ProximityVoice

In-game proximity voice chat for Valheim. Talk to the players around you and hear them in 3D positional audio: the closer they are, the louder they sound. No external program is needed, because everything runs through Valheim's own networking.

What's new in 0.3

• Voice settings tab. Open Esc -> Settings -> Voice to set everything in one place: mic mode, talk key, mic level, noise gate (with a live meter) and incoming volume. The old F4/F6/F7 shortcuts are gone, and these settings now live only in this tab.
• Mic icon over the head. A speech icon floats over whoever is talking, so everyone nearby can see who has the mic.
• Dedicated server support. On a dedicated server the mod only relays voice to players in range.

Features

• Positional 3D voice that fades with distance (full volume up to 20 m, silent at 80 m, both configurable).
• Push-to-talk or toggle. The default key is U, mouse buttons work too, and you can change it in the Voice tab.
• Clear voice with the Opus codec, without Valheim's cave-like reverb.
• The server only sends your voice to players in range.

Requirements

• Every player needs the mod, and so does the dedicated server if you use one.
• BepInEx, which the mod manager installs automatically.
• Windows recommended.

Configuration

Settings are in BepInEx/config/Nubedeu.proximityvoice.cfg, and most of them can also be changed in the Voice tab. The host's HearingRange sets the maximum distance anyone can be heard.

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.

Changelog

0.3.6

• The F4 / F6 / F7 shortcuts are gone. Mic level, noise gate and the talk key are now set only in the Voice tab (Esc -> Settings -> Voice). The MicGainKey, CalibrateKey and RebindKey entries are removed from the config file automatically.

0.3.5

• Dedicated server support. On a headless server (no display / batch mode) the plugin now loads in relay-only mode: it registers the voice RPCs and forwards frames to players in range, and skips everything that needs a screen, a microphone or a local player (HUD, speech icons, mic capture, the settings-menu tab). Before, it tried to set all of that up on the server too.
• The server's own config file (Nubedeu.proximityvoice.cfg) is what sets HearingRange for distance culling; the client values only affect what you hear locally.

0.3.4

• Noise gate range widened to 0-40 (was 0-30). The extra room is at the permissive end: 0 now means -40 dB below maximum instead of -30, so very quiet mics have somewhere to go. Existing settings keep their number, which makes them about 10 dB more permissive than before — re-check the gate if background noise starts getting through.

0.3.3

• Default noise gate raised to 15 (was 10), a stricter starting point that keeps background noise out on a typical mic. Only affects fresh installs — an existing NoiseGate setting is left alone.

0.3.2

• The noise gate no longer uses negative numbers. It now reads 0 to 30, counting up from silence the same way the level bar does: 0 is the quietest the scale goes, 30 means you have to be at full volume. Higher = you must speak louder. Your current setting is converted automatically (-21 dBFS becomes 9).
• The over-sensitive end of the old range is gone. The old scale went down to -80, and anything below about -30 let background noise leak through constantly; 0 on the new scale is that -30 point, so the leaky region can no longer be selected by accident.
• The input-level bar now spans exactly the same range as the gate, so the red threshold marker lines up with what the bar shows.
• Remember that mic level is applied before the gate, so raising it also makes the gate open more easily.

0.3.1

• Mic gain now uses a plain scale: 1x is normal and the default, up to 3x, instead of the old raw 1-20 numbers. Your existing setting is converted automatically the first time you launch (the old MicGain = 8 becomes MicLevel = 0.8), so nothing gets louder or quieter on its own.

0.3.0

• Voice settings are now in the game's settings menu. Esc -> Settings has a new Voice tab with mic mode, talk key, mic gain, noise gate (with a live input meter), incoming volume and the speech-icon toggle. The F4/F6/F7 overlays still work as before for tweaking while you play.
• A speech icon now floats over the head of whoever is talking — you and everyone around them can see who has the mic, instead of only the speaker seeing an indicator. The icon pulses with the voice and fades out when they stop.
• The old mic indicator at the left screen edge is now off by default (set ScreenIndicator = true in the config to bring it back).
• New config options: HeadIcon, HeadIconHeight, HeadIconScale, ScreenIndicator.

0.2.2

• Updated for Valheim 1.0 (tested on 1.0.12, Unity 6). No gameplay or config changes — the mod keeps working on the new version.
• Fixed: push-to-talk and the F4/F6/F7 overlays could stop responding. Valheim 1.0 moved to Unity's new Input System, so key presses and mouse-wheel input are now read through the game's own ZInput instead of the legacy input API.
• Fixed: overlay text could be invisible. The game's UI moved to TextMeshPro, so the font the overlays used may no longer be loaded; the mod now falls back to an installed system font (and finally Unity's built-in one) instead of rendering nothing.

0.2.1

• Fixed: no voice after reconnecting. Voice RPCs are now re-registered every time you (re)connect to a world. Before, after disconnecting and rejoining, you would still hear your own SelfTest loopback but no one could hear anyone else, because the voice handlers were left bound to the old, dead connection.
• Fixed reported plugin version: the in-game/BepInEx version now correctly reads the package version (was stuck at 0.1.0).

0.2.0

• Native in-game UI: the mic-gain (F4), calibration (F6) and talk-key rebind (F7) overlays now use the game's own font and sign-panel card, centred on screen, instead of the old plain boxes.
• Clearer rebind prompt: the F7 overlay now spells out that you're choosing a new push-to-talk key.
• HUD config changed: the mic indicator is now positioned with MicIndicatorMarginX (distance from the left edge) and MicIndicatorOffsetY (vertical offset from centre); the old MicIndicatorX / MicIndicatorBottom keys are no longer used (tuned values reset to the new defaults).

0.1.0

• Fixed "cave" / distant-sounding voice: voice now bypasses Valheim's reverb zones and listener effects, so nearby players sound close and clear. Also disabled Doppler so voices don't pitch-shift as players move.
• Adjustable microphone gain: new in-game mic gain overlay (default F4) — open it and scroll (or Up/Down) to boost how loud your own mic is sent to others. Helps quiet microphones. Configurable MicGain and MicGainKey.
• Distance falloff reworked & configurable: full volume within FullVolumeRange (default 20 m), then a smooth linear fade to silence at HearingRange (default 80 m). Both are configurable.
• Capture gain is applied before the noise gate and meter, so boosting a quiet mic also makes the gate trigger reliably.

0.0.1

• Initial release.
• Proximity voice chat over Valheim's native routed RPC (host relays, server-side distance culling).
• Opus codec (Concentus) at ~24 kbps, mono 48 kHz.
• Windows mic capture via NAudio (WaveIn) with a Unity Microphone fallback.
• Two mic modes: push-to-talk (hold, default) or toggle, talk key default U (mouse buttons supported), with a release tail so sentence ends aren't clipped.
• In-game mic calibration overlay (default F6) showing live dB with an adjustable noise-gate threshold for sensitivity tuning.
• In-game talk-key rebind (default F7).
• On-screen speaker meter that reacts to captured audio level.
• 3D positional playback with distance attenuation (default 40 m range).
• Configurable hearing range, volume, mic device, noise gate, HUD position, and a SelfTest loopback for solo audio checks.