Surround, in a stereo game

Most shooters play in 7.1 surround, and Audio Radar's Surround Vision Technology™ lights the bar each sound came from. CS2 only plays stereo, so until now your bars could only show left or right. Full surround changes that: now you see what's behind you too.

Three ways to see CS2

Full surround Beta

Any server, Valve matchmaking and Premier included

Gunshots and footsteps on the bar they came from, behind you included. Everything else stays dark.

Left and right

Any server

A clean left or right, plus your magazine, health and the bomb timer on the top bars, and flashes, fire, round wins and deaths.

Audio Radar server

Our community server, or any server running the Audio Radar plugin

Every footstep, shot, grenade, reload and the bomb, from exactly where it is, each in its own color.

You pick Full surround or Left and right on your Gaming card. It only changes how CS2 lights. Every other game stays the way you set it.

Full surround: hear CS2 the way a full hearing player does

Full surround picks out each gunshot and footstep and lights the bar it came from, all the way around you.

LEFT AND RIGHTSHOT FROM BEHIND LEFT

FULL SURROUNDSAME SHOT

What you'll see

• Gunshots flash blue on the bar they came from. In our testing they land on the right bar, or the one next to it, about 9 times out of 10.
• Footsteps glow white. They're harder to pick out under gunfire, so they show less often than shots, and best in the quieter moments of a round.
• Everything else stays dark, so direction is all you see. No wash of ambience, no echo filling the bars.

Make it yours. Change either color or switch one off, and set Sensitivity to Low, Medium or High. High catches about twice as many shots as Low with nearly the same accuracy, and a few flashes will be echoes or your own movement.

Left and right: your HUD on the bars

Rather play with a plain left and right? This mode gives you a clean left and right and turns the top row of bars into a heads-up display.

• Clear left or right. Only the side a sound is on lights up, instead of both sides glowing at once.
• Hide your own steps and shots. Your own footsteps and shots stay dark. The catch: an enemy exactly in front of you or behind you stays dark too. A step to either side still shows.
• Punch. Turn it up in Advanced Options and every shot is its own flash with dark in between, so a spray reads as rounds instead of one solid bar.

Match effects

LEFT AND RIGHTYOUR HUD

1234

1. 1
   Magazine top left
   Drains as you shoot.
2. 2
   Bomb timer top center
   Counts down once the bomb is planted.
3. 3
   Health top right
   Shrinks as you lose health.
4. 4
   Action on your right right side bar
   A shot or a step on that side.

Each effect has its own switch and a Preview button, so you can see it on your bars before you play. On a six-bar setup there's no top-center bar, so the bomb timer pulses every bar instead.

MAGAZINETOP LEFT

HEALTHTOP RIGHT

BOMBTOP CENTER

The Audio Radar server: every sound, in its own color

Want the whole picture? Come play on our server! On a server running the Audio Radar plugin, every sound shows up exactly where it is, each kind in its own color.

• Footsteps
• Gunfire
• Grenades
• Bomb
• Reloads
• Jumps and landings

• Change any color, or turn one off.
• Turn, and the lights turn with you. A sound stays pinned to where it is in the map.
• Tune it with Range, Distance contrast and Glow time.
• Add your HUD. With your card on Left and right, your magazine, health and the bomb timer show up on the top bars too.

AUDIO RADAR SERVEREVERY SOUND, ITS OWN COLOR

It's open to every Audio Radar player in the beta. Bots fill the empty slots, so you can jump in any time, and other Audio Radar players can join you. Your bars pair with you by themselves, no code needed.

THE APPCOUNTER-STRIKE 2 SCREEN

Running your own server, or playing on a friend's? The setup guide on the Counter-Strike 2 screen walks you through both.

Set it up

1. Add the plugin.

   +→Counter-Strike 2→Add to sidebar

   Click + in the left sidebar. Counter-Strike 2 is marked Beta.

2. Connect to CS2. On the Counter-Strike 2 screen, choose Valve servers and press Set up CS2. It adds one small file to CS2's folder. Restart CS2 if it's open.

   STEP 2READY

   

3. Pick your card. In Gaming, choose the built-in Counter-Strike 2 card. It's set to Full surround. To use your own card instead, open it, go to Advanced Options, and set Counter-Strike 2 to Left and right or Full surround.

   ADVANCED OPTIONSFULL SURROUND

   

   ADVANCED OPTIONSLEFT AND RIGHT

   

4. Set CS2's audio (below) and play! Once you're in a match, the Counter-Strike 2 screen shows your health and magazine live, so you know it's connected.

CS2 audio settings that read best on the bars

Music and voice make sound the bars would light for, so turning them down keeps the lights about the match.

Is it safe for my account?

Yes. Nothing here touches the game you play. Your CS2 stays exactly as Valve ships it.

• Full surround and Left and right read the sound coming out of your PC, the same sound your headphones get.
• Match effects use Valve's own Game State Integration. Set up CS2 adds one config file to CS2's folder, which is how that feature is switched on.
• The Audio Radar plugin runs on the server, not in your game.
• No injection, no memory reading, no mods to your copy of CS2.