Version
menu_open
Wwise Unreal Integration Documentation
Diffraction

When the line of sight between the emitter and the listener is obstructed by an object, Spatial Audio can create diffraction paths that will go around the object and simulate a realistic behavior. Depending on the angle of the path around an edge, the sound will be attenuated with obstruction.

Note:
The Preparation for the Spatial Audio Tutorials must be completed prior to starting this tutorial. Most importantly, these two steps must be done.
  • In Wwise, enable Diffraction and Transmission in the Positioning tab of sounds to be diffracted.
  • In Unreal, set the Refresh Interval of AkAmbientSound to 0. This tutorial only uses the Spatial Audio diffraction and transmission loss system.

Follow these steps to set up Spatial Audio diffraction in your map.

  1. In Unreal, if not done already,
    1. Add an AkSpatialAudioVolume object around the building.
      1. Make sure that Enable Surface Reflectors is enabled.
      2. In the Geometry Settings section, make sure Diffraction is enabled.
    2. Add an AkGeometryComponent component to the obstacle static mesh outside.
      1. In the Geometry section, under Diffraction, make sure Diffraction is enabled.
  2. Play and connect to Wwise.
    1. You should be able to see diffraction edges on the diffraction-enabled geometries and diffraction paths when a diffraction-enabled sound is played while it is obstructed from the listener.

In the SpatialAudioTutorialMap provided with the Demo Game, you can see the diffraction paths created by the obstacle outside when the outside emitter is playing:

Diffraction attenuates the sound using the Diffraction curves in the sound's Attenuation ShareSet. When the curves are set to Use Project Obstruction, they use the Obstruction curves in the Obstruction/Occlusion tab of the Project Settings in the Authoring application.

See also

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