Ask Epic Anything: Audio | September 13, 2023 at 12:00 PM ET

[dave.axe]

@CroakyJake12

Are we allowed to use non-collaboration Fortnite music in our maps (such as the Henchmen music from ch2s2 and/or the Gumball music pack from ch3 - 2 random examples) or would this be a violation of copyright? Where do Epic’s copyright boundaries extend to in general (if possible can you give some detail for all media types)?

The safest path to ensure that your island is not hit with enforcement actions is to stick with the assets that Epic has specifically provided for use in UEFN/FNC. That goes for all kinds of Epic IP.

[audioSlacker (Michael)]

@HayleyHail

Are we capable of combining background audio (with audio device) and layering sequencer audio on top for cinematics with and without camera tracks? Would love to have looping island audio with combat or boss audio stacked for fight scenes

At this time, users can only place one audio wave into an Audio Device at a time. You can set up multiple Audio Devices that can layer your sounds and music throughout your gameplay.

[GraceYen]

@djpixel

What is the intended difference between Radio and Audio Players? Audio Players can play looped sounds if Sound Cue is configured to loop, and have more attenuation settings, so they seem directly superior for most scenarios.

The Radio is a device that has been available since FN Creative, and can be used to play Fortnite music and ambient sound effects. The Audio Player device was introduced with UEFN to support the latest features including the ability to import your own audio. It is recommended that you use the Audio Player device whenever possible.

[audioSlacker (Michael)]

@djpixel

What is the best way to see and understand how audio is affected by walls?

As of right now, there is no occlusion of sounds in UEFN. This means that any sound that plays on your island will be heard through walls and structures. I have gotten around this in my projects by careful limiting of attenuation radius for certain sounds that I do not want to be heard between walls.

[audioSlacker (Michael)]

@latundaPC

Are there any template/sample uefn games demonstrating best practices audio-wise? It would be good to add one if there aren’t any.

No templates currently exist that highlight audio features in UEFN exclusively, but each template does make use of some of the audio features available. Creating a more fully-features audio-centric template is something we would like to provide in the future but as of right now, we have no plans to create one.

[Ghost_Rush]

@Flak

Hey, so there’s been this long standing issue with longer audio in cinematic sequences. Whenever there’s there’s a framerate drop or network issue on the client’s end, the audio will restart from the beginning.

I saw a while back on the forums that this was being worked on, but I just wanna know if there’s been any progress?

Unintended audio restarts within the Cinematic Sequencer can be triggered by a variety of scenarios. We’ve been able to address many of them already, so we hope that the experience has improved overall. Work continues to improve it, including restarting audio as it relates to performance or network traffic issues.

[GraceYen]

@djpixel

Sound Cue editor in Unreal seems to have more nodes/settings than UEFN one. Is there a plan to bring them to feature parity?

We currently don’t have plans to add any additional support for new nodes in Sound Cues. Our focus is on expanding capabilities through MetaSounds and bringing it to UEFN in the future. We will focus efforts there.

[audioSlacker (Michael)]

@Rynex_FNC

• Are there any plans to add more Fortnite sound effects to the Sound Cue folder, for example footstep sound effects, door sound effects, etc?

At this time, we have no plans to make any of the Fortnite sound effects available to users.

[Kiriousaurus]

I definitely agree with the music part! I think I meant more of ambient sound effects and such. I just had a map denied due to an ambient beach loop that I bought in a UE Marketplace pack.

[dave.axe]

@Jekyll_H_Y_D_E

A few of our Clients (music company´s) of Team Mapshot, waiting that they can sign something to make maps in UEFN.

Because in the moment is impossible to create a real music expirience due no music can be uploaded with Copyright. but if the Copyrightholder want to do a map is sadly still not possible because it get straight away denied.

We have a roadplan when it will be possible?

And how that will be implanted?

Thanks for letting us know there’s a lot of interest in this. We are exploring ways to get more music into the FN ecosystem. For now, the safest path is still to use original music you have created yourself or that you fully own all the rights to.

[GraceYen]

@StellarLime911

Will there ever be a way to have audio continue to play when the player is out of range? For example, if you have a song play, and you walk out of range 6 seconds in, and come back 2 seconds later, the song will be 8 seconds in. Currently, walking out of range just restarts the song.

