Earmuff mode

Earmuff mode is an option in Settings which lowers the voices of other users based on your distance and view angle via an earmuff. The earmuff is a region around the user, usually shaped like a cone or a sphere.

The main use case of the earmuff is being able to hear users closer to you better, when there are too many overlapping voices in the world.

How it works

Diagram explaining the different options

The earmuff is composed out of two shapes — a cone, and a sphere.

There are 6 settings that control the earmuff: Volume Attenuation, Directionality, Distance, Angle, Transition Start, Transition Range.

Distance, Transition Start, and Transition Range are scaled with the user.

• The Volume Attenuation controls how loud voices outside the earmuff will be. Setting to 0% will cause them to be muted completely.
• The Distance controls the radius of the cone, in meters. Voices beyond this radius plus Transition Start will always be attenuated.
• The Directionality controls how small the sphere of the earmuff is. When it's set to to 1, the sphere is as small as possible (meaning the earmuff will be a cone). When it's set to 0, the sphere is as big as the cone (meaning the earmuff will be a sphere). When it's set to 0.5, the sphere is half as big as the cone (meaning the earmuff is both a cone and a sphere).
• The Angle controls the angle of the cone, in degrees.
• The Transition Start and Transition Range settings control the fade transition of the earmuff.
  • Transition Start is the distance — in meters — from the earmuff at which the fade transition starts to take effect.
  • Transition Range is the length — also in meters — of the fade transition.