Version

menu_open
Advanced Settings Tab: Actor-Mixer Objects

The Advanced Settings tab for objects located in the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy contains a series of controls that allow you to define the advanced playback behaviors of your sound and motion objects. You can define the number of instances that can be played simultaneously per game object, specify the playback priority of each object, and determine whether object will continue to play, will be killed, or will move into the virtual voice list when their volume falls below the volume threshold.

General

Interface Element

Description

[name]

The name of the object.

Displays the object's color. Clicking the icon opens the color selector.

Select a color to apply it to the object. When you choose a color for an object, a palette icon appears on the selected square, as well as a yellow triangle in the lower-right corner, as shown.

To inherit the parent object's color, select the square at the far left of the color selector.

Controls the Mute and Solo states for the object and shows the implicit mute and solo states for the object.

Muting an object silences this object for the current monitoring session. Soloing an object silences all the other objects in the project except this one.

A bold M or S indicates that the Mute or Solo state has been explicitly set for the object. A non-bold M or S with faded color indicates that the object's Mute or Solo state was implicitly set from another object's state.

Muting an object implicitly mutes the descendant objects.

Soloing an object implicitly mutes the sibling objects and implicitly solos the descendant and ancestor objects.

[Tip]Tip

Hold the Ctrl key while clicking a solo button to exclusively solo the object for which the solo button is associated.

[Note]Note

Mute and Solo are designed to be used for monitoring purposes only and are not persisted in the project or stored in the SoundBanks.

Inclusion

Determines whether the element is included in the SoundBanks when they are generated. When selected, the element is included. When unselected, the element is not included.

To optimize your sound design for each platform, you might want to exclude certain elements on certain platforms. By default, this check box applies across all platforms. Use the Link indicator to the left of the check box to unlink the element. Then you can customize the state of the check box per platform.

When this option is unselected, the property and behavior options in the editor become unavailable.

Default value: true

Indicates the number of elements in your project that contain direct references to the object. The icon is displayed in orange when references to the object exist, and in gray when no references exist.

Selecting the button opens the Reference View with the object's name in the References to: field.

Notes

Any additional information about the object properties.

Sets the display of the Property Editor's selected tabs. By default, there is one panel that displays a single selected tab. You can, however, click a splitter button to display two panels, divided horizontally or vertically. The selected option is highlighted with a background color.

You cannot open the same tab in both panels. If you try to open the same tab in both panels, the first panel automatically opens a different tab.

[Tip]Shortcuts for selecting tabs

  • Press Ctrl and the number that corresponds to the number of the Property Editor tab you want to view. For example, Ctrl+4 opens the RTPC tab if it is the fourth visible tab.

Advanced Settings

Interface Element

Description

Playback Limit

Ignore Parent Playback Limit

Determines if the current object and its children are considered part of the parent’s playback limit (unchecked) or defined at this level (checked). If the object is a top-level object, this option is unavailable.

Default value: false

Limit sound instances to:

The number of sound or motion instances within the same hierarchical structure that can play simultaneously. This limit applies to the selected list option:

  • Per game object: Each game object, within this node of the hierarchy, individually.

  • Globally: All game objects, within this node of the hierarchy, combined.

When limit is reached:

Determines what happens when the playback limit is reached. You can select one of the following options:

  • Kill voice for lowest priority: Stops playing instance with the lowest priority. When an object is killed, a small fade out of a few milliseconds is performed.

  • Use virtual voice settings for lowest priority: Sets the sound with the lowest priority to adopt its virtual voice behavior. Refer to the Virtual voice behavior section in this table.

Keep in mind that each entity can override its own behavior so that the virtual behavior of a sound can still be to discard the sound or to continue to play.

Default value: Kill voice

When priority is equal:

Determines what happens when the playback limit is reached and there is more than one object with the lowest priority. You can select one of the following options:

  • Discard oldest instance to discard the oldest playing instance with the lowest priority.

  • Discard newest instance to discard the newest playing instance with the lowest priority.

Default value: Discard oldest instance

Virtual Voice

Override parent

Determines whether the virtual voice settings will be inherited from the parent or defined at the current level in the hierarchy. When this option is not selected, the virtual voice controls are unavailable.

If the object is a top-level object, this option is unavailable.

Default value: false

Virtual voice behavior

Determines the behavior of objects when their volume falls below the volume threshold or when their number goes over the playback limit. You can select one of the following options:

  • Continue to play to continue playing the object even though it will no longer be heard.

  • Kill voice to stop playing the object. No fade out is applied with this option.

  • Send to virtual voice to send the object to the virtual voice list. When an object is sent to the virtual voice list, certain parameters of the object are monitored by the sound engine, but no processing for audio or motion occurs.

  • Kill if finite else virtual to stop playing the object if it’s not looping infinitely or, if it is, to send the object to the virtual voice list.

For music objects, if Send to virtual voice or Kill if finite else virtual is selected, the object plays from elapsed time upon return to physical voice.

Default value: Continue to play

On return to physical voice

[Note]Note

These options are not available for music objects. For Actor-Mixer objects, they are only available if the Virtual voice behavior is set to Send to virtual voice or Kill if finite else virtual.

Determines the behavior of objects that move from the virtual voice list back to the physical voice.

You can select one of the following options:

  • Play from beginning to play the object from its beginning. This option resets the object’s loop count.

  • Play from elapsed time to continue playing the object as if it had never stopped playing. This option is not sample accurate, so sounds returning to the physical voice may be out of sync with other sounds playing.

  • Resume to pause the object when it moves from the physical voice to the virtual voice list and then resume playback when it moves back to the physical voice.

Default value: Play from elapsed time

Playback Priority

Override parent

If the object is a top-level object, this option is unavailable.

Determines whether the Playback Priority will be inherited from the parent or defined at the current level in the hierarchy. When this option is not selected, the Playback Priority controls are unavailable.

Default value: false

Priority

Objects with a priority of 1 have the lowest priority, and those with a priority of 100 have the highest priority.

This value determines which objects will be played when the playback limit has been reached.

The importance given to the object in relation to other objects within the same actor-mixer structure.

Default value: 50

Range: 0 to 100

Offset priority by x at max distance

Specifies a value by which the priority of an object is offset when it reaches the max distance value specified in the Attenuation Editor.

When selected, an offset is applied to the priority of the object when it falls anywhere within the attenuation max distance value. The amount of offset applied will depend on the object’s relative position to the listener.

When this option is not selected, the distance from the listener does not affect the priority of an object.

Default value: -10

Range: -100 to 100


Was this page helpful?

Need Support?

Questions? Problems? Need more info? Contact us, and we can help!

Visit our Support page

Tell us about your project. We're here to help.

Register your project and we'll help you get started with no strings attached!

Get started with Wwise