Valorant Visual Audio

A real-time external sound visualizer for Valorant — because the game has no visual audio indicator.

Streams game audio from your Windows gaming laptop to a secondary device over WiFi, runs FFT analysis to isolate footstep frequencies, and displays a live directional radar showing where sounds are coming from.

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What It Does

Gaming Laptop (Windows)          Secondary Laptop (Mac)
────────────────────────         ──────────────────────
Valorant plays audio      WiFi   Receives audio stream
       |                 ──────►        |
WASAPI captures it                 FFT analysis
       |                         splits into bands
Streams over UDP                       |
                                  Radar display
                                 shows direction
                                  of footsteps

• Red pulses — Footsteps (60-220Hz, tuned to Valorant's exact footstep harmonics)
• Yellow pulses — Gunshots / abilities (1500Hz+)
• Blue pulses — Mid frequency sounds
• Pulse size — louder = bigger = closer
• Pulse position — left/right direction via stereo channel analysis
• Front/back — inferred from HRTF frequency shaping (requires HRTF ON in Valorant)

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Requirements

Gaming Laptop (Windows)

• Python 3.x
• pip install sounddevice numpy
• Stereo Mix enabled in Windows Recording devices

Secondary Laptop (Mac or any OS)

• Python 3.x
• pip3 install numpy pygame scipy

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Setup

1. Enable Stereo Mix on Windows

Right click speaker icon -> Sounds -> Recording tab
Right click empty area -> Show Disabled Devices
Right click Stereo Mix -> Enable -> Set as Default Device

2. Valorant Audio Settings

Settings -> Audio -> HRTF -> ON
Windows -> Spatial Sound -> OFF

Turning off Spatial Sound is important — it prevents double processing of the HRTF signal which would corrupt direction detection.

3. Find Your Secondary Laptop IP

On Mac:

ipconfig getifaddr en0

On Windows:

ipconfig

Look for IPv4 Address under the WiFi adapter.

4. Set the IP in the sender script

Open sender_windows.py and update:

MAC_IP = "your.secondary.laptop.ip"

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Running

Step 1 — Start receiver on secondary laptop first

python3 receiver_mac.py

Radar window opens and waits for the audio stream.

Step 2 — Start sender on gaming laptop

python sender_windows.py

Expected output:

Streaming via: Stereo Mix
Radar should show pulses on Mac now!

Step 3 — Launch Valorant and play

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Frequency Finder (Calibration Tool)

Use this to verify footstep frequencies for your specific setup:

python3 freq_finder.py

Walk around in Valorant and watch which frequencies appear in the terminal. Then update FOOTSTEP_LOW and FOOTSTEP_HIGH in receiver_mac.py accordingly.

Measured Valorant footstep profile:

Base frequency:  86.1Hz
Harmonics:       129.2Hz, 172.3Hz, 215.3Hz
Detection range: 60-220Hz
Energy range:    0.001-0.014

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How Direction Detection Works

Left / Right — accurate

Measured from stereo channel energy difference.
Left channel louder  -> enemy on left
Right channel louder -> enemy on right

Front / Back — estimated

HRTF encodes direction via subtle frequency shaping.
Front sounds boost 4-8kHz slightly.
Back sounds cut 8-16kHz.
Requires Valorant HRTF ON to function.

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Why Not an Overlay

Vanguard (Valorant's anti-cheat) flags transparent windows drawn over the game. This project runs entirely on a separate physical device — Vanguard cannot detect it at all. It is the audio equivalent of putting a microphone next to your speaker and does not touch the game process in any way.

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Tuning

In receiver_mac.py:

FOOTSTEP_LOW         = 60     # Hz lower bound
FOOTSTEP_HIGH        = 220    # Hz upper bound
FOOTSTEP_ENERGY_MIN  = 0.001  # sensitivity — lower = more sensitive
FOOTSTEP_ENERGY_MAX  = 0.014  # upper limit before classified as gunshot bleed

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Files

File	Device	Purpose
sender_windows.py	Gaming laptop (Windows)	Captures WASAPI audio, streams over UDP
receiver_mac.py	Secondary laptop	Receives stream, runs FFT, shows radar
freq_finder.py	Secondary laptop	Calibration tool — prints dominant frequencies live

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Roadmap

• Phase 2 — AI model trained on Valorant footstep recordings for better front/back accuracy
• Wired headphone support via Y-splitter + USB audio adapter
• Configurable UI (radar size, colors, sensitivity sliders)

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Disclaimer

This tool only reads audio that is already playing on your system. It does not interact with the Valorant game process, read game memory, or inject code of any kind. It is fully external and does not violate Valorant's Terms of Service.