As mentioned here in my other thread that I cannot make a new reply to due to the forum restrictions so I’m opening a new thread for this.
- No footstep sounds from behind. “Behind” seem to be defined by the game as any time the enemy character is at 180 degrees or bigger angle to your character’s facing.
- Spatial location for all audio is ambiguous at best for enemies on different elevations from you. Particularly bad for people higher than you.
To clarify: I have used the same laptop computer with the same 2.1 audio speakers setup and drivers since beginning of Overwatch. It has an OEM Sound Blaster Cinema 2 sound enhancement software that’s specifically manufacture tweaked for my hardware. I have not changed any audio hardware or software and the only major change is to update from Win 7 to Win 10. Nor have I gone out of my way to change my in-game audio settings. I did not have these issues back in original Ow.
These two are still ongoing issues that have continuously plagued me in game since Overwatch 2, from at least a year or more ago, only occasionally alleviated after a bug report, but then returns quickly after other game updates. Recently on a friend’s suggestions I changed my in-game audio mix setting from “Television” to “Studio Reference” because he seems to think it would work better, and it made no difference for these issues, so I changed it back. It is currently on “Television”, the same as it was for the longest time, including when I made the previous thread. I noticed recently the no footsteps behind issue was worse than ever, occurring on multiple occasions on multiple maps with different heroes.
Here is an example from today:
Replay
Time: 3:07
McCree ults with “It’s Higggghhhh Noon”. The voice distinctly comes from my right, so I move to hide behind statue. He apparently rolled from the right to walk behind me, unfortunately remaining in my blindspot beyond FoV the entire time. No footsteps or any other sound whatsoever until he fires, which then shows him standing behind my left, close enough to spit on. I had no idea he had moved to a completely different location that close, due to there being no sound, at all.
In the same match, again, this McCree flanks behind and above onto the marqee highground. Again, NO SOUND. In fact, he made no sound whatsoever the ENTIRE time he was up there, from 4:56ish onwards. No sound that I could hear in the replay even after switching over to multiple different teammate viewpoints while they walked underneath him in the replay (replaying the same sequence sometimes plays footsteps when he’s directly above my head and briefly in front). In the actual match, I only knew he was there after I half turned with my front facing his direction (but not on the same elevation), and saw the shots trajectory lines. Even then the sound didn’t fully come on until he rolled down from up top.
While we’re at it, the Line of Sight for the D.Va bomb at 4:31 was also ridiculous. In the actual match, I could not even see the flash from the bomb going off at all from my perspective, and I was looking right at it. I died while the Freja who was closer to the bomb than me and blocking in front of me was completely fine??
Why do I get the feeling quite a few of these issues are caused by the new map changes? 
In case you guys need MORE examples, I will try to edit and update this post with new replay codes if I run into more instances that I care to remember after the match.
Update:
Replay: ZDRFCA
Time: 5:27
Enemy Sojourn ults behind us. No sound from her whatsoever prior to the ultimate voiceline, which was a lot quieter in the actual match than in the replay, making it hard to discern her actual location and distance. I was wondering if she was still on the other side of the building until I saw the shots. No footsteps, no ability sounds except Ult voice, no shots sounds. Only reason I knew she was behind was because I got shot at while standing at the very back, and saw the shot visual trajectories. My teammates were also unaware of her actual location until I called it out in group voice.