Give each map a reverb and let walls and closed doors muffle sound.
Acoustics and muffled sounds
Each map can sound like the place it is. A tavern gets close, short reflections, a cathedral a long smooth tail, a mine a dark echo. Separately, sounds on the other side of a wall or a closed door play quieter and duller, so players can hear a fight in the next room without it sounding like it's next to them.
Where to author it#
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| A map's reverb | Zone editor → open the map → Map Properties → Audio → Acoustics (reverb) |
| Walls that muffle sound | Nothing extra. The walls, doors and solid tiles you already painted are used |
| The player's own controls | In game: Settings → Audio → Environment |
How to set it up#
- Open the map in the zone editor and click Map Properties.
- Go to the Audio section.
- Pick an Acoustics (reverb) preset. The line under the dropdown says what each one suits.
- Click Save, then publish (or restart your local server) so players get the new setting.
- Walk into the map in game and trigger any effect, like an attack or a footstep. You'll hear the reverb.
A new map created under another map starts with its parent's acoustics, just as it inherits the parent's music.
Acoustics presets#
| Preset | Sounds like | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| None | Dry, no reverb (default) | Anywhere you don't want an effect. This is how every map sounded before |
| Room | Short, close reflections | Houses, shops, taverns, small interiors |
| Hall | A long, smooth tail | Castles, temples, throne rooms, great halls |
| Cave | A dark, echoing tail with distinct echoes | Caves, mines, dungeons, sewers |
| Outdoor | A faint open-air slap | Valleys, forests, city streets |
What counts as a wall#
A sound is muffled when the straight line from the sound to the player crosses:
| Blocker | Muffles? |
|---|---|
| A building wall or window (Build Parts / wall layer) | Yes |
| A door that is closed | Yes. An open door doesn't muffle |
| Two or more solid (unwalkable) tiles in a row, like a thick RPG Maker wall | Yes |
| A single solid tile, like a tree, crate or pillar | No |
| Water, lava or other open liquid | No. Sound carries across a lake |
More blockers muffle more. Looping sounds open back up as the player walks around the wall.
Player settings (Settings → Audio → Environment)#
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sound quality | High: full reverb, occlusion checks many sounds. Medium: shorter reverb, fewer occlusion checks. Low: no reverb and no occlusion, the lightest on the CPU. Saved per device |
| Muffle sounds behind walls | Turns occlusion on or off without touching the reverb. Follows the player's account |
Both rows can be hidden, renamed or locked in the In-Game Settings Panel editor, like any other setting.
Gotchas#
- Music is never reverbed. Acoustics applies to effects and ambient sound only, so your score sounds the same everywhere.
- Players on Low hear no reverb. If a player says a cave sounds dry, check Settings → Audio → Sound quality first.
- Reverb follows the map, not the room. The whole map uses one preset. To give a building's inside a different sound, make the interior its own map and set its acoustics there.
- Only positional sounds are muffled. Interface clicks, music and the ambient bed aren't. Combat, gathering and authored sound events with distance attenuation are.
- Nothing changes until you publish. Players get the preset the next time they enter the map after the server has the new data.
- Interior Map dialog. The quick Interior Map dialog in the map tree has no acoustics field. Open the interior and use Map Properties instead.
- There is no feature flag — acoustics and occlusion are always available, and None (the default) is exactly the old behaviour.