Neap 0.3.0

A redesigned Neap for the Stealth Pro II.

Highlights

• A redesign. Home, Audio and a new Equaliser page are set out afresh, with a flatter, calmer look, a new icon and a typeface of its own that looks the same on Windows and Linux.
• A mini panel by the clock. The mix, the microphone, noise cancellation, spatial sound and the equaliser preset, mid-game, without opening the window.
• See the mix. On Windows, a live meter for each side shows chat speaking and the game's sound as you set it.
• Louder than the headset's maximum. A loudness boost raises the Stealth Pro II's own level, for when it is too quiet even at full volume.
• An equaliser to try things on. Drag the points or use the keyboard, hold Compare to hear the headset flat, and undo any change.
• Profiles for calls. A call app can switch to its profile only while it is using the microphone.
• The microphone follows every mute: the boom arm, the mute button, and the boom microphone going in or out.
• Steadier on Linux. Transmitters are kept from sleeping, and one that goes quiet is brought back.

Install on Windows

1. Download Neap-0.3.0-win-x64.zip below. Windows 10 version 2004 or later, 64-bit.
2. Unzip it into a folder you will keep, and run Neap.exe.
3. The download is not signed yet. If Windows says it protected your PC, choose More info, then Run anyway.
4. Make sure Swarm II is not running in the background, and turn off its Autostart in its App Settings. The two apps fight over the headset when both are open.
5. Remove the Waves audio driver: in Windows Settings, under Apps, uninstall Turtle Beach Audio Driver by Waves Audio Ltd. Neap does not need it.

Install on Linux

1. Download Neap-0.3.0-x86_64.AppImage below, make it runnable (in a terminal, chmod +x Neap-0.3.0-x86_64.AppImage, or in your file manager tick Allow executing as a program), and run it. It needs a desktop with PulseAudio or PipeWire, which almost every one has.
2. If it says it needs FUSE, install libfuse2 from your distribution, or run it as ./Neap.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run.
3. The first time, Neap may say it is not allowed to use the headset. Choose Allow access: your system asks for your password once, and the only thing it changes is a small rule file that lets you use the headset.
4. The download is not signed. Check it against the .sha256 file beside it if you like: sha256sum -c on that file.
5. Neap tells you when a newer version is out and opens its page; download the new file to replace the old one.

Added

• A mini panel for mid-game. A click on Neap's icon by the clock opens it: the headset's name and battery, the game and chat mix as a slim slider, tiles for the microphone, noise cancellation and spatial sound, and the equaliser preset. A press turns a tile off, or back on the way it was last on, and the arrow in its corner lists its choices. Spatial sound offers what the system has, and is left out where it has none. The panel closes on Escape or a click elsewhere, and "Open Neap", on it and on the icon's menu, opens the window. A switch in Settings turns the panel off; a click on the icon then opens the window.
• Live levels for the mix. On Windows, the game and chat card shows a meter for each side beside the dial, with the level the mix sets, so you can see chat speaking and the game's sound as you set the mix. The meters stop while the window is behind, and are left out when animation is off. When the chat wheel moves the dial, the dial glides to its place.
• A loudness boost on the Audio page raises the Stealth Pro II's own level, so everything through the dock plays louder, for when the headset is too quiet even at full volume. It starts at +0 dB, is saved on the headset, and only the Stealth Pro II shows it.
• The equaliser is easier to try things on. Points show they can be dragged: a resize cursor, a halo and a larger point under the pointer, and a bubble with the value while one is moved. The curve takes the keyboard, with Left and Right to choose a band and Up and Down to move it, and Shift for a bigger step. Compare plays the headset flat for as long as you hold it and puts your curve back when you let go. Undo and Redo, or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, step back through the edits made since the page was opened. The curve grows with the window and shows a dB scale, and the part of your curve the headset can't reach is shaded grey and named in the legend.
• An app given to a profile can switch to it only while it's using the microphone, rather than whenever it's open. A profile for Teams calls comes on as a call starts, and the default comes back when it ends.
• On its cable alone, where the headset sends nothing from its chat wheel, the mix says so, with what still moves it.
• With a headset whose settings Neap only reads, Home says so, rather than leaving its controls greyed out without a word.
• A recording lists each change Neap sends to the headset beside what the headset says, and says why when a change wasn't sent.
• What's new is always in Settings, beside Neap's version. With no update waiting, it shows what's new in the version you have, without going online.

