Chroma Immersive Platform
The Chroma Immersive Platform brings together three on-device AI features that analyze what a player's PC is already producing, the system audio output and the on-screen image, and translate it into lighting and haptics in real time. All inference runs locally on the player's machine.
The platform is available in Razer Chroma for Windows (V4.0.63.2608041508). Players enable the individual features from the Chroma dashboard and configure them per device, app and game.
These features consume system-level audio and video output. Your title does not call an API, emit events, or register effects to benefit from them. A game that has already shipped is supported without a patch.
Because there is no integration surface, what you control is the input. These pages document the behaviour of each feature so you can reason about how your title's audio mix and visual design will be interpreted.
None of these features use large language models. Each relies on a lightweight classifier that takes a fixed input, such as a short audio window or a downscaled video frame, and returns a label from a predefined set. That is what allows them to run continuously during gameplay for a small fraction of the CPU.
Feature summary
| Feature | Input | Output | Content type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impact Engine | System audio output | Sensa HD Haptics intensity | Games, video |
| Screen Sync | Foreground window image | Chroma lighting | Games, video |
| Mood Analyzer | System audio output | Chroma lighting | Music |
The two lighting features are alternative ways of controlling Chroma lighting, and the player chooses which of them is active. Screen Sync handles content with a picture worth reading. Mood Analyzer handles music, where there is no meaningful frame to sample. Only one of them drives the devices at a time.
Impact Engine is independent of that choice and may run alongside either, since it drives haptics rather than lighting.
Signal characteristics
Each feature responds on the timescale of the signal it interprets.
| Feature | Analysis | Moves on |
|---|---|---|
| Impact Engine | Audio event response | Fractions of a second, with immediate onset and a smooth decay |
| Screen Sync | Colour | Fractions of a second |
| Screen Sync | Pattern and active zone | Seconds |
| Mood Analyzer | Mood | Seconds |
A hit lands with the sound, a palette change reads almost immediately, and a change of scene or mood arrives over a beat or two rather than snapping. Each analysis is smoothed at the scale its own signal changes on, rather than at the limit of what the hardware can keep up with.
Requirements
| Component | Requirement | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Razer Synapse | Installed and running | Impact Engine |
| RzChromatic | 2.3.2.0 or newer | Screen Sync |
| Razer Experience Service | Installed, user logged in | All features |
| Windows | Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100) or newer | Hardware-accelerated execution |
| Haptics-capable device | Required for haptic output | Impact Engine |
Screen Sync requires RzChromatic 2.3.2.0 or newer. On earlier versions no ambient lighting appears.
Data handling
All analysis is performed locally on the player's machine. No audio, no frames and no derived data are transmitted off the device, and nothing is sent to the cloud.
All three features read the system audio output. None of them access the microphone.
Runtime model
All three features run inside the Razer Experience Service, a Windows background service. The service runs analysis in the logged-in user's context, because the features require access to the user's audio endpoint, screen, Chroma and Synapse instances.
Three properties are relevant when evaluating behavior on a test machine:
Features activate at user logon. After a boot with no user logged in, the service runs but no analysis occurs.
State persists across restarts. Enabled features are restored automatically after reboot, logon, or service restart. A feature enabled during earlier testing will still be active later.
Nothing is enabled by default. Features are inactive until enabled by Synapse or restored from a previous state.
Choosing between the platform and the WYVRN SDK
The platform and explicit SDK integration solve different problems, and titles that want a deeper immersive experience can use both. The reasoning is set out in Adaptive Immersive Experience: Context-Aware Haptics in a Multisensory Effects Engine.
| Use the Chroma Immersive Platform when | Use the WYVRN SDK when |
|---|---|
| You want broad coverage with no engineering cost | You need a specific effect at a specific moment |
| Moments are emergent or procedural, and cannot be authored ahead of time | The moment is scripted and you know when it happens |
| The title has already shipped | You are in active development and can add integration |
| Approximate, content-derived response is sufficient | You need exact control over color, timing, or haptic waveform |
| Music-driven or rhythmic haptics are not required | Music-driven or rhythmic haptics are core to the design |
A common pattern is to rely on the platform for general coverage and author explicit effects through the SDK for signature moments.
Razer Indie Lab provides a ready-made library of Chroma and haptic effects to draw from, which covers a lot of ground for a small team with no dedicated immersion budget.
Direct partnership with Razer suits larger productions, and covers co-marketing agreements and effects designed by Razer's immersive team. It is also the route through which a per-game haptic profile can be defined for a Chroma Sensa title.
Evaluating your title
Practical checks when assessing how your game behaves with these features enabled.
| Check | Expected result |
|---|---|
| Combat or impact-heavy sequence | Distinct haptic response on impacts, with immediate onset and a smooth decay |
| Dialogue sequence with no other audio | No haptic response |
| Music-only sequence | No haptic response through Impact Engine |
| Scene with a strong dominant color | Device lighting reflects that color almost immediately |
| Letterboxed cinematic | Colors derived from the picture, not the bars |
| Borderless, exclusive fullscreen, and overlay focus | Capture continues to follow the intended window |
| Pause audio for several seconds | Haptics stop and reset |
Diagnostics
Verbose service logging can be enabled by creating an empty file named debug.flag next to the service executable, typically:
C:\Program Files (x86)\RazerExperienceService\RazerExperienceService\debug.flag
Directory permissions may require creating the file elsewhere and moving it in. Restart the service. Logs are written to:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Razer\RazerExperienceService\Logs\dllLog.log
If nothing responds
| Symptom | First check |
|---|---|
| No ambient lighting at all | RzChromatic version is 2.3.2.0 or newer |
| No haptic response | Synapse is running, and the device supports haptics |
| No response from any feature | The relevant feature is enabled, and a user is logged in |
Feature reference
- Impact Engine: audio-classified haptic intensity
- Screen Sync: screen-derived Chroma lighting
- Mood Analyzer: music mood lighting
- Performance: measured resource cost and latency
Related
- WYVRN SDK for explicitly authored haptics and lighting
- WYVRN Haptics Configuration
- Chroma SDK
- Razer Indie Lab