When "Guide" means "Sound Equalization": The unfair advantage in Spirit's gameplay.
Hi everyone, and hopefully someone from the BHVR team.
I’ve been playing DBD since 2018, and like most of the community, I’ve accepted that this game has its quirks. But lately, a certain trend regarding Spirit has gone from "clever settings tweak" to completely breaking the core counterplay of the character.
I’ve recently looked through some high-profile Spirit guides (like the one by streamer Remy, for example), and it’s honestly discouraging. A guide for a killer whose entire power relies on auditory tracking shouldn't start and end with a tutorial on how to set up third-party sound software, compressors, and equalizers to artificially boost survivor footsteps while completely muffling the chase music. She consistently found survivors that were standing still and uninjured.
When people use software to bypass the in-game audio balance, it’s no longer about game sense or mechanical skill. It turns Spirit into a killer with zero counterplay, where survivors are tracked with 100% accuracy regardless of Iron Will, line of sight, or mindgames.
I want to ask both the community and the Devs:
Why is this still considered acceptable? Are there any plans to implement audio clamping or structural changes to the chase music so that external equalizers can't just isolate and boost survivor grunts and footsteps so easily?
Streamer Remy openly talks about Equalizer changer to the audio that somehow is allowed to change different things like chase music being quieter. Im sending her ,,Guide'' which should honestly start and stop only on the sound chaning options, there is no guide when you break core mechanics of the game to get an advantage in such a cheap way.
Why are you allowing it BHVR?
Comments
-
I main Spirit and tbh using equalizer to change certain frequencies is a torture for me due how distorted the audio sounds. Since I stopped using it my tracking got significantly better and I don't have headaches anymore, buuuuut I also could notice a lot of audio bugs this game has, like SO MANY AUDIO BUGS that playing this killer sometimes is pure hell. So I kinda understand why some people use it.
In my opinion the true issue is the lack of acessibility, like no sound indicator on the screen, no changes to Cherry Blossom, the phase sound effect distance being confusing sometimes and like I said, the audio bugs. I wouldn't even mind if Spirit blinks a few times while phasing or survivors being able to see Spirit footsteps with a little delay like Chucky for potential mindgame.
I hardly believe they are going to do something with equalizers and I hardly believe they are ever fixing this game audio too. I think it's funny banning people for using Dolby Atmos for example and good Spirits don't really need eq because they will hear your breathing and footsteps with or without equalizers (at least I can hear breathing really well without eqs).
Post edited by theMasafe on3 -
There isn't anything BHVR could do about it or even a way they could detect it happening.
The game generates audio but its up to your operating system to route that audio to your desired output. Once the audio is passed out of the game BHVR has no control over it. Even if there was a way to say "go only to the output device with absolutely no changes" that output "device" could be a virtual audio cable that just routes it to the desired piece of software. You could even go as far as sending to an audio setup external to your PC that handles the equalization and other changes before it reaches your headset.
Its the same with ReShade, if BHVR banned its use but someone still really wanted the effect they could make adjustments to their monitor settings or just send the video output through an external system before it gets sent to the monitor and there wouldn't be any possibility of detection. I personally do use ReShade but almost solely because I find a few maps incredibly dark even with gamma maxed.
3 -
Honestly, I think you should ask why there isn't any sound QoL update for Spirit players.
Currently to track survivors, you need to turn up the volume, which makes the blasting chase music, screams, and explosive notification ABSOLUTELY NIGHTMARE.
That's why I stopped being a Spirit main few months ago, because I really don't want to go deaf because of a video game.
0 -
Because if it was easy(er) to use her power then she would have no downsides.
She is already one of if not the most luck-based killers to play against.2 -
Yeah I feel like if this is going to be the norm we need to bring in the dust clouds from footsteps, maybe even for both sides. Just for the sake of quality of life.
2 -
Anything to avoid acknowledging that maybe she's just not meant to track as accurately using audio only as players would like. Not being able to see survivors (thus making them less easy to precisely track) is supposed to be a downside to her power - not something that's just ignorable by jacking your audio up or pumping it through some post processing. Just because you can hack your way around something doesn't mean the game is meant to be played that way.
All that being said, it's not like they could do anything about equalizer settings or other audio post processing since there's no way to even detect it. Once the game spits out the audio anything can be done to it before it gets to speakers or a headset.
5 -
Audio from the game is already mixed prior to reaching your os. While you can "filter", or "suppress" certain frequencies you are doing so to the entire mix. If chase music is in the same frequency band as the foot audio, there's nothing you can do to remove it.
To the non-security minded. Never open a random zip file.
1 -
I had to quit Spirit after hundreds of hours maining her because I am half deaf (totally in one ear) and I always had a hard time tracking with audio, and making the phasing sound directional pretty much killed my ability to make prediction hits, which was pretty much what I was relying on.
I'll still play match with her here and there, but I am essentially playing with both hands tied, or one hand tied if I am using the cherry blossom.
I could probably mitigate this by doing a custom audio setup and cranking the volume, but it's just not worth the effort, and I am a big proponent of playing the game in its default state.
As for the OP, it sucks, but what can BHVR do? As has been pointed out, they have no way to police this at all.0 -
spirit didnt use to be so bad when she used the default chase music. hers is just way too loud and it doesn't get talked enough how big of a nerf getting music was.
2
