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[Updated] [Critical] Wwise-Unity integration causing mass wwise event ScriptableObjects to be deleted

+7 votes
Sorry for making a separate post for this (I've found 2 posts with most likely the same issue), but this is a critical problem and hopefully we can get enough attention to get a response and maybe a workaround/fix for it.

Using:
Unity version 2021.2.7f1
Wwise Unity Integration 2021.1.5.7749.2277
Wwise Version 2021.1.5.7749

Note: This issue started for us two weeks ago when we updated from using Unity version 2020.2 and an old 2019 version of Wwise (not sure the exact version).

Video showing issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpSwHueM93s

1) Teammate makes changes in the wwise authoring project, and generates the SoundBanks
2) Teammate pushes their changes to version control (Plastic SCM in our case).
3) I download the update, and return to the Unity window (no files deleted at this point).
4) I run the game, and stop it.
5) I go back to the Plastic SCM window, and it shows hundreds of the wwise event ScriptableObjects have been deleted.

If I then run the game, I get an error as soon as a wwise event is triggered that would use the wwise event ScriptableObject reference.

I posted a Bug Report using Wwise Launcher, it is bug #16422-83796-20122-61026

Other threads that are probably the same issue - both of them also seem to mention version control, so maybe it is related to that? Maybe we all have a file under version control that shouldn't be controlled, and should be private? At the beginning of my video you can see what files were modified (right before I pulled his update), should any of those not be controlled? [Edit: Doesn't seem to have anything to do with version control specifically, see the comment I added below]

https://www.audiokinetic.com/qa/9747/randomly-trashes-events-gameobjects-generate-soundbanks

https://www.audiokinetic.com/qa/9701/unity-wwise-event-variables-disconnected-version-control

https://www.audiokinetic.com/qa/9789/losing-references-using-ak-wwise-event-unity-scripts-how-fix?show=9792#c9792 (may or may not be the same issue, but adding it just in case)

Current workaround is to un-delete the files using the version control program. But this is messy/complicated for a larger team - really hoping for a hotfix or some info on what we could change to bypass the issue.

Edit Feb 5th, 2022 - Even with this workaround, when any sound Event is attempted to be played while they are deleted (which causes the error, so you then know the bug got triggered) puts that Event into some disconnected-reference state where you will continue getting the error for that Event until you restart Unity (maybe there is some other faster way to refresh the references, but I've tried several things and it only gets fixed after restarting Unity). Very frustrating.

Thanks for the help!
asked Jan 15, 2022 in General Discussion by James M. (800 points)
edited Feb 7, 2022 by James M.
Adding more info - this doesn't appear to have anything to do with version control. If my teammate generates the soundbanks, and then runs the game in Unity himself, it deletes all of those ScriptableObject files. This is a major workflow hamper, as he is regularly updating the soundbanks to test things out in-game.
Thanks for the report, I can confirm it was received in the Bug Report system.
Note that if you would like support from the official Audiokinetic support team, please open a Support Ticket (https://www.audiokinetic.com/customers/tickets/).
Hey Sam, thank you for the confirmation!

How can we (myself and the other people having this issue) get informed on when this bug is fixed, or if there is a workaround, etc? Is there an issue tracker or anything like that? Or maybe since I filed the Bug Report through the Wwise Launcher, will I receive an email at some point about it?

Paying $300 to open a Support Ticket isn't really an option since this appears to be a bug, and not specific to our project or implementation - multiple people here on the forum are having the issue, and for my team specifically we didn't change anything besides updating Wwise & the Wwise-Unity runtime to the newest version.

Thank you for the help!

3 Answers

+1 vote
Hello,

Have you learned of any fixes to this bug? I believe that our team is experiencing this as well and it's greatly reducing productivity. Any info would be appreciated.

Thank you!

Jordan
answered Feb 3, 2022 by Jordan G. (170 points)
I have not. I also haven't tracked down exactly what causes the issue - it seems to happen somewhat randomly (always after our Audio team member pushes an update to our VCS, but it doesn't seem to happen every time).

