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Specifying Network Ports

When you connect the Wwise authoring application to a game for profiling and real-time editing, communication between Wwise and the game is handled by a network using network ports that you open for the game and the authoring application. You can customize the ports that are opened and used by the authoring applications in the Network tab of the Wwise Project Settings dialog box. Ports opened/used by the game can be customized during initialization of the Wwise communication module by the game.

You can define a specific port number (fixed) or you can allow the operating system to automatically select one ( dynamic). The choice is based on whether the port is opened by the authoring application or the game:

[Caution] Caution

When changing this port in the Project Settings, be sure to change it to the exact same value in your game's code where the Wwise communication module is initialized (specifically the ports.uDiscoveryBroadcast member of the structure passed to AK::Comm::Init() ).

Game Discovery Broadcast Port

This port is opened by the communication module within the game to listen to messages broadcast on the network by the authoring application when it tries to discover games it can connect to. The authoring application broadcasts Game Discovery messages to that port, so it is important to use the same port in the game and in your Wwise project. Since both the game and the authoring application need to know about this port, it cannot be dynamic (cannot be set to 0).

[Caution] Caution

You have the option of using any port number between 1 and 65,535; but, verify that the port number you define does not conflict with any other applications running on the same computer or console as the game.

Game Discovery Response Port

This port is opened by the Wwise authoring application. This is where the game responds to the Game Discovery message. When defining the port number for this port, keep in mind the following important considerations:

  • Setting this port to 0 will instruct the authoring application to request a dynamic port number, also known as an ephemeral port number. This means that instead of using a specific port number, the operating system will automatically select one. This is the default behavior and it is suggested to use a dynamic port number to avoid conflicts with other applications.

  • If you need to use a fixed port number (that is, not a dynamic/ephemeral port number), avoid using the same port number as the Game Discovery Broadcast Port unless you do not plan on connecting to games running on the same computer as the authoring application.

  • You have the option of using any port number between 0 and 65,535, but verify that the port number you define does not conflict with any other applications running on the same computer or console as the game.

Customizing Communication Ports in the Game

As previously mentioned, the Game Discovery Broadcast Port is opened in the game by the communication module. There are three additional ports opened in the game by the communication module, and they are customized during initialization. Since these ports are not exposed in the authoring application, please refer to the "Initializing Communications" section of the Wwise SDK documentation for more information.

To customize communication ports:

  1. Open the Project Settings dialog box by doing one of the following:

    • From the menu bar, click Project > Project Settings.

    • Press Shift+K.

  2. Switch to the Network tab.

  3. Edit port numbers as needed.

  4. Click OK.

The Project Settings dialog box closes. The new port numbers will now be used for communication with games.


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