Both of you should know that there are multiple applications that already solve this problem in VR! Most of the "social" chat applications and most of the "professional" chat applications have proximity-based chat volume. Even most games have it. It's a super handy feature and a natural one for VR.
Do they? I think what folks are talking about here is having someone sound louder to someone who is closer to them in a 3d environment vs softer to someone farther away. This doesn't seem possible in, say, Zoom.
Yes, I'm aware of what they're saying. It is indeed the default for most VR applications. I can't think of a VR application that uses a global volume for voices; it's all local and diminishes based on distance from source. A universal volume for anyone on a map is weird and awkward, and most game engines have sound differ in volume based on distance and location by default. Most VR applications, even the "professional" ones, are built on top of game engines, because it's a lot easier than writing everything from scratch.
