GAME CALL
Message transmitted by the game to Wwise (ex: “Hey, the shotgun was fired”). The game calls can be conventional calls such as Events, Game Parameters, Switches and States, or specialized calls designed specifically for music applications called Triggers.
EVENTS
Events are a type of Wwise Game Call that the game engine sends to the Wwise audio engine, indicating that something has occurred in the game.
GAME OBJECT
This identifies which entity in the game the message is associated with. (ex: main player)
WORK UNITS
Work Units contain information related to a particular section or element within your project and help you organize your project.
SOUNDBANK
A file that contains the various audio files and their behaviour (the finalized code that makes the audio in the game works as intended).
PARENT
Object higher in the hierarchy that contains other objects (which are his children). All his children acquire the same properties as their parent (ex: Tempo, Metric, Pitch Shift, Volume, etc).
CHILD
Object lower in the hierarchy that has a parent. Has the properties of his parent (ex: Tempo, Metric, Pitch Shift, Volume, etc).
SWITCH GROUP OBJECT
Much like an Event object, this provides the receptor for the information that will be transmitted by the game engine. Typically used for local variables (ex: TypeOfTerrainUnderPlayer [Grass, Sand, Concrete], EnemyPower [Weak, Medium, Strong], DistanceFromCastle [Near, Far]).
SWITCH OBJECT
Each component (or choice) of the Switch Group.
STATE GROUP OBJECT
Much like an Event object, this provides the receptor for the information that will be transmitted by the game engine. Generally used for global states (ex: IsPlayerAlive [yes/no], IsPlayerInWater [yes/no], IsPlayerInvincible [yes/no]).
STATE OBJECT
Each component (or choice) of the State Group.
GAME PARAMETER (RTPC)
A graph function that allows to map a Wwise property value (such as pitch, volume, low-pass-filter, etc.) to an in-game parameter (such as DistanceFromPlayer).
TRIGGER
Much like an Event object, this provides the receptor for the information that will be transmitted by the game engine. In interactive music specifically, a Trigger responds to a game call in the game by launching a stinger.
LAYOUT
A group of views arranged together that have been optimized to help you perform certain tasks.
DESIGNER LAYOUT
Used to manage, build, and define the objects (multiple sounds, containers, events, game parameters, etc.) and their behaviours.
PROFILER LAYOUT
Used to monitor and analyze the performance of game audio and motion elements as they occur.
SOUNDBANK LAYOUT
Used to create, manage, and generate the SoundBanks for your project.
MIXER LAYOUT
Used to create a Mix Table and to mix the various objects in Wwise.
SCHEMATIC LAYOUT
Used to examine a graphical overview of a project’s structure.
INTERACTIVE MUSIC LAYOUT
Used to manage, build, and define the music assets that make up the interactive music portion of your game.
VOICE PROFILER LAYOUT
Used to examine the audio path of a specific sound object.
SOUNDCASTER
A view that allows to easily start events, modify the game syncs values, as well as play multiple audio files at the same time to see the relations between different objects.
Master-Mixer Hierarchy Objects
MASTER AUDIO BUS
The top level element in the hierarchy that determines the final output of your audio.
AUDIO BUS
One or more optional busses that can be grouped under a master Audio Bus to help in the organization and delivery of your sound mix.
AUXILIARY BUS
One or more optional busses that can be grouped under any Auxiliary or Audio Bus. Generally used to apply effects to Auxiliary (commonly referred to as “aux”) Busses.
Actor-Mixer Hierarchy Objects
ACTOR-MIXER
Type of object that can be used to group a large number of Wwise objects together in order to apply properties to the group as a whole. Works like an audio bus to all the children nested beneath it.
SWITCH CONTAINER
A container object which allows to choose which child object is played based on the status of a state or a switch.
SEQUENCE CONTAINER
A container object in which you can select in which order his children objects are going to play.
RANDOM CONTAINER
A container object which allows to randomly choose which child object is played.
BLEND CONTAINER
A container object which allows to group multiple objects that will be played simultaneously. Can control the volume and the pitch of each voice separately. Also allows to create sampled instruments (VST).
SOUND SFX OBJECT
The core SFX object at the base of the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy. It contains the audio assets for the SFX project.
Interactive Music Hierarchy Objects
MUSIC SWITCH CONTAINER
A music container object which allows to choose which child object is played based on the status of a state or a switch.
MUSIC PLAYLIST CONTAINER
A music container object in which you can select in which order his children objects are going to play.
MUSIC SEGMENT
The core music object at the base of the Interactive Music Hierarchy. It contains the audio assets for the music project in his children (Music Tracks). Comparable to a Digital Audio Station (DAW).
MUSIC TRACK
An object in a music segment which contains a single audio file. Comparable to a single track in a Digital Audio Station (DAW).
ATTENUATION CURVE
A ShareSet which allows to define the distance-based attenuation properties for a particular object by using RTPC to define the relationship between Wwise properties (ex:volume and Low-Pass Filter) and the distance between the emitter and the listener.
CONE ATTENUATION
A property of an Attenuation object that can be adjusted to influence the directionality of sounds. It allows to focus sounds in the world by restricting the angle of sound propagation based on the game objects orientation.
LISTENER
A virtual microphone (game object) in the game that helps assign the sounds to particular speakers to simulate a 2D/3D environment. Generally, the listener is directly on the player.
EMITTER
The game object in the game which is the 2D/3D source of a sound.
SHARE SETS
ShareSets are a form of preset that lets you apply various types of settings that you intend to use often or on multiple objects as you build your project.
GAME CAPTURE
Capturing is the process of recording, in real-time, a log of any information coming from the Wwise Sound Engine in your game related to the game play
USER-DEFINED 3D SOUND SOURCE
simulate placing a sound object in Wwise into the 3D world, even when the game itself does not have a game object for that sound. Ex: gun shells falling
VOICE
A single instance of an audio file which is being played. Each sound playing at a certain time is a different voice.
VIRTUAL VOICE
Voices which are being sent in a virtual voice list because they are below a certain dB threshold or are already playing as too many instances. They are no longer processed and don’t count as a physical voice.
PHYSICAL VOICE
Voices which are processed by Wwise and are being sent in the headphones/speakers.
INTERACTIVE MUSIC HIERARCHY (Music):
(Music Switch Container || Music Playlist Container)
>> Music Segment
>> Music Track
ACTOR-MIXER HIERARCHY (SFX):
Actor-Mixer
>> (Switch Container || Sequence Container || Random Container || Blend Container)
>> Sound SFX
MUSIC SEGMENT in INTERACTIVE MUSIC HIERARCHY is the equivalent of SOUND SFX in ACTOR-MIXER HIERARCHY.
1. GAME CALL is sent from the game.
2. GAME CALL is received by Wwise via the EVENT.
3. When the EVENT receives the GAME CALL, it will perform the EVENT’s ACTION (ex: Play a SOUND SFX OBJECT).
