>>343186183
positional audio is omnipresent, in the sense that someone on your left will always be heard as coming from your left, rather than your right, or in mono, or something.
but audio dropoff is a world setting, and that determines how far and how clearly other players' voices will carry. if it's off, then everyone in the world will sound as clear as if they were all talking into your ear. and if it's really extreme, your bubble for being able to hear anything at all will be like 5 feet in each direction.