NotSoLoud

NotSoLoud

NotSoLoud is a quality-of-life mod for Valheim that ensures sound effects respect your in-game Sound Effects volume settings — vanilla or modded.

It finds audio sources (from vanilla Valheim and third-party mods) that aren't wired into Valheim's native Sfx mixer, and fixes them: routing them in, swapping in the real vanilla clip when a mod reuses a vanilla sound's name, capping genuinely new custom sounds under a configurable ceiling, and continuously reapplying your Sound Effects slider to anything that still isn't obeying it. No more sudden, ear-shattering sound effects playing back at a fixed volume that ignores your settings.

Features

• Universal Audio Routing: Finds any ZSFX/AudioSource missing an assigned outputAudioMixerGroup and routes it into the primary Sfx mixer group, so it follows your Sound Effects slider like vanilla content does.
• Vanilla Clip Substitution: A lot of mods reuse one of Valheim's own sound effects by name (e.g. a custom weapon using sfx_arrow_hit) rather than building something new. When that happens, NotSoLoud swaps in the real vanilla clip and volume/pitch profile instead of the mod's own (often louder, uncalibrated) copy — so it plays the literal same audio Valheim itself uses.
• Fallback Volume Ceiling: Genuinely new custom sounds with nothing vanilla to compare against are capped under a configurable maximum volume instead of playing back at whatever the mod originally set.
• Continuous Slider Enforcement: On top of the one-time fixes above, NotSoLoud keeps reapplying the game's own Sound Effects slider every frame to any sound that's still unrouted — a safety net for sounds that get their volume rewritten after they start playing.
• Mod Compatibility: Fixes unrouted or mismatched audio from custom creature, item, and asset mods, with zero impact on vanilla sound effects — vanilla content is never touched.

Installation

Automatic (Recommended)

• Install via your preferred mod manager (such as Gale Mod Manager or Vortex).
• Launch the game through the manager.

Manual

• Ensure BepInEx Pack for Valheim is installed.
• Extract the downloaded NotSoLoud.dll file.
• Place NotSoLoud.dll into your Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/ folder.

Configuration

The mod generates a configuration file at BepInEx/config/Raelaziel.NotSoLoud.cfg upon first run.

General

• Enabled (Default: On): Toggles the mod's audio fixes on (1) or off (0). Lets you disable it entirely without removing the DLL.
• MaxCustomVolume (Default: 0.4, range 0–1): Fallback volume ceiling applied to a modded sound effect that doesn't match any known vanilla sound. Has no effect on sounds that do match a vanilla clip — those use the real vanilla volume instead.

Debugging

• VerboseAudioLog (Default: Off): Logs every known vanilla sound effect as it's discovered, and every substitution/clamp/slider-correction the mod actually performs. Off by default since it can be spammy — meant for troubleshooting.

Compatibility

• Valheim Version: Compatible with current Valheim builds.
• Modded Audio: Works alongside custom audio mods, asset packs, and creature mods.
• Multiplayer: Client-side only. Does not need to be installed on dedicated servers.