This is something we have been looking at and want to add support for. In Unreal Engine, the feature shows up as ‘play when silent’. No timeline for when this will be done, but we think this would be really useful.

[CurtisSmithSound (Curtis Smith)]

I have not had any success using the audio-reactive props with custom audio using the Radio. Is there a trick to using custom audio with the audio-reactive props? Or, do they only react because the default music in the engine has already had the data for wave analysis baked in?

[GraceYen]

@Rynex_FNC

Are there any plans to add MetaSounds anytime soon?

We are planning on bringing the power of Unreal Engine Audio to Unreal Editor for Fortnite, which includes supporting MetaSounds. At the moment, we have been focused on other high priority audio use cases such as adding spatial audio support in sequencer Audio tracks, and continuing to add features to the new Audio Player Device we introduced. The MetaSounds Editor in Unreal Engine is fairly full featured and we continue iterate on it and make performance optimizations. Initial support for MetaSounds in UEFN will likely start with allowing users to use read-only MetaSounds already authored and ready to plug into UEFN experiences. We don’t have a timeline on when this will be done.

[PandaParkes]

@Cardin

Main thing I’d like to know is if we are getting any control back for audio compression as im not sure how I can fit for example 8 x 5 min looping music tracks into a project without getting control over the compression.

I also am still using audio cues by creating actor hosts in the world and dynamically swapping the active cue and playing them via the sequencer as this is much more effective than trying to time audio via devices. I am using the crossfade by distance node to replicate attenuation but I cannot access spatialization this way.
I still find it extremely cumbersome to try and use audio device with cinematics and animations and timing is not great compared to cues in actors with more than one person in the session. Is there any movement on replacing or enhancing this workflow or what should I be doing instead.

We will be providing some control over loading behaviour in a future update but we currently don’t have any plans to expose audio compression settings.

Also coming to UEFN in the future is Unreal Engine’s Sound Attenuation asset and with it the ability to set attenuation settings on sounds and override them in sequences!

[GraceYen]

@Rynex_FNC

Are there any plans to bring back the deleted Sound Cue editor nodes, such as Attenuation, or even the settings inside the Output that allowed us to add Air Absorption, Occlusion, etc?

We currently don’t have plans to add additional functionality to Sound Cues and the editor. Sound Cues are older legacy tech that will continue to be supported, but we are looking to add new features and invest in MetaSounds and other areas in UE Audio.

[dave.axe]

@StellarLime911

Will you ever allow the use of copyright audio with monetization turned off, similar to YouTube? Licensed tracks can make an experience feel much more professional.
Thanks in advance

Appreciate the feature idea, and we’re actively looking into ways to enable more music in the FN ecosystem.

[GraceYen]

@Rynex_FNC

Are there any plans to give us Audio Volumes that have been shown for UE5 that would allow us to easily add Reverb inside a room for example?

We continue to look for ways to add the power of Unreal Engine Audio to Unreal Editor for Fortnite. ‘Audio Gameplay Volumes’ is on our radar for UEFN but we don’t have a timeline at the moment.

[dave.axe]

@Kamyker

1. Are there plans to change music rules and allow non-exclusive songs? I want to port my rhythm game from Unity/Steam to UEFN but this rule makes it impossible:

Section “6.1.2. Special Requirements for Musical Works” of https://www.fortnite.com/unreal-editor-for-fortnite-supplemental-terms seems very restrictive. Especially: “you may not upload music: that you have purchased a non-exclusive license for”.

We understand the frustration, and we’re actively exploring ways to enable more music in the FN ecosystem.

[GraceYen]

@Rynex_FNC

Are there any plans to give Devices that have sounds an option to use a custom sound instead, let’s say a custom Fiend spawn sound effect without needing to use an Audio Player Device?

In the future, we want to unify how audio works across all creative devices so that users can disable audio, or provide custom audio. This is lower priority on the list at the moment.

[audioSlacker (Michael)]

@User-fa96fc52b1

will we be able to change the audio sound of the weapons or the footsteps in UEFN?

This is a feature we are hoping to get into a future release.