It is currently too hard to tell the range of Audio. Specifically the RollOffMinDistance and RollOffMaxDistances.
If you add visual indications of the RollOffMin and Max to the Sound (similar to the range indications when a PointLight, SurfaceLight, or SpotLight is selected) it’d be much easier to set those Properties.
This would allow developers to be able to more easily set up Audio, especially in ‘indoor’ locations, or similar situations where they’re trying to set a RollOffMaxDistance so sounds can’t be heard on other sides of walls.
For example I have a refrigerator in a kitchen. I can’t put a sound directly in it since the sound would be heard on the other side of the wall it sits against. I have to put it in a Part or Attachment somewhere in the front of the fridge. I’d also like the sound to fade out (Linear or InverseTapered) as the player walks away from the fridge.
Let’s go for an easy case scenario:
Say I have the fridge sized 4 x 4 studs and against the wall. I put a sound Attachment 3 studs in front of it with a RollOffMin distance of 3 studs. This means if a player walks up to it they would hear it the same loudness from the fridge front to 6 studs away (2x the radius) with no rolloff. Now I put a RollOffMax of 8 studs (3 studs RollOffMin + 4 studs for the fridge depth + 1 stud for the wall behind it. Easy calculation, right? A player standing up against the other side of the wall behind the fridge wouldn’t hear it, and it would be heard inside the kitchen and taper off as they walk to other areas in the room.
Now in places where there are sounds that the distance calculations aren’t quite as easy to figure out or there are multiple limits (walls) for the sound’s RollOffMax it’d be nice to have a visual rangefinder in Studio to tell where the sound will be heard.
Example: You have an outdoor fountain making splashing noises that’s placed diagonally away from the corner of a building.
Now you either have to place a Ball Part at the Sounds center and figure out the diameter of the Ball that allows it to just touch the corner of the building, then divide that number by half to get the RollOffMax distance, or you test by using the Run button and move your camera around until you’re at the point you don’t want to hear the sound and adjust the RollOffMax distance to where it works for you, then press Stop and reenter that number in the RollOffMax Property.
I propose a system that shows a semitransparent (say .6) bevelled box shape (to cover the radius caused at the corners of large rectangular sound Parts) that would indicate the RollOffMin distance, and a less transparent bevelled box (say .2) to indicate the RollOffMax distance.
This would allow a developer to place a Part or Attachment with Audio in it, select the Audio and Part (or Attachment), set the RollOffMin and Max distances and move the Part (or Attachment) or adjust the distances so the sound is set up to properly cover the area around it without intruding into other areas.
