Sounds missing when jumping to min/max for 'Number of...' controls

[Nancy-Salpepi]

Test device
MacBook Air M1 chip

Operating System
14.5

Browser
Safari 17.5

Problem description
For phetsims/qa#1105, On screens 1-3 sounds are missing when jumping to min/max values for the Number of Cups/People. On the Balance Point screen, jumping to max initiates the kicking animation so I hear that sound, but I don't hear anything when jumping to the min (0 balls).
I do hear sounds when jumping to min/max for the water level, choc bars, apples.

Linking to the general issue: phetsims/sun#886

Steps to reproduce

1. On screen 1-3 tab to the Number of ... control
2. Press home/end keys to jump to min/max

[marlitas]

@jessegreenberg is handling this in phetsims/sun#886. Once that is complete we can assess what it is sounding like in the sim.

[marlitas]

This has now been addressed by work done in phetsims/sun#886. Back over to @Nancy-Salpepi (or since Nancy is on vacation, @KatieWoe ) to check it's working as expected on main. Feel free to close if it's sounding good!

[KatieWoe]

Mostly fixed on main. When using home/end on the predict mean pencil, the first time does not produce a sound, but subsequent uses does.

[marlitas]

Hmmm that is interesting. Investigating.

[marlitas]

@jbphet is going to go ahed and tackle this.

[jbphet]

I've added initialization of the MeanPredictionChangeSoundGenerator that will allow it to produce sound on the first movement of the predict mean pencil, which fixes the problem described in one of the comments above. I think that's it for this one, right @marlitas?

[marlitas]

I believe so. I'm going to mark this as ready for review so it can be confirmed in the upcoming RC. Thanks @jbphet!

[Nancy-Salpepi]

There is still something funky going on with the pencil in rc.1
The first time I move the pencil to the min or max position the sound is much lower than in subsequent jumps to the min/max. Also, if I pause for a few seconds while the pencil still has focus and then jump to a min/max, the sound is faint for that jump as well.

[marlitas]

I'm noticing the lower pencil sound only on the Level Out screen. It does not seem to be a lower level in the Distribute screen.

[marlitas]

Actually, I need to wait a while before moving the pencil on the Distribute Screen to hear the lower volume, but it is there.

[marlitas]

I don't feel confident making changes here without @jbphet. I've thrown around some ideas, but I think they are ultimately all just work arounds, that @jbphet will probably have a better solution for. Since I'm already needing to hold this RC to get his review on a couple of issues I don't feel waiting to resolve this issue is causing any further delay.

[jbphet]

Good catch in your comment above @Nancy-Salpepi. The code wasn't doing a great job of handling big, sudden, keyboard-induced changes to the mean prediction value. The biggest problem was that it was using the time difference between the previous update and the current one to calculate the rate change for the mean prediction value. If there was a sudden change after several seconds of inactivity, the time difference was relatively big, and thus the rate change was small, which led to a low value for the volume of the sound. To address this, I've added code that limits the max time difference value used in the rate-change calculation.

@marlitas and I discussed this and reviewed the code over Zoom, so I'm going to mark it as ready to cherry pick. We should have this verified on the next RC.

[Nancy-Salpepi]

All min/max jumps sound good in rc.2
Closing.