Forge Gameeffects Sounds

Sounds

Terminology

• Sound event: something that triggers a sound effect (e.g. minecraft:block.anvil.hit).
• Sound category: the category (player/block/master...) represented by the sound settings sliders.
• Sound file: the literal .ogg file played.

sounds.json

Located at assets/<namespace>/sounds.json; defines sound events in that namespace:

{
  "open_chest": {
    "subtitle": "mymod.subtitle.open_chest",
    "sounds": [ "mymod:open_chest_sound_file" ]
  },
  "epic_music": {
    "sounds": [ { "name": "mymod:music/epic_music", "stream": true } ]
  }
}

Each key is a sound event (namespace from the JSON); sounds is an array — the game picks randomly. Long files (music) should use the object form with stream: true (streams from disk; can also set volume, pitch, weight). Sound file paths: assets/<namespace>/sounds/<path>.ogg. Can be data generated.

Creating sound events

Create and register a SoundEvent (registry name = its location) to reference sounds on the server; expose them in an API if the mod has one. Any sound in sounds.json can be referenced on the logical client even without a SoundEvent.

Playing sounds

"Server Behavior"/"Client Behavior" refer to logical sides.

• Level#playSound(Player, BlockPos, SoundEvent, SoundSource, volume, pitch) → forwards to the x/y/z overload (+0.5 per coordinate).
• Level#playSound(Player, x, y, z, ...): client plays to the client player if the passed player is them; server plays to everyone nearby except the passed player (null = everyone). Use for player-initiated sound on both sides, or server-side general sounds with null.
• Level#playLocalSound(x, y, z, ...): client only (with distance delay option); does nothing on the server. Used for thunder / custom-packet sounds.
• ClientLevel#playLocalSound(BlockPos, ...): forwards to the Level overload.
• Entity#playSound(...): forwards with null player; server plays to everyone at the entity's position; client does nothing. For non-player entity sounds.
• Player#playSound(...): server plays to everyone except this player; client delegates to LocalPlayer.
• LocalPlayer#playSound(...): client-only; plays the sound. Together with Player, handles user + everyone-else playback.