS3 client:
  • Volume Gate — RMS/dBFS threshold with a live input meter and hangover.
  • Automatic — a dependency-free speech detector (short-term energy + spectral flatness + dominant frequency against an adaptive noise floor).
  • Hybrid — transmit only when loud enough and detected as speech.
  • Optional VAD over Push-To-Talk (keep detecting voice while PTT is available).
• Capture pre-processing — a mini audio-processing chain in the same order as the TS3 client's WebRTC APM, applied before activation and encoding (and feeding the VAD): input gain → high-pass filter (80 Hz, always-on rumble/DC removal) → noise suppression → typing attenuation → AGC:
  • Remove background noise — spectral denoiser (decision-directed Wiener with minimum-statistics noise tracking), with an adjustable removal level.
  • Typing attenuation — detects impulsive keystroke transients (short, broadband, high-frequency bursts) and ducks them while leaving sustained speech intact.
  • Automatic gain control (AGC) — normalises mic loudness to a target level (fast attack / slow release, noise-gated so silence is never amplified).
  • Echo cancellation (WebRTC AEC3) is intentionally omitted — it needs the loudspeaker reference signal and matters mainly for open speakers, not the typical headset.
• Push-to-Talk — bind any key; transmits only while held (while the app is focused).
• Continuous transmission mode.
• Playback mixing — each speaker gets its own Opus decoder and audio line, so multiple simultaneous talkers are mixed and one slow decode never blocks others.
• Whisper receive — targeted voice is decoded and played like normal voice.
• Per-client mute, master deafen, adjustable mic gain / playback volume.
• On-the-fly Opus tuning — bitrate, complexity, VBR, FEC and voice/music codec can all be changed live from the options dialog and take effect on the running encoder immediately (no reconnect); a voice↔music switch transparently rebuilds the encoder because Opus fixes its application mode at creation.
• Configurable capture/playback devices.

Server interaction

• Connect to any TS3 server (an identity is generated on first use if none exists).
• Channel/client tree styled like TS3, updated live from protocol events (joins, leaves, moves, channel create/edit/delete, nickname/mute/away changes).
• Talk indicators — speakers turn green live as they talk.
• Info panel — selecting a channel shows its topic and description (fetched on demand); selecting a client shows its server groups and channel group (names resolved from the server's group lists), talk power, platform and version.
• Server-group badge next to each client's nickname in the tree.
• Spacer channels — TS3 [spacer]/[*spacer]/[c/l/r spacer] names render as non-interactive separators (fill, centred, aligned).
• Double-click a channel to join; right-click a client to poke, open a private chat, or locally mute them.
• Chat to the current channel or the whole server; receive channel/server/private messages and pokes.
• Server bookmarks — quick-connect menu with add/edit/remove management, each optionally pinned to a specific identity.
• Identity management (Tools → Identities) — keep several identities, mark one as the default, pick one per server or per bookmark, rename, raise an identity's security level, and import/export TeamSpeak-compatible .ini identity files.
• Self status — Away (with message) and Channel Commander toggles.
• Status bar shows the server name, user count and live ping.
• Change your nickname, mute/deafen from the toolbar.

Notification sounds

• Sound packs in TeamSpeak's own format: a folder of waves plus a settings.ini mapping actions (CONNECTION_CONNECTED, CLIENT_MOVED_TO_CURRENT_CHANNEL_STAYS, …) to play("file.wav") entries, with ${clientType}/${channelname}/… placeholders resolved per event. Packs are picked up from ~/.ts3jclient/sound, an installed TeamSpeak 3 client ($TS3_CLIENT_DIR or the usual install paths) and a folder of your choosing, so the official packs work unchanged.
• Per-action configuration (Options → Notifications): switch any action's sound off, and mark actions as important (shown in bold, as in TS3) — important actions are the only ones still played while the speakers are muted.
• Sounds are mixed onto one playback line, so overlapping events never fight over the device; pack volume is separate from the voice volume.

Icon packs

• Icon packs in TeamSpeak's own format: a .zip (or unpacked folder) of SVG/PNG artwork plus a settings.ini mapping icon keys (CHANNEL_GREEN, PLAYER_ON, CONNECT, …) to files. Packs are picked up from ~/.ts3jclient/gfx, an installed TeamSpeak 3 client ($TS3_CLIENT_DIR or the usual install paths) and a folder of your choosing, so the official packs (default_colored_2014.zip, default_mono_2014.zip, the legacy default.zip) work unchanged.
• The pack draws the tree (server, channel, client state), the toolbar, the menus, the context menus, the file browser and TeamSpeak's default group icons. Vector art is rasterised at the size it is drawn at; a pack's FALLBACK option decides whether icons it lacks come from default.zip, and anything still missing falls back to the icons the client draws itself.
• Pick one in Options → Design, which also shows a viewer of everything the pack contains; switching redraws the window right away.

