This topic describes how to use the Oculus Spatializer Plugin (OSP) for Audiokinetic Wwise. To set up the spatializer, see Set Up the Oculus Spatializer for WWise

Prerequisite:

From within Wwise, under the Audio menu, set your audio output configuration to 2.1 or 2 2.0 (Speaker Panning) or 2.0 (Headphone Panning)

The spatializer will not work on higher channel configurations. Also, note that only mono (1-channel) and stereo (2-channel) sounds are spatialized. Any sounds with a higher channel count will not be spatialized.

Note: It is important that all sounds passed to Oculus Spatializers are monophonic - stereophonic rendering will be handled by our spatialization, and must not be applied over additional stereophonic rendering provided by your game engine or library.

Set up an Audio Bus

First, you should set up an audio bus that uses the spatialzier. Up to 64 sounds running through the bus are spatialized. Subsequent sounds use Wwise native 2D panning until the spatialized sound slots are free to be reused.

Note:If you add the plugin to a second bus, you may experience some unwanted noise on the audio output.

Launch Wwise and create a new audio bus under one of the master buses. Note you can add the plugin to only one audio bus.

Screenshot of new audio bus under the master audio bus of the default workpackage of the master-mixer hierarchy with name of "3d"

Note: Mixer bus plugins may not be added to master buses.

Select the newly-created bus in the Project Explorer and then click on the Mixer Plug-in tab.

Screenshot showing the location of the "Mixer Plug-in" tab of the created audio bus

Note: If the Mixer Plug-in tab is not visible, click the “+” tab and verify that Mixer Plugin is checked.

in the Audio Bus Property Editor. Select the >> button, find the Oculus Spatializer selection, and add a Default (Custom) preset:

Screenshot of the "Mixer Plug-in" tab of the created audio bus with the buttons described highlighted

Under the Mixer Plug-in tab, click on the ellipses ... button at the right side of the property window. This will open up the Effect Editor (global properties) for Oculus Spatializer (OSP):

Screenshot showing the Oculus Spatializer Effect Editor panel

Global Properties

The following properties are found within the OSP effect editor:

Property	Description
Bypass Use native panning	Disables spatialization. All sounds routed through this bus receive Wwise native 2D panning.
Gain (+/-24db)	Sets a global gain to all spatialized sounds. Because the spatializer attenuates the overall volume, it is important to adjust this value so spatialized sounds play at the same volume level as non-spatialized (or native panning) sounds.
Voice Limit	Sets the number of voices available for spatialization. Higher numbers here mean more audio objects an be positioned in space at the expense of CPU time. If there are not enough voices, the remaining voices will be natively panned.
Global Scale(1 unit = 1 m)	The scale of positional values fed into the spatializer must be set to meters. Some applications have different scale values assigned to a unit. For such applications, use this field to adjust the scale for the spatializer. Unity defaults to 1 meter per unit. Example: for an application with unit set to equal 1 cm, set the Global Scale value to 0.01 (1 cm = 100 m).
Enable Early Reflections	Enables early reflections. This greatly enhances the spatialization effect, but incurs a CPU hit. When enabled, make sure the room size roughly matches the room in the game, and that the room is large enough to contain the sound. If a sound goes outside the room size (relative to the listener’s position), early reflections will not be heard. In addition, be sure to set non-cubical room dimensions. A perfectly cubical room may create reinforcing echoes that can cause sounds to be poorly spatialized. The shoebox model works best when simulating rooms. For large spaces and outdoor areas, it should be complemented with a separate reverb.
Enable Reverberation	If this field is set, a fixed reverberation calculated from the early reflection room size and reflection values will be mixed into the output (see below). This can help diffuse the output and give a more natural sounding spatialization effect. Reflections Engine On must be enabled for reverberations to be applied.
Shared Reverb Attenuation Range Min / Max	Controls the attenuation calculations for the spatial reverb. For more information, see the Attenuation and Reflections section of the spatializer feature guide.
Shared Reverb Wet Mix (-60 - -20dB)	Sets the shared reverb wet level, effectively gaining the reverb that’s added to the mix. Lower, more negative values attenuate the reverb creating a dryer mix. Higher, less negative values create a wetter, more reverberant mix.
Room Dimensions Width / Height / Length	Sets the dimensions of the room model used to calculate reflections. The greater the dimensions, the further apart the reflections. Value range is 1-200 meters for each axis.
Wall Reflection Coefficients	Sets the percentage of sound reflected by walls for each wall specified for a room (Left/Right,Forward/Backward, Up/Down). At 0, the reflection is fully absorbed. At 1.0, the reflection bounces from the wall without any absorption. Capped at 0.97 to avoid feedback.