Changed

• A flatter, calmer look. Neutral grey grounds, with one deeper ground in the dark theme; cards, rows, tiles, buttons, fields and switches without outlines or gradients, each a gentle step of fill from what it sits on; smaller text, tighter rows and even spacing on every page, so more of each page fits on screen. Neap's ultraviolet accent marks only what is on, chosen or playing, so a tile that is on is a soft violet tint. High contrast keeps every outline, and the keyboard focus ring is as clear as before.
• The app's text is set in Figtree, and the name beside the mark in Outfit. Both are carried inside the app, so Windows and Linux show the same letters.
• The app icon is redrawn as a split half moon over one wave, and the icon by the clock is its own simpler drawing that follows a light or dark taskbar on Windows.
• The menu and the page each run the full height of the window, and the menu starts in the title bar's row, with the Neap mark and name at its top and the profile switcher under them. When the menu is icons only, just the mark and one profile icon show. The headset's status and the update bar sit at the top of the page.
• Home is redesigned. The headset's readings run across the top, with how it is connected, such as "Through the USB Transmitter". The game and chat mix is one shorter card, with a Keyboard shortcuts link; before any chat app is chosen, its dial shows faded, with the question about chat apps below it. Every other card works the same way: on or off is a switch at the top right, and the card is tinted while it is on; a choice among a few is a row of segments under the name, such as Off, Cancelling and Transparency for noise cancellation, or Off, Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos for spatial sound. Superhuman Hearing gets a switch, with its sound (Legacy, Footsteps or Gunshots) under the name, and the equaliser card a preset choice.
• Audio holds what you hear and your microphone in two sections, with noise cancellation, Superhuman Hearing and spatial sound as choices you can see at once, a link from each section to its equaliser, and every slider ending at the same edge. The microphone settings live here, and Microphone has left the menu.
• The equalisers have a page of their own, Equaliser, with a Game and a Microphone tab, and Home's equaliser card opens it. Your presets sit beside a larger curve, with names on one line, and the test tone is folded away until it is wanted. Discard shows only once the curve has been edited, and a saved preset's delete button only on the row you point at, focus or have chosen. Saving or deleting a preset takes about half the time.
• On Controls, each job for the Mode button and the lower dial is a full-width row you can press anywhere, the chosen one tinted. The dial's first job is named Microphone monitoring volume.
• On Profiles, the profile in use has a soft tint and says "In use" under its name, following a switch from the menu or by an app starting as it happens, and New profile sits beside the page's title. A screen reader hears each profile's apps, and whether it is in use, on the button that changes its apps.
• Sliders are the system toolkit's own, in Neap's colours: a white thumb in the dark theme and a purple one in light. The value beside each slider shows it while dragged.
• The headset is called what its firmware calls it, the name the system and a phone show, such as "Stealth Pro II Xbox", rather than "My Headset". Where the firmware gives no name, it is called by its model, and a headset Neap doesn't recognise, or none at all, is simply "Headset".
• What Neap says is shorter and clearer throughout, with Noise cancellation, Strength, Noise reduction, Loudness boost and Microphone monitoring as names, and every failure says what to do next.
• When your system sends sound to a device the headset isn't listening on, Home's connection line says there's no sound, as the title bar does, rather than naming the transmitter.
• A microphone muted in Windows while the headset itself is live, as Neap's switch does with the boom microphone in, says "Muted on this PC", so nobody waits for the headset's tone or red ring.
• "Keep high-resolution audio" is gone from the Device page, for now. It restarted the headset's sound to turn the Charging Dock's ring purple again after an app used the microphone, and that only works while something is playing. Neap no longer restarts the sound. After a call the ring stays white until something plays, then turns purple by itself. Windows keeps sending the same format while the ring is white, and the ring is the only change seen.
• "Help support another headset" says it's for Turtle Beach headsets that work with Swarm II, as the GitHub form and the guide now do: Neap talks to a headset the way Swarm II does, so it can't support others.
• On a small screen, such as the Steam Deck's, text, rows, switches, sliders and the menu step up a size so they are easier to read and touch.
• Dialogs and the update banner share the app's spacing, a dialog's main button uses the accent colour, and long dialog headings wrap instead of being cut off.
• Start when you sign in says why when it can't be changed, as in a practice run.

