Mojira Archive
MC-141201

Sound intensity seems to have linear scale rather than logarithmic

The following problem might be subjective and depend on other software and hardware (but shouldn't). 

So to the problem: Minecraft seems to have a linear model of sound intensity. And I'm not talking about directional/distant sounds. In the real world, the perception of sound(sones) is logarithmically proportional to the intensity of sound(dB)(attached plot). A general rule of thumb would be: to make something sound 2x louder, we must increase the power by about a factor of 10. After some testing it occured to me, that the sound volume sliders don't really seem to change the perceived sound by their value. To illustrate: place a jukebox, stand next to it and play a music disc, then change the setting for jukebox/noteblock volume from 100% to 50%. It doesn't really sound like "2x quieter", does it? Maybe like ~80% the starting volume. What seems to be actually "2x quiter" is value ~7%. Not something I would expect. Why is it annoying? First of all: try setting the volume to 1% - still pretty easy to hear. Second: I don't want to meddle in windows sound mixer each time I want to change the volume in game.

In conclusion: test it (and maybe other aspects of sound in game like MC-71552), check if it occurs to you as it occurs to me (and by check I mean ask others about their opinion and collect the data from many people) and give feedback.

And in attachments the dB to sones(perceived loudness) graph:

 

Unresolved

Tooster

2018-12-17, 03:07 AM

2024-04-11, 01:39 AM

10

3

Community Consensus

Sound

Minecraft 1.13.2

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