Requirements

• Java 26+ (developed/tested on Temurin 26)
• The native Opus library on the system:
  • Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libopus0
  • Arch: sudo pacman -S opus
  • macOS: brew install opus

Building

The client depends on ts3j, so install that into your local Maven repo first:

cd ../ts3j && mvn -DskipTests install
cd ../ts3-client && mvn -DskipTests package

This produces a runnable fat-jar at swing/target/ts3-client.jar.

Running

java -jar swing/target/ts3-client.jar
# or, during development:
mvn -pl swing exec:java

Then use Connections → Connect…, enter a server address, port (default 9987), nickname and identity, and connect. Open Tools → Options to pick audio devices and tune voice activation while watching the live meter.

Architecture

core/   com.ts3client
├── config.Settings          persisted prefs (~/.ts3jclient/settings.properties)
├── config.Bookmarks         persisted server bookmarks (with per-server identity)
├── config.IdentityStore     managed identities (~/.ts3jclient/identities/*.ini)
├── audio                    abstractions + reusable DSP (no platform code)
│   ├── AudioBackend         factory for a platform's VoiceInput/VoiceOutput
│   ├── VoiceInput           capture source (extends ts3j Microphone) + gating controls
│   ├── VoiceOutput          voice-packet playback sink
│   ├── OpusParameters       live-tunable encoder settings
│   └── SpeechDetector       feature-based speech-probability VAD (Automatic/Hybrid)
├── gfx
│   ├── IconPack             an icon pack zip/folder + its settings.ini mapping
│   └── IconPacks            discovery of installed packs
├── sound
│   ├── SoundEvent           catalogue of actions (TeamSpeak's own event ids)
│   ├── SoundPack            a pack folder + its settings.ini mapping
│   ├── SoundPacks           discovery of installed packs
│   ├── NotificationSettings per-action enabled / important flags
│   ├── SoundNotifier        decides what is heard (pack + config + mute state)
│   └── SoundPlayer          platform hook for rendering a sound
└── net
    ├── TeamspeakConnection  ties socket + audio backend + model, translates events
    ├── ServerModel          thread-safe channel/client state
    ├── ChannelNode/ClientEntry  view models
    └── ConnectionListener   frontend callbacks

desktop/  com.ts3client.audio.desktop
├── Opus                     Panama (FFM) binding to native libopus
├── OpusEncoder/OpusDecoder  thin codec wrappers
├── AudioDevices             device enumeration + line opening (48 kHz/16-bit)
├── JavaSoundVoiceInput      capture + VAD/PTT gating + Opus encode
├── JavaSoundVoiceOutput     per-client Opus decode + playback + mixing
├── WavSoundPlayer           sound-pack playback: decode, resample and mix on one line
└── JavaSoundAudioBackend    wires the above into the core AudioBackend

swing/  com.ts3client
├── Main                     entry point (look & feel, settings, backend injection)
└── ui
    ├── MainFrame            window: menu, toolbar, tree | chat, status bar
    ├── ServerTreePanel      TS3-style channel/client tree (group badges, spacers)
    ├── Spacers              TS3 spacer-channel name parsing/rendering
    ├── InfoPanel            channel description / client group + details view
    ├── ChatPanel            chat log + input
    ├── SettingsDialog       audio + VAD options with live meter
    ├── NotificationsPanel   sound pack + per-action sound/important configuration
    ├── IconPackPanel        icon pack chooser + icon viewer (Options → Design)
    ├── ConnectDialog        connect form
    ├── BookmarksDialog      manage saved servers
    ├── IdentitiesDialog     manage identities (new/import/export/improve)
    ├── IdentityChooser      identity drop-down shared by connect/bookmark forms
    ├── LevelMeter           dBFS meter with threshold marker
    ├── IconTheme            active icon pack: rasterising (JSVG) and caching
    ├── Icons                icon lookup by TeamSpeak key, with drawn fallbacks
    └── Theme                palette + fonts

Known limitations / next steps

• The Automatic/Hybrid VAD uses a lightweight energy/spectral detector rather than the WebRTC GMM model the official client ships; it is intentionally dependency-free and reusable in the core library.
• Whisper is received/played but not yet sendable from the UI.
• Playback decodes streams as mono; stereo music-bot audio is down-mixed.
• Push-to-talk is captured via Swing key events, so it only works while the app window has focus (no global hotkey).
• No file transfer, avatars, or server/channel administration UI yet.