Ensuring voice actors privacy with Wwise effects?

Question

Hi all,

I'm working on a project where we're applying vocal processing (like harmonizer and tremolo) in Wwise to create a gasmask/vocoder-style effect. The processed voices are meant to sound completely different from the original recordings, partly for stylistic reasons and partly to obscure the identity of the speakers.

My concern is whether technically savvy players might be able to extract the unprocessed voice files from the game's data once shipped (it wouldn't be the first time players unpack sound files from a game) and reveal the original voice lines. I assume that they would - since the effects are being applied in real-time via an actor mixer. I'm assuming the original files must still be present in the build for the runtime effects to work.

I noticed there's a “Render” checkbox in Wwise which, from what I understand, bakes the effects into the audio file for performance optimization. Would enabling this also help in protecting the original voice by ensuring only the processed version is ever packaged with the game?

Would love to hear how others approach this kind of privacy/security concern when using real-time audio effects in Wwise.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi!

You are correct in thinking that some people will be able to extract the content of your SoundBanks once you ship your game. You are also correct about the Render option; it will make the sound in your SoundBank have the effects baked in.

Other approaches include adding encryption and decryption functions for your SoundBanks, but that is not available out-of-the-box (you need a programmer to add the functionality) and can still be hacked with enough time and resources.

I am also curious about other approaches to this issue, but I can't think of one at the moment.

Comments

Awesome, thanks for the detailed answer! Audiokinetic's support is always top notch <3