Sound Culling

🎧 Sound Culling

Sound Culling is a lightweight client-side mod that reduces excessive overlapping sounds in farms, machinery-heavy areas, mob grinders, and crowded multiplayer environments.

It groups nearby sounds into configurable regions and applies volume dampening or full culling only after the selected sound limits are exceeded. Important sounds remain protected, while directional prioritization keeps relevant sounds clearer.

✨ Key Features

• 🔉 Dynamic Volume Dampening: Reduces excessive overlapping sounds instead of abruptly muting everything.
• 👀 Directional Prioritization: Once limits are reached, sounds in front of the player are prioritized over overlapping sounds behind them.
• 📊 Per-Category Limits: Configure separate limits for:
  • Hostile Mobs
  • Neutral Mobs
  • Blocks and Machinery
  • Ambient Sounds
  • Other Sound Categories
• 🌍 Regional Sound Limits: Controls the maximum combined sound activity inside configurable areas.
• 🛡️ Important Sound Protection: Important sounds such as player damage, explosions, thunder, primed Creepers, and primed TNT are protected.
• 🎨 In-Game Configuration: Adjust settings through Mod Menu when it is installed.
• 💬 Game Commands: Configure the mod without requiring Mod Menu.
• 🔧 Automatic Validation: Invalid configuration values are automatically corrected.
• ⚡ Lightweight Implementation: Uses direct sound-engine hooks without continuously scanning the world.

📐 How It Works

The mod tracks sounds inside configurable three-dimensional regions.

When identical or total sounds exceed the selected thresholds:

1. Protected and whitelisted sounds are allowed to play normally.
2. Relative interface sounds and Minecraft music are ignored.
3. Overlapping sounds in front of the player are prioritized.
4. Less relevant overlapping sounds are dampened more strongly.
5. Sounds exceeding the hard limit are prevented from starting.

Sounds play normally until the configured limits are reached.

🛠️ Configuration

When Mod Menu is installed, open:

Mods → Sound Culling → Config

Mod Menu is optional and is not required for the mod to work.

Configuration values are stored in:

config/soundculling.json

Available settings include:

• Region Total: Maximum combined sounds allowed inside one region.
• Time Window: Period used to measure overlapping sounds.
• Region Size: Size of each tracked region in blocks.
• Hostile Limit: Limit for hostile mob sounds.
• Neutral Limit: Limit for neutral mob sounds.
• Block Limit: Limit for blocks, machinery, pistons, and similar sources.
• Ambient Limit: Limit for environmental ambient sounds.
• Default Limit: Fallback limit for other sound categories.
• Debug Logging: Displays periodic aggregated culling statistics.

🚀 Game Commands

• /soundculling — Displays current settings and session statistics.
• /soundculling limit <1-50> — Changes the default sound limit.
• /soundculling total <1-100> — Changes the regional total limit.
• /soundculling window <5-200> — Changes the evaluation window in ticks.
• /soundculling region <2-64> — Changes the region size in blocks.
• /soundculling reset — Resets session statistics.

📦 Currently Maintained Versions

• Minecraft 26.1.2 — Fabric
• Minecraft 26.2 — Fabric

Older Fabric, Forge, and NeoForge versions will remain available, but they may not receive future updates.

📋 Requirements

• Fabric Loader
• Fabric API
• Mod Menu is optional and only required for the graphical configuration screen