Setting user preferences

You can set the user preferences to customize certain aspects of Wwise as described in the following sections.

Enabling confirmation messages

Confirmation messages can provide useful information when you are performing certain tasks in Wwise. While working with Wwise, you can disable these messages one at a time by selecting the “Don't ask again” option in certain confirmation dialogs. If you want all these messages to appear again, re-enable them in the user preferences.

To enable confirmation messages:

From the menu bar, click Project > User Preferences.
The User Preferences dialog opens.
In the Confirmation Messages group, click Reset.
A confirmation dialog appears.
Click OK.
From now on, confirmation messages will appear before certain actions are carried out in Wwise.

Managing external editors for audio

In Wwise, you can edit audio files directly in any audio file editor of your choice. See Editing audio files in an external editor. First, however, you need to add each program to the list of available editors.

To set up external editors for audio:

From the menu bar, click Project > User Preferences.
From the User Preferences dialog, in the External Editors group, click Add.
In the Open File dialog, select the audio editor executable (EXE) and click Open.
The editor is added to the list of available audio editors.
To delete an editor from the list, select it and click Delete.
Optionally set the Start Mode. The default, Single Process, is recommended for most editors. For more information, see User Preferences.
Click OK to save your settings.
From now on, the editor you have added will be available directly from Wwise.

To select the default External Editor:

In most views in Wwise, press Ctrl-E to open the selected items in the default External Editor.

In the list of editors, select the one you wish to make default.
Click Set As Default. (This button will not be active if there are not at least two listed editors.)

Selecting the preferred user interface font and scaling

By default, the Wwise user interface font is Segoe UI, the font size is 9pt, and High DPI is enabled.

To change these settings:

From the menu bar, click Project > User Preferences.
The User Preferences dialog opens.
In the User Interface - Font and Scaling group, select the desired font and font size from the lists.
Set Enable High DPI as preferred.
Click OK to save your settings.
A message appears indicating that you must restart Wwise for the new settings to take effect.

Setting the output buffer latency

When you are playing sounds in Wwise, the Wwise sound engine uses prefilled buffers to reduce playback latency. By default, the sound engine uses four of these buffers. However, you can adjust the number of buffers the sound engine uses to correct certain performance issues you might encounter while using Wwise.

	Note
	You cannot change the number of buffers being used while sounds are being played back, or when you are connected to a game.

If you notice voice starvation happening when you play back sound objects in Wwise, try increasing the number of output buffers. If, on the other hand, you would like to decrease playback latency, try decreasing the number of buffers.

	Note
	Changing the number of output buffers resets the sound engine. As a consequence, any changes made to sound object property values through Events are lost. For example, if you were auditioning a sound which had its volume reduced through an Event, then changed the number of output buffers, the sound would return to its original volume.

To set the output buffer latency:

From the menu bar, click Audio > Authoring Audio Preferences.
The Authoring Audio Preferences dialog opens.
In the Sound Engine group, select a number of output buffers from the list. The number in parentheses represents the corresponding latency.
Click OK to save your settings.
From now on, the sound engine will use the number of output buffers you have specified when playing sounds in Wwise.

Setting the preferred Audio Devices

By default, all sound played in Wwise outputs to your system's default playback device. You can change the output device directly in Wwise, or change which Audio Device ShareSet is used for auditioning within the authoring application.

To change the output devices:

From the menu bar, click Audio > Authoring Audio Preferences.
The Authoring Audio Preferences dialog opens.
Under Device Shareset and Hardware Device, select the device to use.
Click OK to save your settings.
From now on, the sound engine outputs to the selected device for the corresponding bus.

The list of devices contains all the devices supported by the currently active Audio Device plug-ins. It is possible that a hardware device is present multiple times in the list, if it can be accessed through different plug-ins. When set to Default, the device is selected by the Audio Device plug-in used by the bus. If that Audio Device plug-in is not available, it will fall back to the default audio device. This selection is used only for the current user, not in-game, and not when Wwise is connected to a remote platform.

Setting the audio channel configuration

System Default Channel Configuration

From the menu bar, click Audio > System Default Channel Configuration .
By default, Wwise uses the speaker setup configuration from the Windows Control Panel. Select this option to choose the value selected in the Windows Control Panel.

Stereo Channel Configuration (Speakers)

From the menu bar, click Audio > Stereo Channel Configuration (Speakers).
For more information on panning rules (speakers, headphones), refer to Speaker and headphone panning rules.

Stereo Channel Configuration (Headphones)

From the menu bar, click Audio > Stereo Channel Configuration (Headphones).
For more information on panning rules (speakers, headphones), refer to Speaker and headphone panning rules.

5.1 Channel Configuration

From the menu bar, click Audio> 5.1 Channel Configuration .

7.1 Channel Configuration

From the menu bar, click Audio> 7.1 Channel Configuration .

	Note
	You can select 5.1 or 7.1 Channels Configuration while the Windows Control Panel is set to stereo. However, be aware that this will probably force the audio system to downmix from 5.1 or 7.1 to stereo.

Setting the Music Track look-ahead time

Audio playback is always streamed while authoring in Wwise. If you have specified streaming and defined Music Track look-ahead time in the Music Track Property Editor, these values will be used during streaming. If you have not selected the streaming option, the default Music Track look-ahead time of 200 milliseconds will be used. To increase flexibility and to avoid sync and voice starvation problems during playback, you can adjust the Music Track look-ahead time as a user preference.

To set the Music Track look-ahead time:

From the menu bar, click Audio > Authoring Audio Preferences.
The Authoring User Preferences dialog opens.
Type the amount of look-ahead time in milliseconds in the Music Track look-ahead time (ms) text box.
Click OK to save your settings.
From now on, the sound engine will use this amount of look-ahead time to seek streamed data when playing music in Wwise for Music Tracks that do not have defined streaming settings.

Setting the documentation preferences

You can view Wwise Help on your machine as an offline CHM file or as online help available at audiokinetic.com. Help is available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean.

To set the Wwise Documentation source:

From the menu bar, click Help > Documentation Source.
Select the source of the reference topics, which open when you press F1 or click the question mark icon:
- Select Audiokinetic.com to use the Audiokinetic online web documentation.
- Select Offline to use the locally stored Wwise compiled help file.
Click OK to save your settings.

To set the Wwise Documentation language:

From the menu bar, click Help > Documentation Language.
Select either English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, or Korean.
The selected language will be used in the reference topics, the Contextual Help view, and the Wwise SDK documentation.

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