Audio controls reduce volume 2x more quickly than they should
complete
Faxmashine
VRChat Version:
2021.1.1p1, build number 1040 (and previous)
The in-game volume sliders fall off more quickly than they should. At 75%, VRChat's volume is decreased by 10 dB . At 50%, the volume is decreased by another 10 dB. Et cetera.
This makes VRChat's audio sliders difficult to use, because most audio sliders to not work this way.
In most software (i.e. Microsoft Windows), setting the volume to 50% halves the (perceived) volume. Most users need to regularly adjust VRChat's world or avatar volume, but VRChat's audio sliders do not behave as users would expect.
Steps to reproduce:
1 Enter a VRChat world which contains an audio source (playing noise or a sine wave).
2 Reduce the audio volume, while listening to (or measuring) the amplitude of the sound.
3 Check the peak amplitude in dB at each 25% increment.
My (crude) measurements:
100% -12 dB
75% -22 dB
50% -32 dB
25% -42 dB
0% ...Please check this related canny 😅 https://feedback.vrchat.com/bug-reports/p/master-volume-0-isnt-always-silent
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StormRel
complete
Fax
available in future release
Fixed in open beta!
Faxmashine
2022 update! 0% now actually mutes audio sliders. Though values from 1-99% are still weird :v
Faxmashine
Here's a table of how much exactly the sliders deviate from the correct value.
Slider value || What it should sound like || Bugged value
100% || 100%, -0 dB || Is correct
75% || 75%, -6 dB || 50%, -10 dB
50% || 50%, -10 dB || 25%, -20 dB
25% || 25%, -20 dB || 12.5%, -30 dB
0% || 0%, -∞ dB || 6.25%, -40 dB
Faxmashine
... The new UI made this problem a fair bit worse!! 😣
We no longer have numbers for the audio sliders. Which would be fine, if this bug didn't exist!
The difference between 80% volume and 100% is HUGE (almost 2x quieter), and the new UI doesn't represent that at all.
Faxmashine
Using something like
Mathf.Log10()
to set the volume would probably fix the issue.Not saying it's a one-line fix, but I'm very certain the bug would be worth fixing. Especially with how many music events VRChat has nowadays.
Faxmashine
Audio sliders seem to be a common problem in audio software. Here's some posts with proposed solutions, but I'm not familiar enough with the topic to identify the exact issue in VRChat. Something something logarithmic.