I submitted the bug report on Jan 15th and haven't heard anything since.

Could you comment with what version of the Wwise-Unity-Integration you're using? And what Unity version?
Hey Jordan, no fix quite yet, but I talked to my rep and they confirmed they're working on it and it will be fixed in an upcoming release.
+2 votes
Update: Some good news - I talked to my project representative, and they confirmed that they're aware of the issue and actively working on it, and that a patch could come in the next minor release for Wwise. So no exact date yet, but they will be fixing it.
answered Feb 7, 2022 by James M. (800 points)
Thanks for the update James. Great to know help is on the way, it's such a pain in the arse...
Hi, is there an update on when the patch might be coming out?
Don't know a specific date or anything. My guess would be within a month.
+3 votes
Hi James,
Thank you for compiling all these threads and providing video documentation of the issue. After investigation, it seems that the most likely culprit for this issue is the AkWwiseProjectData being tracked in source control. You can think of this asset as a local cache of the project state that the integration uses to track what has been added and removed in the Wwise project. The integration will make changes to it as work units on the disk change, which can lock the file for other users and thus prevent the parser from correctly interpreting future modifications they may make to the Wwise project. Considering that your AkWwiseProjectData is probably in a weird state, I would recommend ignoring the AkWwiseProjectData in your source control and deleting it locally. The next time you open the Unity Editor, it will be regenerated (this might take some time as all work units will be parsed).

I also noticed that your Wwise project is located within the Assets folder of your unity project. I'm not certain whether this is related to the issues you are having, but in general this is not recommended. It would be best to move your Wwise project one level up, so that Unity's asset importers don't interact with it.

If the issue persists after making these changes, please let us know.

We have a fix for this issue in the 21.1.7 release, which should be out in the next two weeks. It makes the work unit parsing more robust, but will not prevent issues arising from a locked AkWwiseProjectData. The fix will also provide an editor setting to prevent the integration from deleting WwiseObjectReferences (the assets found in Wwise/ScriptableObjects) altogether.

For future reference, an issue similar to this one is documented on our troubleshooting page : https://www.audiokinetic.com/fr/library/edge/?source=Unity&id=unity_troubleshooting.html.
answered Feb 18, 2022 by Etienne R. (Audiokinetic) (1,140 points)
Hi Etienne,

it's good to see that this issue finally get's attention.
I'm also having these problems for almost half a year in different projects but my .gitignore already contains the AkWwiseProjectData.asset.
Wouldn't it be a solution to remove it from the ignore, delete the ProjectData files and push the changes in the repository so the corrupted files would be deleted from everyones System?

I think I do not fully understand yet which application makes changes to this file and when exactly this happens.

I'm glad that there's going to be a fix in the next update but our project is in it's final state and waiting for two weeks isn't an option.

Hope to hear from you :)

Luke
Hi Etienne, do you have a more exact date for the release of this fix?
Hi Lucas,
Sorry for the slow reply. I agree that pushing the deleted file would be a valid approach. It's probably better than asking all team members to delete the file individually.

To help clarify, this file is updated whenever the work unit parser (running in the Unity integration) detects changes in work units on the disk (e.g. timestamps on the files are changed).  This timestamp checking happens when the unity project starts, when exiting play mode,  or when you click "Refresh Project" in the wwise picker. It also happens intermittently (every 3 seconds or so) when the  "Auto populate" option is checked in the Wwise picker (when the picker is in File System mode).

Best,
Etienne
Wwise 21.1.7 is out today!
Thanks for the explanation! And yess, happy about the Update :))
Glad the update was released at last, thank you!
Thank you for fix! Please update your documentation.
Add information about AkWwiseProjectData ignoring to doc
https://www.audiokinetic.com/library/edge/?source=Help&id=using_wwise_with_source_control_system
...