Proximity Core

DISCLAIMER: LIMITED SUPPORT FOR GAMES WITH ANTI-CHEAT

This app primarily interacts with games by reading game memory. Although this app does not modify games, memory reading itself can be flagged by anti-cheat and trigger warnings or bans. Some games have alternative bridges that don't read memory, but these are much more limited and less reliable. If anti-cheat-protected games are your main reason for using Proximity Core, this app is likely not for you.

Proximity Core adds spatial audio and visual overlay to your games, including proximity voice chat, positional music/ambience, and in-game waypoints.

Steam Audio's head-related transfer function (HRTF) makes voices and sounds feel like they are coming from positions within the game.

No mods required. No game files modified. No game restarts.

Proximity Core runs as a separate application alongside your game. Lightweight, sandboxed bridges read player and world data without changing game files or game logic.

Audio is rendered locally. Each player hears the scene from their own position and orientation in the game.

Automatic Game Sessions. In supported multiplayer games, Proximity Core can find other players in the same Game Session without exchanging codes or setting up a server.

Custom Sessions. If automatic discovery is not available, create a private Custom Session and invite friends with a session code. The group stays connected even if the game session changes.

Voice and position data are sent between players using Steam's networking system. Game Sessions always use Steam Datagram Relay, so other players never see your IP address. There are no ports to forward or dedicated servers to run.

Voices and sound sources have distance falloff, directional positioning, and vertical separation. Someone above you sounds different from someone standing beside you.

HRTF is enabled by default and works best with headphones. You can also use basic stereo panning or turn directionality off.

Scenes. Place sound sources and ambient zones in 3D space. Build music playlists that fade with distance, tie ambient loops to locations, or add positional cues around the world. Scenes can be saved, loaded, and shared.

Visual Overlay. Experimental visual tools can place waypoints and show players, sounds, and zones over your game. This makes it easier to check positions and understand how a scene is laid out.

Proximity Core connects to games through bridges. These are small Lua scripts that read player position, orientation, level, surroundings, and multiplayer session information.

Read-only by design. Although most bridges run in-memory, they cannot modify game logic or write to game files. Every bridge runs inside the same restricted sandbox.

Built in and community made. Built-in bridges are ready in the Items library. Community bridges can be downloaded from Steam Workshop. If your game is not supported, you can write a bridge with the Lua API and publish it for others.

Broad Unity and Unreal bridges also ship with Proximity Core. These are experimental and results vary by title. If a built-in bridge has trouble, the Items page can help you find a game-specific alternative in the Workshop.

A dedicated mod can offer deeper integration with a particular game, and sometimes it will be the better choice.

Proximity Core is meant for a different job.  It gives you one app that works across many games without installing something new into each one. Rather than potentially 15 minutes of troubleshooting or hours if in a group, Proximity Core's goal is to work in a couple of clicks without even needing to restart your game. You do not need to run a voice server or open ports for proximity chat. The same app also handles music, ambience, audio cues, waypoints, and reusable scenes.

If a dedicated mod fits your game better, use it. Proximity Core is for games that do not have the spatial features you want, one click setups, and/or for players who want one consistent tool across several games.

Most bridges read information directly from game memory. This is read-only and does not change the game, but anti-cheat software may still flag the system tools involved.

Only use bridges marked as safe in Proximity Core with games that use anti-cheat. Proximity Core will normally warn you if it detects anti-cheat while a bridge that is not marked as safe is in use, but detection can fail. Do not rely on the warning.

Safe bridges have less access to the game, so support may be limited, unreliable, or unavailable. Computer vision support is currently in development, but it will not provide full native compatibility.

If anti-cheat-protected games are your main reason for buying Proximity Core, this app probably is not for you.

Proximity Core is in Early Access. The core spatial audio, voice, scene, and bridge systems are working, but game compatibility and authoring tools will continue to improve.

Support grows through built-in engine-level bridges and game-specific items published to the Steam Workshop.

A free demo will be available to test your own games before buying. Note: this is limited to builtin bridges as the Steam Workshop is tied to the full version of the app.

Early Access is for people who want to experiment with spatial audio and help shape the project. If you need a finished product with broad, stable compatibility, wait for the full release.