Spatialize an audio asset

Follow the steps below to spatialize a specific sound.

First, make sure you have an imported audio file (go to Project -> “Import Audio Files...”). In this example we’ve added “hans_test_voice” as a SFX of the default work group of the actor-mixer hierarchy.

Screenshot showing a single imported sound, "hans_test_voice", in the Project Explorer

Select the sound FX from the ProjectExplorer. Under General Settings, make sure sounds are set to use the audio bus configured with the Oculus Spatializer (which we named “3d” in previous steps).

Screenshot shownig the general settings of the imported sound properly set to send to the Oculus Spatializer bus created in the first part

On the Positioning tab, ensure the “3D Spatialization” setting is set to “Position” or “Position + Orientation”

Screenshot showing the Positioning settings of the imported sound with the 3d Spatialization setting set to "Position"

To test that things are working, we can temporarily “Override parent” in the Positioning tab (if necessary) and then set the “3D Position” to “Listener with Automation”.

Screenshot showing the Positioning settings of the imported sound with the "3D Position" property set to "Listener with Automation"

With the “3D Position” set to “Listener with Automation”, click on the “Automation...” button to open the Position Editor

Screenshot showing the Positioning settings of the imported sound with the "Automation..." button highlighted

Click “New” to add a new path, here we call it “Test Path”. Once the path is created, we move the point shown in the pan plan to somewhere non-centered, like to the listener’s right. The next time we trigger the sound (via hitting play or triggering an event that causes the sound to play), we should hear the sound as if it’s coming from the location we specified in the pan plane.

Screenshot showing the Position Editor for the imported sound with the Paths list and 3D pan plane highlighted

You might notice that there’s no distance-based attenuation yet though. We can add that by one of two ways - We can let the spatializer handle it by going to the Mixer Plug-in tab and selecting “Oculus Attenuation Enabled”:

Screenshot showing Mixer Plug-in tab of the imported sound with the "Oculus Attenuation Enabled" setting checked

Or we can let Wwise handle this by making sure “Oculus Attenuation Enabled” is deselected on the Mixer Plug-in page and adding an attenuation to the Positioning page:

Screenshot showing Positioning tab of the imported sound with the attenuation settings highlighted

Note: Whichever way you choose to handle distance-based attenuation, you should not enable both of them at the same time.

Once you’re done testing, making sure you set the Positioning “3D Position” setting back to “Emitter” if you want the object’s position to be set by the game.

Sound Properties

When a sound is set to use the spatializer audio bus, a Mixer plug-in tab will show up on the sounds Sound Property Editor.

Screenshot of the Mixer Plug-in tab of the imported sound

The following properties are applied per sound source.

Property	Description
Bypass Spatializer	Disables spatialization. Individual voices / actor-mixer channels may skip spatialization processing and go directly to native Wwise panning.
Reflections Enabled	Enables early reflections. This greatly enhances the spatialization effect, but incurs a CPU hit.
Oculus Attenuation Enabled	If selected, the audio source will use an internal amplitude attenuation falloff curve controlled by the Range Min/Max parameters.
Attenuation Range Min	Sets the distance at which the audio source amplitude starts attenuating, in meters. It also influences the reflection/reverb system, even if Oculus attenuation is disabled.
Attenuation Range Max	Sets the distance at which the audio source amplitude reaches full volume attenuation, in meters. It also influences the reflection/reverb system, even if Oculus attenuation is disabled.
Volumetric Radius	Expands the sound source from a point source to a spherical volume. The radius of the sphere is defined in meters. For a point source, use a value of 0.
Treat Sound As Ambisonic	Treats sound as ambisonic instead of applying spatialization. Recommended for ambient or environmental sounds, that is, any sound not produced by a visible actor in the scene. Note: Attached sound must be in AmbiX format. Please see Ambisonics in Supported Features for more information.

Notes and Best Practices

Note that the room model used to calculate reflections follows the listener’s position and rotates with the listener’s orientation.

All global properties may be set to an RTPC, for real-time control within the user application.

A stereo sound will be collapsed down to a monophonic sound by having both channels mixed into a single channel and attenuated. Keep in mind that by collapsing the stereo sound to a mono sound, phasing anomalies with the audio spectrum may occur. It is highly recommended that the input sound is authored as a mono sound.

Spatialized sounds will not be able to use stereo spread to make a sound encompass the listener as it gets closer (this a common practice for current spatialization techniques).

Starting with version 1.40 of the Wwise plugin, the volume set on a sound is applied pre-send. This means any volume setting including RTPC automation are consistent with the direct sound and reverb. For projects using the shared reverb this will change the mix.

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