Fixed

• The Charging Dock's two light sliders no longer stop partway through a drag. The dock reports its lights back as they change, and the transmitter list was redrawn each time, taking the slider away from under the pointer.
• On Home, the dot beside how the headset is connected sits level with its words, and the headset's name and readings sit in the middle of their card.
• Profiles no longer ask you to turn the headset on when it is already on; they say Neap can't reach its settings.
• Switched off with only its cable plugged in, Home says the headset is off from the start, rather than first suggesting CrossPlay and the transmitters.
• On Linux, while the system keeps Neap from the headset, the title bar, Home, the mini panel and the notification-area icon say "No access", rather than "Not connected" with a hint that the headset is off.
• The connection status no longer shows the device's technical description when you point at it, and Home's connection line has no tooltip repeating what Home already says.
• The chat wheel no longer gets stuck at the middle. Turned quickly through the middle to its game or chat end, the mix stopped at the middle and the wheel then had no room left to turn it further; the mix now goes to that end with the wheel.
• On Linux, a transmitter that has stopped answering is restarted only once Neap's newer access rule is in. Under the older rule the system can put it straight back to sleep, so a restart before then was used up for nothing. The notice then says Neap's access needs updating, with an Update access button, rather than that Neap isn't allowed to use the headset.
• On Linux, Neap's access rule keeps Turtle Beach transmitters from being put to sleep to save power, which could leave one answering nothing until it was restarted. If an older rule is installed and a transmitter stops answering, Neap offers the new one with the same password prompt; a headset that is only switched off is no reason to ask.
• On Linux, a transmitter that answers but has no headset linked to it is no longer restarted. The restart switched the headset off as it came back.
• On Linux, when a transmitter stays silent after Neap has restarted it, Home asks you to unplug it and plug it back in. It used to say the headset was off or out of range, though switching it on could not help.
• Choosing which apps carry chat now opens in a dropdown over the page, instead of an in-card list that grew and shrank. The card keeps one height, so the game and chat dial and the settings below it no longer jump as you open or close it.
• The microphone follows the headset through every way it mutes: the boom arm while the boom microphone is in, the mute button while it is out, and the boom being plugged in or taken out while connected. A mute by the button mutes the PC too, and the microphone card says "Muted on the headset". Neap's own switch mutes the headset itself, with its tone, while the boom is out, and Windows while it is in. Before, Neap followed only the boom arm, so the PC stayed live; the switch did nothing with the boom in; and a mute left on the built-in microphones showed as muted after the boom went back in.
• Button text sits in the middle of its button; it sat a little high.
• A click anywhere along a slider moves it there. Before, only dragging the handle moved it.
• Links keep their size when pointed at, and show a soft fill instead of turning bold, which pushed the text around them.
• The line that shows the equaliser reading its presets, and a profile being saved, moves again. It stays still when animation is off in Windows.
• The microphone meter on the Audio page moves as soon as the page opens. It could stay still until you switched away and back or opened the page again.
• Sliders move in whole steps, so they no longer shake as they are dragged, and never show a number past the slider's end.
• If the headset muted the PC's microphone, by its arm or by being switched off, the microphone comes back on when the arm is seen down, even after Neap was closed or the headset was off in between. A mute you set yourself in Neap stays.
• When the headset gives no answer for a group of its settings, such as the transmitter light, the app log and recordings say so.
• A recording says "no answer" for a transmitter slot the headset didn't answer for, rather than calling it empty, and names each change Neap sends by the setting it changes.
• A screen reader now announces noise cancellation, the Mode button, the lower dial and Superhuman Hearing's sound as named groups of options, instead of leaving the group's name out.
• The volume and microphone sliders no longer jump back while they are moved. The headset reports each level a moment late, and a late report pulled the slider back, then forward again. They now leave the headset's reports alone for a moment after a change.
• A profile saved on one headset no longer shows as changed on another that lacks some of its settings, and saving over it keeps them.
• On Linux, a headset that seems to say nothing is also listened for where Linux keeps what the headset sends unasked. If it still says nothing, the log says what arrived there.
• On Linux, Neap waits for the headset's replies at the same pace as on Windows, rather than asking about four times as often.
• On Linux, a transmitter that stays silent is restarted once, as if it had been unplugged and plugged back in, with Neap listening as it comes back. Some transmitters answer only if something has listened since they were plugged in. Neap asks for permission once more where it was allowed before this.
• What the headset reports, under Device, can be selected and copied, and a Copy button puts all of it on the clipboard.
• Settings and recordings show a test build's full version, such as 0.2.1.1, rather than the release it follows.
• When a transmitter opens but the headset gives no answer, the log and any recording say so and what was tried, rather than leaving "Quiet" unexplained, and the first ask after Neap starts waits longer, in case the answer is only slow.
• Neap no longer changes the settings of a headset it doesn't know, as it always said it wouldn't. It only reads them.
• A recording of another headset now says which functions the headset didn't answer about, rather than counting them as not found, and asks it again before giving up.
• A link in What's new sits in line with the words around it, rather than above them.
• A recording keeps going for well over an hour. It notes a sound level when it changes rather than every second, which filled it after about 37 minutes.
• A recording made on Linux names Linux and its version, rather than calling it Windows, and says once rather than every second that it can't yet tell where sound is going.