[UE5.3.1 Build] fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'CommunicationCentral.lib'

Question

Hello everyone,

We are trying to test build our Windows game with the release configuration, but we are getting the following error:

LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file '..\..\ThirdParty\x64_vc170\Release\lib\CommunicationCentral.lib'

 

We have checked the \x64_vc170\Release\lib folder, but there is no CommunicationCentral.lib file present.

We are not sure why this file is being called during the build process, but we have read in the Wwise documentation that CommunicationCentral needs to be removed from the release configuration. (Build Configuration (audiokinetic.com))

We are not sure if this is the cause of the error, and we cannot find where to remove it from the code.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know.

We are using UE 5.3.1 with Wwise 2022.1.8. Before we upgraded to this version, we were using UE 5.2 and Wwise 2022.1.4, and we did not have this error.

Thank you for your help.

Comments

I too am having this exact same error (when trying to package on 5.3.2 with Wwise version 2023.1

LINK : fatal error LNK1181: cannot open input file 'S:\Projects\ProjectName\Plugins\Wwise\Source\WwiseSoundEngine\..\..\ThirdParty\x64_vc170\Release(StaticCRT)\lib\CommunicationCentral.lib'

Did you find a fix for this?

Answer 1

Just tried to add the -nocompileeditor parameter in the BuildCookRun arguments and it worked, I don't know if that was actually the culprit or the packaging gods favored me.
If it was the culprit, my best guess is that Wwise is trying to link the CommunicationCentral library when editor code is being compiled for some reason? I don't know, but future seekers should try this

Answer 2

Figured out a way to make it work finally.

CommunicationCentral is present in Wwise\ThirdParty\x64_vc170\Debug\lib. Copying it over to Wwise\ThirdParty\x64_vc170\Release\lib seems to unlock packaging a build. Debug lib is probably less optimized, but since it's not supposed to be used by Release anyway and there's clearly something wrong with dependencies there... Should be ok.

Answer 3

If you look in WwiseUEPlatform.Build.cs you'll see that the wwise config used for the related unreal config was changed around in one of the updates. The Profile config has CommunicationCentral.lib but the Release config does not. The Test Win64 config in Unreal was pointing to Release for some reason now and causing this error for us.

In the latest releases the function is called public string WwiseConfiguration. Previously this was coming from public virtual string AkConfigurationDir.

Comments

I can confirm this. CommunicationCentral.lib is configured to be linked when Configuration != Shipping, so for Test configuration it will try to look for it (WwiseSoundEngine_2023_1_OptionalModule.Build.cs@113)

However, Test configuration is now (2023.1) configured to use Release libs and release version of this lib does not exist because it most likely is only for debugging/dev tools. It was not like that in previous version as there it was configured to use Profile libs.

Modifying WwiseConfiguration (WwiseUEPlatform.Build.cs@127) like this should fix it:

            switch (Target.Configuration)
            {
                case UnrealTargetConfiguration.Debug:
                case UnrealTargetConfiguration.DebugGame:
                    return "Debug";

                case UnrealTargetConfiguration.Development:
                case UnrealTargetConfiguration.Test:
                default:
                    return "Profile";
               
                case UnrealTargetConfiguration.Shipping:
                    return "Release";
            }

Answer 4

If you build your game with "test configuration" or "shipping configuration", unreal tries build twice. one is a game editor with development config and a game with shipping config.
Because of this reason, CommunicationCentral.lib in static variable AkLibs in WwiseSoundEngine_2023_1_OptimalModule.Build.cs was added in editor development build and it still exists in game shipping build.

So I moved static variable AkLibs to local variable in Apply method which is right below static definition of AkLibs. Check below.

 

    /* Comment out this
    private static List<string> AkLibs = new List<string>
    {
        "AkSoundEngine",
        "AkMemoryMgr",
        "AkStreamMgr",
        "AkMusicEngine",
        "AkSpatialAudio",
        "AkAudioInputSource",
        "AkVorbisDecoder",
        "AkMeterFX", // AkMeter does not have a dedicated DLL
    };
    */
    
    public static void Apply(WwiseSoundEngine SE, ReadOnlyTargetRules Target, bool Latest = false)
    {

        // Add this
        List<string> AkLibs = new List<string>
        {
        "AkSoundEngine",
        "AkMemoryMgr",
        "AkStreamMgr",
        "AkMusicEngine",
        "AkSpatialAudio",
        "AkAudioInputSource",
        "AkVorbisDecoder",
        "AkMeterFX", // AkMeter does not have a dedicated DLL
        };

#if UE_5_3_OR_LATER
        ILogger Logger = Target.Logger;
#endif

Comments

This is the correct answer. The reason this happens is they are using a static list which is EDITTED during the build process AND if you are building multiple configurations such as Development+Shipping lets say, it will break 100%

However, you also need the change to set TEST to be using PROFILE instead of RELEASE as well otherwise you wont be able to compile test