The Wwise 2025.1 Beta is live and now available to install from the Audiokinetic Launcher.

The build can be accessed after logging into the Launcher and navigating to the Wwise Tab. From there, scroll down to "Install A New Version" and use the drop-down menu to select "Special".

Note: This Beta version cannot be used for official release and will not be supported beyond the launch of Wwise 2025.1.

Here is a summary of the features that are available in the 2025.1 Beta:

• User Experience
• Integrations
• Spatial Audio: Acoustics
• Wwise Sound Engine

Wwise 2025.1 continues to improve on Wwise workflows fundamental to the creation of immersive audio experiences. Many of the changes in recent releases speak to our overarching goal of unifying workflows while leveraging common user interface skills. These changes aim to increase usability while removing friction from daily tasks. In this release, the addition of a Media Pool view brings audio files within reach as part of the interactive workflow giving you unprecedented access to begin, or continue, content creation directly in Wwise. You’ll also find enhanced usability with the new Unity Wwise Browser, performance optimizations, packaging improvements, and a fully supported Dynamic Dialogue workflow in the Wwise Unreal Integration. On the Acoustics technologies side of things, the tech continues to evolve in the direction of user-friendly tools that allow anyone to create believable experiences, with the focus being on improving the quality and accessibility of the acoustic simulation. Changes in this release on the Wwise sound engine focus on the stabilization of fundamentals and the pillars of dynamic sound playback, while evolving and growing to better support audio programmers who work with the SDK.

Wwise is a comprehensive and scalable solution for developers that continues to evolve towards the greatest flexibility. These enhancements give today’s interactive audio community the best opportunity to creatively iterate towards incredible sounding experiences.

User Experience

Our goal is to empower creators with the best possible interactive audio workflows. This means balancing a rich feature set that can scale depending on a project's needs with a level of accessibility that suits both early learners and experienced professionals. Many of the changes in recent releases speak to our overarching goal of unifying workflows while leveraging common user interface skills. These changes aim to increase usability while removing friction from daily tasks. Starting with the Media Pool, for the first time, you’ll be able to easily find and navigate to audio files referenced throughout your project, while also unlocking direct access to other audio file sources. Whether you're starting from scratch or iterating, having access to sample libraries as part of a real-time, connected interactive workflow greatly extends your capabilities. Hierarchies have been merged and renamed in response to feedback from the community, with a focus on providing clarity and simplified organization. And there are a host of other new features that speak directly to interactive mixing, for example, building on the Meter Effect to arrive at the Multiband Meter Effect, the addition of audio-rate sidechaining capabilities, and the ability to mute and solo Real Time Parameter Controls (RTPCs). These controls provide incredible new ways to shape runtime dynamics. Meanwhile, quality of life updates to the Parametric EQ plug-in bring visual editing to the frequency graph, and the introduction of Event Limiting lets you prevent the posting of Events for a specified period of time, allowing for more intuitive and comprehensive control.

• Merging and Renaming Hierarchies – simplified organization and naming clarity
• Media Pool – a unified interface for viewing and accessing audio files 
• Similar Sound Search – search for sounds in your Media Pool databases using either a text query or a reference audio clip
• Property Editor Improvements – enhanced layout clarity and functionality
• Parametric EQ Graph – visual and interactive EQ editing
• Multiband Meter – real-time metering of multiband signals
• Event Limiting  – prevents Events from posting
• RTPC Mute/Solo – non-destructive curve auditioning
• Audio File Importer View – non-modal, dockable view
• Sidechaining – audio-rate signals to control mix dynamics
• External Source - WAV Playback – load WAV files as External Sources without converting
• WAQL Accessor Additions – new accessors for the Wwise Authoring Query Language

Audiokinetic Product Manager Damian Kastbauer notes, "Letting go of the term Actor-Mixer is bittersweet. As a long-time Wwise user, this term is immediately identifiable as something uniquely Wwise, while recognizing that it is difficult to access for anyone not "in the know." Ultimately, it’s my hope that the increased accessibility that the rename provides will allow for an easier path for everyone to achieve outstanding interactive audio."

For more details on these features and specifics:

Integrations

Wwise integrations are the connective tissue between a game engine and the feature-rich interactive audio pipeline provided by the Wwise sound engine. Major improvements in this release include enhanced usability with the new Unity Wwise Browser, as well as performance optimizations, packaging improvements, and a fully supported Dynamic Dialogue workflow in the Wwise Unreal Integration. There have also been updates and additions to Gyms, the functional feature tests available on GitHub that can be used to ensure any integration customizations continue to work across releases.

• Unity Wwise Browser – a replacement for the Wwise Picker, providing a more streamlined workflow
  
• Unreal Dynamic Dialogue – support for runtime Event scheduling in Unreal
  
• Gyms – Wwise projects that function as sandbox environments for developers
• Unreal Packaging Improvements – a better experience with Unreal Modular Gameplay Features

For more details on these features and specifics:

Spatial Audio: Acoustics

Acoustics technologies in Wwise continue to evolve in the direction of user-friendly tools that allow anyone to create believable experiences. From the addition of the Dual Shelf Filter to better represent the way sounds are filtered in the real world, to the addition of more settings to facilitate profiling in the Game Object 3D Viewer, the focus is on improving the quality and accessibility of the acoustic simulation. Additionally, there are several new features that respond directly to feedback from users who leverage Acoustics as part of their experiences, things like: mitigating the effects of Doppler on early reflections in the Reflect plug-in, the Exclude from Distance option added to AKSpatialAudioVolume to improve realism when navigating nested rooms, and the host of performance-related features like Emitter Clustering and Dynamic Load Balancing.

• Dual-Shelf Filter – new EQ curve control for simulating acoustic characteristics
  
• Project Environmental Curves ShareSet – reusable acoustic curves
  
• Game Object 3D Viewer Updates – improved visual debugging for game objects and acoustics
• Improved Reflect – improved and reorganized for better usability
• Dynamic Load Balancing – continuously distributes acoustic tasks depending on processing power
• Rooms Distance Behavior – determines how a room interacts with the distance calculation of other rooms
  
• Emitter Clustering (Experimental) – aims to improve the performance of reflection and diffraction path computation
  

For more details on these features and specifics:

Wwise Sound Engine

Work on the Wwise sound engine often goes unnoticed as part of the daily workflows of a sound designer. Changes in this release focus on the stabilization of fundamentals and the pillars of dynamic sound playback, while evolving and growing to better support audio programmers who work with the SDK. In addition to the behavioral rewrite that optimizes playback across multiple systems, the new Command Buffer API provides an expert way to take control of the order of operations associated with audio data processing. At the core of Wwise is a comprehensive and scalable solution for developers that continues to evolve towards the greatest flexibility.

• Behavioral Rewrite – changes in the Wwise sound engine to optimize playback across multiple systems
• Command Buffer API – new low-level API for managing audio execution order and timing

For more details on these features and specifics: