Saying it's impossible for the client to know about this is implying the client doesn't have any knowledge of its environment at all, which is clearly incorrect. The world is rendered clientside, thus the client knows about the blocks. Block breaking is ghosted clientside, and is effected by tools and block materials, so clients know about materials and their inventory. As such a client is obviously aware of everything they need to to manage their own sounds - not necessarily the sounds of other players, but that's not such a big issue.
Even 150ms of latency between my movement and my footsteps is jarring. I'd rather have sound off than put up with it. When you get into the kind of latency I have to remote servers - 500ms or more to US and EU servers - there is actually no instinctual association between my actions and the sounds they make, which isn't just annoying, it's quite disorienting.
Realistically, clients should manage all sounds based on actions as they happen on that client's screen (actions instigated by the same events occurring serverside, of course). Sound is a layer of information perceived by the player, and when that doesn't match up with the visual information they're presented with it only results in a poor experience overall.
Saying it's impossible for the client to know about this is implying the client doesn't have any knowledge of its environment at all, which is clearly incorrect. The world is rendered clientside, thus the client knows about the blocks. Block breaking is ghosted clientside, and is effected by tools and block materials, so clients know about materials and their inventory. As such a client is obviously aware of everything they need to to manage their own sounds - not necessarily the sounds of other players, but that's not such a big issue.
Even 150ms of latency between my movement and my footsteps is jarring. I'd rather have sound off than put up with it. When you get into the kind of latency I have to remote servers - 500ms or more to US and EU servers - there is actually no instinctual association between my actions and the sounds they make, which isn't just annoying, it's quite disorienting.
Realistically, clients should manage all sounds based on actions as they happen on that client's screen (actions instigated by the same events occurring serverside, of course). Sound is a layer of information perceived by the player, and when that doesn't match up with the visual information they're presented with it only results in a poor experience overall.