Acoustics

An acoustic combines a sound factory reference with other properties that determine when a sound is eligble for play. The acoustic definition has the following schema:

{
    "factory": "sound factory ID",
    "conditions": "true",
    "weight": 10,
    "type": "loop"
}

Acoustic Configuration

Property	Value Type	Comment
factory	ResourceLocation	The resource location ID of the sound factory that will be used to create the sound instance. This is a required property.
conditions	String	Script that evaluates the conditions where the sound will be played. Default is true. See Scripting.
weight	Integer	Relative weight of the entry as compared to it’s peers. It is used by the weight table selection process when determining a random sound. Default is 10.
type	String	The type of acoustic the entry represents. Default is loop.

Acoustic types

Type	Comment
loop	The sound is non-attenuated and will play on a loop. It will terminate when the operating conditions are no longer met.
mood	The sound has a chance of periodically playing at a random location around the player. This random location gives directionality where the sound can be heard someplace around the player.
music	The sound is configured to be utilized by Minecraft music manager. Whenever Minecraft plays a music track, a selection can be made from music related acoustics.
addition	The sound has a chance of randomly playing in a non-attenuated (non-directional) configuration.

It is worth noting that any sound factory can be used as an acoustic. Practically, though, the actual sound should be suitable for the acoustic type. For example, it would be strange to create a music acoustic from minecraft:entity.zombie.ambient or a mood acoustic from minecraft:ui.button.click.

Here is an example from the Dynamic Surroundings configuration:

"acoustics": [
  {
    "factory": "biome.underground",
    "conditions": "state.isInside()"
  },
  {
    "factory": "rockfall",
    "type": "mood",
    "weight": 30
  },
  {
    "factory": "bigrockfall",
    "type": "mood",
    "weight": 15
  },
  {
    "factory": "monstergrowl",
    "conditions": "diurnal.isNight() && global.allowScary()",
    "type": "mood",
    "weight": 10
  }
]

This configuration defines 4 acoustics for the underground biome effect. The first is of type loop since it uses the default. The other three are mood effects with different weights. The conditions of monstergrowl is different from the other two loop sounds.

During play, the first acoustic is played if the player is considered inside and of sufficient depth beneath the surface. Since it is of type loop it will continually play while the player is insided and below the surface.

The other three are mood, meaning they will randomly play somewhere around the player. Per tick, Dynamic Surroundings will determine if a mood acoustic should play. If it does, it will make a selection from one of the three entries.

Assuming it is night and scary sounds are enabled, the three entries have a combined weight of 55. When making a random selection, because the weights are different, rockfall will play more frequently than either bigrockfall or monstergrowl. If it is day, only two entries will be eligible with a combined weight of 45. rockfall will still play more frequently than bigrockfall.

For music, here is an example from the Dynamic Surroundings - Seasons resource pack example:

{
    "biomeSelector": "OVERWORLD && (FOREST || PLAINS)",
    "_comment": "Music for Seasons",
    "acoustics": [
        {
            "factory": "dsurround_seasons:music/season/spring",
            "type": "music",
            "conditions": "season.isSpring()"
        },
        {
            "factory": "dsurround_seasons:music/season/summer",
            "type": "music",
            "conditions": "season.isSummer()"
        },
        {
            "factory": "dsurround_seasons:music/season/autumn",
            "type": "music",
            "conditions": "season.isAutumn()"
        },
        {
            "factory": "dsurround_seasons:music/season/winter",
            "type": "music",
            "conditions": "season.isWinter()"
        }
    ]
}

This configuration adds music to overworld forest and plains biomes. There are 4 different acoustics, one for each season.