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Soundproof Walls 2.0

Soundproof Walls 2.0 is a complete audio system overhaul for Barotrauma that enhances the impact, horror, and atmosphere of the original soundscape by adding realistic effects and unique sound-based mechanics, all with the ultimate goal of making sound more interesting and immersive.


• Dynamic Muffling
Sounds and voices are dynamically low-passed based on how many obstructions are in the way. On the far end of the sub, you might not even notice that something's wrong until the lights go out.

• Simulated Reverb
Sounds and voices echo realistically based on amplitude and room dimensions. Outside the submarine, loud sounds can be heard scattering for miles as the soundwaves bounce off the frozen walls of Europa.

• Powerful Distortion
Gun shots and explosions distort sharply in the air, and rumble deeply in the water.

• Sidechain Compression
Gun shots and explosions hit harder, drowning out quieter sounds for a wider dynamic range.

• Sound Occlusion
Sounds and voices are influenced by the shape of the environment, losing clarity without a direct path to the listener.

• Realistic Distance Falloff
Volume falloff is dependent on the path travelled to reach the player's ears, allowing sounds to get lost in the twists and turns of the sub.

• Immersive Proximity Chat
Voices carry further the louder you scream. The cries of drowning players are distorted in a sea of bubbles. And your broken radio makes frantic communication difficult to understand.

• New Mechanic: Eavesdropping
Press your head against a door and listen to the sounds within. Spy on your friends, identify potential threats, or check how flooded the room is.

• New Mechanic: Hydrophone Monitoring
Listen through the submarine's passive sonar microphones to manually inspect the surrounding ocean for danger without using active sonar. Learn how to identify different creatures and unlock a stealthy new playstyle.

• And much, much more!
See the Configuration Guide for a full breakdown of features and settings.


1. This mod requires client-side Lua For Barotrauma to be installed - this is different from just subscribing and enabling it. Follow the installation instructions on the workshop page.

2. With client-side Lua installed, open the LuaCs settings menu in the top left corner of the main menu, and tick "Enable Csharp Scripting".


Once in game, verify the mod is running by opening the console (F3) and looking for the initialization message: "Finished loading Soundproof Walls v2.x". If you don't see it, review the above requirements.

Access the settings menu by pressing escape and clicking the "Soundproof Walls 2.x" button, or by typing "spw" in the console. For a quick introduction to some useful settings, see the Configuration Guide discussion.

When hosting a multiplayer session, your settings are automatically synced with other players, including any changes applied in the menu. The same goes for dedicated servers, there are no extra steps.

If you like getting your hands dirty, the settings menu makes it easy to add and mix your own sounds via the "Custom Sounds" list in the Advanced tab. You may find this necessary for applying distortion and sidechaining to modded sounds, as Soundproof Walls only contains references for vanilla files. If you want to share your mix with more players, Soundproof Walls allows you to save and publish your "Custom Sounds" list as standalone patch on the Steam workshop. For instructions on how to do this, see the Mixing Patches discussion.


Q: How much of a performance impact does this mod have?
Effectively zero. You can benchmark your system by enabling the "Show Performance" option (Advanced tab).

Q: Is this mod safe to use in an active campaign?
Yes. Soundproof Walls does not modify persistent data and can be added or removed from a campaign without issues.

Q: Is this mod compatible with X?
Yes. Soundproof Walls runs as an extension of the vanilla game, making it compatible with 100% of XML-based mods and all currently known Lua/Cs mods.

Q: I'm experiencing a bug, what do I do?
Try typing "cl_reloadlua" in the console. Otherwise, check the Report Bugs discussion for known issues and solutions. If your problem is not listed, try unsubscribing, restarting Steam, and resubscribing. If the issue persists, please make a report or leave a comment.


Soundproof Walls 2.0 is written in Barotrauma's native language of C# and takes advantage of the OpenAL Soft audio engine packaged with the game to apply dynamic muffling, reverb, and distortion. The vanilla DFS pathfinding algorithm for sounds has been swapped out with an A* implementation for better quality paths that keep track of obstructions. Occlusion is done using simple ray casting, sidechaining is event-driven and relies on references in the "Custom Sounds" list (Advanced tab), and other effects like the radio filters and Static mode's reverb filter were built from scratch with reference to common implementations (e.g., Schroeder-style reverb, hard clipping distortion, etc). If you want to take a look at the code or compile it yourself, you can find the project, with build instructions, on GitHub.[github.com]

Development on Soundproof Walls started in October 2023 with the simple goal of making the vanilla muffle effect stronger, I thought it would probably take me a few days, provided I didn't add any extra stuff.
February 2024, four months later. Soundproof Walls 1.0 was finished. Needless to say, I added some extra stuff - and maybe it was worth it. The mod was well received, holding a consistent 99% positive rating, and quickly becoming one of the most popular mods on the workshop. Not long after, the developers of Barotrauma changed their lowpass frequency from 1600Hz to 600Hz. Big success. I came back and updated the mod a few times to add requested features or fix bugs - there were a few I couldn't fix, but generally I was comfortable leaving the mod in that state.
Until, in January 2025, I began working on a currently unreleased project, also sound related, and reached a stage where mutual compatibility with Soundproof Walls was needed. So, I reopened the project file and almost immediately ran into issues with its structure. I needed to clean it up a little bit before I could return to my other project. I thought it would probably just take me a few days, after all, I had no plans of adding new stuff.
September 2025. Soundproof Walls 2.0 is released. The last eight months have been a blur and I honestly struggle to recount the exact process I went through when building this mod, but it felt like every time I finished something, I found a better way to do it, and just wanted to start over.
In short, I ended up rewriting the entire mod, originally around 4,000 LOC, added what I thought would be a few nice bonus features, and somehow ended up with 15,000 LOC? It's weird, before I started modding Barotrauma, I had about 80 hours playtime. I haven't really played the game since then, but when I hover Barotrauma on Steam it says I have nearly 2,000.


If you feel that my mods have meaningfully improved your Barotrauma experience or you just like what I do, you're welcome to contribute to my insomnia by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi.[ko-fi.com]
I have some great mod ideas for the future, and plans for developing my own game full-time when I finish uni, so any support I can get now means the world.