PUBG gets new sound changes in latest update

In the most recent PUBG update, a number of big sound changes were added to help players hear where shots and sounds made by other players were coming from. Here is a look at all of the changes and how they have impacted gameplay in a positive way.

New PUBG Sound Changes – Here Is How They Work

With the latest update, new functions have been implemented to what PUBG Corp. calls the HRTF, or Head Related Transfer Function. This plugin is used to help players understand where directional sounds are coming from. Previously, this plugin could only help with player footsteps, explosions, and weapon reloads. Perhaps the most important sound, other player’s gunshots, were not picked up by this plugin.

Without the gunshots working with the plugin, players could still tell the general area of gunshot sounds – you’d get a sense of whether they were coming from the left or the right, but never more than that.

With the new changes, enemy gunshots now go through the HTRF plugin, which means it will be far easier to tell where players are shooting from. With these changes, you can now tell if an enemy is above or below you, and you can also tell when a player is directly behind you or in front of you. Overall, sound from players’ gunshots can be pinpointed in all angles, whether it’s left, right, in front, behind, up, down, or anywhere in between.

This seems like a small update, but it’s actually massive. Visual cues in games have always been very important, but when they don’t work right it can give false information to the player. In a competitive setting, it is crucial that sound is as clear as possible – it cannot be misleading.

PUBG Sound Changes Still Need Work

Whilst these recent sound changes in PUBG are great to see, many players have mentioned that the overall sound quality of weapon firing has now been messed up. Players are reporting that sounds are playing out garbled or less defined than they did before previously. PUBG Corp. mentioned that they are aware of these problems and they will be working carefully to pinpoint the issue and find a fix for them.

Once again, it’s great to see progress towards better audio quality in PUBG – let’s just hope that they can iron out the current issues the sound profile has laid out. Many PUBG players are complaining that PUBG Corp. wasn’t transparent enough with the sound changes.

There was nothing in the update patch notes that made players aware of the sound changes and it wasn’t until the community started talking about it that PUBG Corp. wrote a post to explain the changes in detail. Generally speaking, PUBG Corp. has been very communicative with the PUBG community, so whilst small things like this may slip through the cracks, they’re always willing to share their plans and thoughts on the development progress of the game.

Hopefully, PUBG will continue to get more refined as time goes on. Optimizations for graphics, performance, networking, and sound are much needed.