Factorio Forums

Hey, I'll give you the short version here, then go into detail below:
I need an explanation on how the sound settings work, and a basic understanding of how sound works in general (in Factorio, of course)

I am have had a bit of trouble in the past with the sound settings, specifically the category sliders. It seemed that every time I fixed one sound, there would be another sound or two that began to either be too loud or too soft, though it could just be my imagination and I'm unintentionally adjusting things I didn't mean to. Either way, I basically had no idea what I was doing. After a little bit of experimenting with the settings, I still am quite aware there is a lot I don't know about the game's Sound that I need to, or at the very least would help to know.

So far I've picked up a vague idea (that's more of an assumption) of what each category is and some of the sounds that go into each. I've also picked up on the fact that sound does in fact have some sort of depth value. Lastly I've noticed that lowering the master volume seems to make the other sounds volumes gets more... Rigid(?) the lower the master is.

Of course I take all of this information with a grain of salt as I have no idea if I am correct at all, so some outside input (preferably from someone who knows more about this then the average joe, but I guess beggers can't be choosers) would be very appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Child of Night wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 9:54 pm So far I've picked up a vague idea (that's more of an assumption) of what each category is and some of the sounds that go into each.

Some of the categories have tooltips trying to explain a bit about which sounds they affect.
If you really want to check a specific sound you can use the "show-recently-played-sounds-info" debug option and then look for the sound in lower left corner of the screen, it will show currently playing sounds, their filenames and sound category.

Child of Night wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 9:54 pm I've also picked up on the fact that sound does in fact have some sort of depth value.

I don't understand what do you mean by "depth". Can you elaborate?

Child of Night wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 9:54 pm Lastly I've noticed that lowering the master volume seems to make the other sounds volumes gets more... Rigid(?) the lower the master is.

There is nothing special about the master volume slider, in the end it's all just volume multipliers.
However, the result volume values don't have that high of a resolution (roughly, the volume can change in slightly smaller than 1% steps), so if you set the master volume very low, when combined with other volume sliders the resulting volume will be fighting with the resolution and the volume setting could seem not as granular/responsive.
I'm not sure that's what you meant by rigid.