Creating realistic sound effects for the environments is important in the virtual world. It can give the players the feeling of immersing inside the world.
The most basic sound handing method is to play all sounds at the same volume. For instance, a bird is singing in the forest and the avatars are walking on the road. In this case, the user should hear at least the music from the bird and the footfalls.
A better way to handle sounds is to consider distance. For example, the following figure depicts the volume of the bird signing in the room:
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The three avatars in the room should hear different volumes of the music from the bird. The closer the avatar, the louder the music. This enhancement lets the players feel that they are in the realistic world. A classical example of sound control in an environment is Age of Empires. You can feel every single sound from the environment played in a designed volume and balance between left/right channels of stereo.
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