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Positioning Tab: Audio and Auxiliary Busses

The Bus Positioning tab allows you to redefine how audio will be mixed at the output of the current Audio or Auxiliary Bus. Just as with the Positioning Tab: Actor-Mixer and Interactive Music Objects, Audio and Auxiliary Busses can use either speaker panning or in some cases, 3D spatialization positioning.

The main difference between the two types of positioning is the way in which the source channels are mapped to the output speakers. By default, the source channels of a panned sound are linked together and are played through the front left and right speakers regardless of the position or orientation of the listener or game object. You can, however, use the Speaker Panner to balance the volume of each channel so the sound can be heard through different speakers.

3D spatialization depends on the position of the emitter relative to the listener. For 3D spatialization to occur, both emitter and listener game objects should therefore be distinct. In the Wwise Project, objects of the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy are associated to their emitter when the game posts Events. When Wwise objects have the Listener Relative Routing option enabled, their output busses are instead associated to the listener. Normally, the Listener Relative Routing option is enabled in the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy, so that busses that follow are associated with the listener. Incidentally, 3D spatialization can only be performed with Wwise objects that have Listener Relative Routing enabled since it must happen at the point where an object associated with an emitter is being mixed into a bus that is associated with a listener.

On a bus, enabling Listener Relative Routing means that the submixed signal at the output of the bus itself becomes an emitter, positioned by the game. For this to work properly, the game must carefully set up a chain of emitters and listeners. For example, the Wwise Spatial Audio module manages emitters for busses that act as Rooms. Refer to the Spatial Audio Documentation for more details.

You can also apply distance attenuation to sounds based on the distance between the emitter and listener game objects, and then share these settings across many different objects within Wwise using an Attenuation ShareSet.

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.

[Note] Note

Selecting the square at the far left of the color selector causes the object to inherit its parent's color. When a color has been explicitly chosen for an object, it is displayed with the palette icon and a yellow triangle in the lower-right corner, as shown.

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.

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 displaying only one selected tab. You can, however, click a splitter button to split the panel into two, either side by side or one on top of the other, for two different tabs. The currently selected option is highlighted with a background color.

[Note] Note

You cannot display the same tab in both panels. If you select the tab that is currently displayed in the other panel, then the other panel will automatically display another tab.

[Tip] Shortcuts for selecting tabs

Press Ctrl and the number corresponding to the number of the Property Editor tab you want. For example, Ctrl+4 would select the RTPC tab if that were the fourth visible tab.

Positioning

Interface Element

Description

Center %

The amount or percentage of volume that is passed through the center speaker.

  • For speaker panning with Direct Assignment, the Center % value applies only for mono objects output to a bus with a center channel. Actor-Mixer objects are mono when their underlying source file or plug-in is mono. Master-Mixer objects (busses) are mono when their Bus Configuration is set to 1.0.

  • For speaker panning with Balance-Fade applied, the Center % value applies only for output with a center channel (such as mono, 3.0, 5.1, and 7.1).

  • For 3D spatialization, the Center % value also applies only for output with a center channel; but, moreover, it needs to be set in order to have a signal sent to the center channel.

[Tip] Tip

For more information on using the Center %, refer to Routing Audio Signals to the Center Speaker .

Default value: 0
Range: 0 to 100

Speaker Panning

The default is Direct Assignment, where FL maps to FL, FR maps to FR, and so on.

If set to Balance-Fade, allows you to adjust the volume of each channel in a 2.0 to 7.1 Audio Bus. In reference to the Speaker Panner, channels closer to the circle will have their volume increased, while channels further from the circle will have their volume decreased.

If set to Steering, allows you to redistribute the content of the sound’s channels amongst the channels of the output bus. The distribution will be weighted towards the circle in the Speaker Panner.

The Panner works independently of the number of channels within the source.

[Note] Note

The Panner has no effect on an ambisonic sound.

Default value: Direct Assignment

Opens the Speaker Panner.

Listener Relative Routing

When enabled, the emitter-listener association is evaluated at this Wwise object. Evaluating emitter-listener association is almost always required with objects of the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy, because Actor-Mixers are associated with emitters, whereas busses are typically associated with the listener.

In the case of busses, listener relative routing is only desirable when the submix conveyed by this bus represents an independent emitter which needs to be explicitly positioned by the game and 3D spatialized against the listener. Notable use cases are the Auxiliary Busses associated to Rooms by Wwise Spatial Audio and the early reflection bus hosting the Wwise Reflect plug-in.

Make sure to enable Listener Relative Routing on at least one object in your signal chain, regardless of the positioning type; the opposite would result in a complete duplication of the mixing graph (that is, busses and their Effects). Aside from using more CPU, most bus insert Effects, such as compressors, will not work as intended.

Evaluating emitter-listener association is also required for any game object-driven 3D positioning to occur (attenuation and spatialization).

