Audio Spatializers

Audio spatializers use “physical” characteristics of a scene, such as the distance and angle between an AudioListener and an AudioSource, to modify the properties of sound transmitted to the user. Spatialization can improve the perception that a sound originates from a specific location in a scene.

The Unity audio engine supports spatialization through plug-ins built with the Unity Audio Spatializer SDK. Unity does not provide any built-in spatializer plug-ins itself, but several plug-in implementations are available in third-party 3D audio SDKs. These audio SDKs typically provide additional Unity components and tools for 3D audio.

The following is a non-comprehensive list of third-party audio SDKs that provide Unity audio spatialization plug-ins:

In some cases, spatializer plug-ins are included with the XR provider plug-in for an associated XR device. For example, the Oculus provider plug-in includes the OculusSpatializer plug-in and the Windows Mixed Reality feature group for OpenXR includes the MS HRTF Spatializer plug-in. Note that these provider plug-ins do not include any additional components that might be available in the full SDK packages from their maker.

Note: Although many spatializer plug-ins were developed for use with VR devices, their use is not limited to VR games or applications.

Enable an audio spatializer plug-in

After you have added the package containing an audio spatializer plug-in to your project, you can enable the plug-in in the project audio settings.

To enable a plug-in:

1. Open the Project Settings window (menu: Edit > Project Settings).
2. Select the Audio category.
3. Choose the plug-in from the Spatializer Plugin dropdown menu.