Question about sound design (balance)

[_dannie]

OGS does a weird thing with sound balance where move sounds play from the speaker channel that correlates to the side of the board the move was made on. I think this is really interesting from a spatial design perspective, but when wearing headphones it becomes severely distracting. I think it’s because the sound is completely absent in one ear, which completely breaks the spatial effect.

Are there any settings or options for sound outside of volume/mute that I’m unaware of? And if not, it’d be great to see the balance shifted some percentage in one direction or another instead of all the way.

I know it’s a nitpick, but it seems like as good a place as any to mention it, and it really gets at me.

[shinuito]

Audio updates v2

One thing I wasn’t expecting was that with earphones if I put a stone on the left side of the board I hear it in my left ear, and on the right my right ear. There’s something slightly uncomfortable about that. Actually initially I thought I broke my earphones. Maybe it makes sense in some situations?

Audio updates v2

It shouldn’t be that strong of an effect, but maybe it’s too much still? Or maybe that feature is just undesirable. I reckon I need to add an option to disable it in any case.

Actually I think there might be a setting for it though, I never looked for it until now.

Very bottom right of the sound preferences in settings for me.

Edit1:
I’m not sure I can tell the difference on a laptop, I’ll have to try on a phone

Edit2:
Oh yeah it’s much more pronounced on my phone, really left to right ear (I forgot I mostly have stone sound off on mobile ) The setting works as I expect though

[_dannie]

That’s great! I guess I don’t know how to find settings? I’m on a desktop. I see the obvious stuff in my profile dropdown about day/night mode and board styles. But nothing about sound. Is there a hidden settings screen I don’t know about?

[shinuito]

You wouldn’t be the first to find OGS layout unintuitive (I didn’t know how to find friends/search for players either when I started).

How intuitive is OGS for new users?

Ironic, given our whole design ethos is to be as simple and welcoming for beginners as possible

There’s this hamburger menu that you can click to open the secret menu There’s also a keyboard shortcut for opening it, but funny enough the documentation is also hidden in this menu.

In case you do want to use the keyboard shortcuts

Advanced Tips & Tricks

[ronin3]

Can we talk about the stone sound quality (it is still a little bit about design)…?

There might be already someone working on this, but the stone sounds are not that great. In fact, I dislike them so much I always have to have volume at zero.

No offense intended to who curated or recorded them, but if pressed I would have to admit the current alternatives (Floor Goban / Melamine / Original / Table) sound all very plasticky.

I have sampled a few other gaming websites, almost all of which have better, more rounded, more harmonious sounds. Having a pleasant sound is a big deal, makes one almost look forward to play the next move.

[_dannie]

Holy Settings! I can’t believe I’ve never noticed this menu before (ha!).

That setting was exactly what I was looking for, yes. And, fwiw, I think it’s a great feature… just throws me off when I’m using headphones.

Thanks so much for your time!