Apply perceptual curve to volume sliders

[evanpelle]

Problem

Players reported having to turn the volume slider down to ~20% before noticing any change in loudness.

The sliders fed their linear 0–1 position straight to Howler's volume(), which is linear amplitude gain. Human loudness perception is roughly logarithmic, so the top ~80% of the slider all sounds nearly identical — the classic linear-fader problem.

Fix

Square the slider position into a perceptual (audio-taper) gain inside SoundManager. The stored setting and the displayed % remain the intuitive linear slider position; only the gain handed to Howler is curved.

Slider	Old gain (linear)	New gain (x²)
100%	1.00	1.00
90%	0.90	0.81
80%	0.80	0.64
50%	0.50	0.25
20%	0.20	0.04

Lowering the slider from 100→80 now produces an audible drop instead of nothing until ~20%.

Notes

• Quadratic (x²) was chosen as a balanced, conservative taper. Cubic (x³) would make the top-end drop-off even more immediate if preferred.
• Existing saved settings are unaffected; the same slider position will simply sound slightly quieter, which is the intended correction.

Tests

Updated SoundManager.test.ts to assert the curved gain and added a dedicated test locking in the top-of-range behavior. All 18 tests pass.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: 6c25de24-3cb6-4b1d-9136-3f27da242005

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 8b9bda1 and 0de077f.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• src/client/sound/SoundManager.ts
• tests/client/sound/SoundManager.test.ts

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Walkthrough

SoundManager gains a private perceptualGain(position) helper that clamps a slider value to [0, 1] and squares it. Both setBackgroundMusicVolume and setSoundEffectsVolume now use this helper instead of direct linear clamping. Tests update all volume assertions to expect squared values and add one new test for the 0.9 input case.

Changes

Perceptual gain curve for volume controls

Layer / File(s)	Summary
perceptualGain helper and volume setters src/client/sound/SoundManager.ts	Adds private perceptualGain(position) (clamp then square); both setBackgroundMusicVolume and setSoundEffectsVolume now store volume through this helper before updating Howler tracks.
Test assertions updated for squared gain tests/client/sound/SoundManager.test.ts	Updates four existing volume assertions (background music bootstrap, lazy SFX load, SetBackgroundMusicVolumeEvent, SetSoundEffectsVolumeEvent) to expect squared values; adds one new test verifying 0.9 input produces 0.81.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~8 minutes

Poem

🎵 The slider moves smooth, from zero to one,
But linearly loud was never much fun.
We square up the signal, a gentle taper,
Soft sounds stay soft — like delicate paper.
v * v is the law of the land,
Perceptual curves, just as ears had planned! 🎶

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title directly and clearly describes the main change: applying a perceptual curve to volume sliders, which matches the core objective of the PR.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description comprehensively explains the problem, solution, implementation details, and testing, all directly related to the volume curve changes in the changeset.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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