3D Spatialization

Specifies whether the positioning of the source is calculated to simulate movement within a 3D space. When set to Position or Position + Orientation, movement of the source is reflected by a sound being heard through specific speakers within the surround environment. With Position + Orientation, the sound’s multichannel content also rotates with respect to the relative orientations of the emitter and listener. Orientation only has an effect with multichannel input files, and spread greater than zero.

When set to None, the source is panned according to the Speaker Panning setting.

Default value: None

Speaker Panning / 3D Spatialization Mix

Crossfade between Speaker Panning and 3D Spatialization. Available when spatialization is anything but None.

Default value: 100
Range: 0 to 100

Enable Attenuation

When set, the attenuation curves of the designated Attenuation ShareSet apply. You may add an RTPC on this property to enable and disable the application of attenuation curves at run-time.

Default value: true

(Selector)

The list of attenuation instances that can be applied to the object.

To remove an attenuation instance, select the None option.

Opens the Attenuation Editor where you can define the distance-based attenuation settings for the selected attenuation instance.

If you use a ShareSet, any changes you make to the attenuation settings will be applied to all objects using this ShareSet.

Mode

Determines whether the attenuation instance is a unique instance or shared across several objects within your project. The mode can be either:

  • Define custom - To create a unique attenuation instance whose properties will not be shared between objects.

  • Use ShareSets - To use a ShareSet of an attenuation, which means that attenuation properties can be shared between objects.

Displays the selected ShareSet in the ShareSets tab of the Project Explorer.

Position

3D Position

Defines how positions are calculated for the purpose of 3D positioning (attenuation and spatialization).

  • Emitter: Positioning defined by the game.

  • Emitter + Automation: User-Defined position automation around the emitter game object. Edited using the Automation… button.

  • Listener + Automation: User-Defined position automation around listener game object. Edited using the Automation… button.

Default value: Emitter

Opens the Position Editor (3D Automation), where you can define the spatial positioning of your object in a surround environment using animation paths.

Hold Listener Orientation

Determines whether the position of the animation path is locked to the orientation of the listener.

When this option is not selected, the path moves with the listener. This means that the sound will always be heard through the same speakers regardless of the orientation of the listener. When selected, the listener moves independently of the path. This means that the sound will be heard through different speakers as the listener turns around.

For example, let’s say you are using automation around the listener to create non-localized bird sounds in your game. You have a one-point path that is located in the front-right quadrant. As the listener turns around in game, the following will occur:

  • Hold Listener Orientation (OFF) - The bird sound will always be heard through the front right speaker.

  • Hold Listener Orientation (ON) - The bird sound will pass through different speakers.

This option can be useful for creating non-localized ambient sounds.

This option can only be tested in game because the listener concept has not been integrated into the Wwise authoring application.

Default value: false

Hold Emitter Position and Orientation

When enabled, stores the game object’s instantaneous position and orientation when the sound starts playing, and base positioning off of it for the whole duration of the sound.

Default value: false

Enable Diffraction and Transmission

Enables diffraction and transmission processing in Spatial Audio for the sound.

Diffraction simulates the acoustic phenomenon of sound bending around obstacles, whereas transmission simulates sound passing through obstacles, in a virtual environment. Obstacles are defined by rooms, portals, and/or geometry, which have been passed from the game to Spatial Audio via the API. A sound bending around an obstacle is subject to diffraction, and a sound passing through an obstacle is subject to transmission loss, both of which effect the resulting volume and filtering of a sound.

For diffraction and transmission simulation to take place, the game must define level geometry or rooms and portals and send it to Wwise Spatial Audio.

When diffraction and transmission are enabled for a sound, the following takes place in Wwise Spatial Audio:

  • Sound paths between the emitter and the listener are calculated, comprised of a single direct or transmission path, and zero or more diffraction paths.

  • A transmission loss coefficient (0%-100%) is calculated for the direct/transmission path. The transmission loss is determined by the rooms and geometry that the sound passes through.

  • The transmission loss coefficient (%) is converted to a volume, a low-pass and a high-pass filter value using the occlusion curve defined in the Wwise project settings. The sound is attenuated and filtered accordingly.

  • A diffraction coefficient (0%-100%) is calculated based on the sum of angles in the diffraction paths. A straight line path would have 0% diffraction, and a path that bends 180 degrees or more is considered 100% diffraction.

  • The diffraction coefficient (%) is converted to a volume, a low-pass and a high-pass filter value using the obstruction curve defined in the Wwise project settings. The sound is attenuated and filtered accordingly.

  • For diffraction paths, the apparent position of the sound relative to the listener is calculated to create ‘virtual’ positions giving the listener the impression that the sound is propagating around a corner or through a portal.

[Note] Note

The Game Object 3D Viewer enables the user to see what is going on inside of Wwise Spatial Audio, including level geometry, portals, and the sound’s diffraction/transmission paths and resultant virtual positions.

[Note] Note

For diffraction and transmission to take effect, the Wwise Spatial Audio library must be initialized and the game must send level geometry or rooms and portals to Wwise Spatial Audio.

Default value: false


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