It’s such an obvious yet long lasting bug I wonder if there’s a workaround? What I mean is, an NPC can be standing RIGHT NEXT to you, but if your character isn’t facing them, you can’t even hear what they’re saying. I get that a reasonable amount of directional sound can enhance immersion, but when directional sound is obviously not working right, it does the opposite?
If it can’t be made to work right, can it be turned off?
Sure. But that’s not WoW’s job. It’s a system setting.
https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-spatial-sound-in-windows-11.5837/
Spatial sound is off. Do you have anything that’s actually helpful?
And yet here we are.
Do you have the speakers arranged in Windows to match IRL? If, for instance, you accidentally choose a 5.1 speaker setup in Windows but you only have left and right channels, you can have sounds mixed into non-existent channels.
There is an option in the sound preferences in the game client itself called Distance Filtering. Uncheck this and the game will no longer attempt to simulate lower volumes based on distance (which it can get wrong at times).
The only other option you could realistically use as a troubleshooting step is inside Windows’ mixer, where you set your speakers and can test them to make sure they’re providing equal volume (it’s the test tones).
The first option is likely your culprit though.
Thank you for your suggestion. I checked my speakers and they are correctly configured. I use a 2.1 desktop speaker system
Tiapriestess, Blizzard won’t let me reply to your post. I previously turned distance filtering off hoping that that would fix the problem.
Does your sound driver have sound Equalization. Mine is in the app that came with the motherboard. It makes all sounds the same volume level
There is a more dramatic spatialization function that is enabled by default and hidden in plain sight…and it is prone to causing errors like the OP describes (and sometimes far, far worse)…and in multiple games, not just wow.
Note: the name of the setting below is…misleading!!!
Audio Enhancements → “Device Default Effects”
(this is located just above the “spatialization” settings, go figure).
“Device Default Effects” is NOT a “device” default…it is a cleverly named Windows 11 default that enables a new Windows 11 Audio feature. If you look just below the setting, and just above the spatialization settings, you can see what the feature is really called…usually something like:
“Home Theatre … [something something]”
Thank you for your response. I don’t seen to have that setting. Also, the problem predates Win 11, I had the same problem with Windows 10. But thank you for trying to help!
Meowdy folks!
I have also been struggling with this since Shadowlands. Today I was really bummed out because I was dealing with it for the Lorewalker Cho stuff.
Here is what worked for me.
Windows 11
System > Sound > Choose the sound device you use for WoW > under Advanced Settings select “Windows Sonic for Headphones”.
Now you will be able to toggle distance filtering in WoW.
I really hope this helps someone and you can bask in the glory that is Lorewalker Cho.
Good news! The most recent patch actually fixed this problem! It’s been an issue for years and they finally fixed it!
I turn it off. Noticeable with Lorewalker Cho right now.