In the latest Ask Valorant, Riot tackles questions on abilities, HRTF audio, and more. What even is HRTF, you ask? Well, that’s a good question.
HRTF stands for Head Related Transfer Function. It’s a really fancy way of saying, “really good audio.” Basically, HRFT provides accurate directional audio based on measurements of head size, ear shape, and more. This feature was introduced in the latest patch.
Since the model used is more general “one size fits all,” it may not be the best solution for every single player. This is why some people think it reduces overall game volume in Valorant. Riot addressed this head-on,
“HRTF does not affect attenuations (volume change over distance) or occlusion (filtering change based on objects between the emitter and the listener). Adjusting to HRTF does take time and practice.”
Another question raised was the ability to change settings during Agent selection. The team agrees that this should be possible, and will add it to their development backlog. However, they note there are more urgent priorities which will be addressed first.
The big question was around abilities simply not being used as intended. Riot noted that they have seen this happen with good and bad outcomes. Some bad results naturally require addressing. However, they note that they always want to walk the line of allowing the sandbox nature of these abilities to be the main star.
Other recent patches for Valorant has seen changes meant to tackle AFK behavior (*ahem*), in addition to patches to address rank rating penalties for those queue dodgers.
