You’re probably familiar with this if you play Fortnite or other Battle Royale titles on a regular basis: You’re sneaking through a house and suddenly you hear the sound of a chest hiding somewhere in the house. Or you’re wandering through open terrain and suddenly notice a gunshot in the distance, enemies approaching, or even vehicles speeding by on some nearby road.

Only where exactly they are: You don’t always find out directly by just listening.

In fact, there is a setting in Fortnite that can help you a lot. The “sound visualization” was introduced years ago, but if you haven’t taken a closer look at the game’s settings, you might not have noticed it yet.

We’ll show you how to activate it and what it can do for you.

How to use the audio visualization in Fortnite

Here you can find the setting:

Just go to the general settings menu of Fortnite and there to the “Sound” tab. Scroll down a bit to the “Sound” section until you find the “Visualize sound effects” item. Simply flip the switch there – and there you have it.

This is how it looks in the menu:

Here’s what to watch out for:

If you use the audio visualization, you will lose quite a bit of the surround sound in Fortnite. You can still hear everything, but you will notice a difference, especially if you use a headset. If this bothers you a lot, the visualization might not be for you.

What does the setting do?

If you have enabled the function, various sound sources in the match will be displayed in a small circle around your character.

Example: If you are in a house and there is a chest nearby, you will see a small chest icon in the corresponding direction. This way you will quickly find out where the chest is hiding. The closer you get to the chest, the clearer the icon becomes.

Here are a few examples of how this can look:

Which audio sources are displayed?

There are numerous different icons and representations for different sounds. Among others you can see:

• Enemies running around nearby
• Swimming opponents
• Flying opponents
• Players healing
• Approaching cars or boats
• Icons for different animals, like frogs or wolves
• Loot-Llamas
• Chests
• Coolers
• Shots near
• An operation of the restart bus
• Players using Spider-Man web shooter
• And more – there are representations for all kinds of sounds

What is the advantage?

Of course, you can also just get an impression of the environment with the normal sound. But the audio visualization doesn’t just give you the hint, that something is nearby, but also a good indication of it, where it is located.

It also depicts some things faster than one would grasp by just hearing them. The restart bus in particular, while a team is trying to activate it, is represented over very long distances. The wildly flying Spider-Man swingers are also much easier to follow with visualization than with just listening.

Last but not least, it also gives you a quick, easy overview of things that aren’t easily noticed. For example, if the “player is healing nearby” icon is displayed, you can use that to launch a quick raid or take cover if you see someone flying in.

Maybe use the setting sometime to give yourself a little advantage. Currently, it can be worth it: There is currently a strong XP event in Fortnite that allows you to quickly level up your Battle Pass.