Hi, @afederici !
Glad to hear from you and hoping all is well!
Regarding next steps, I’d likely start by capping active voice counts on the Switch’s build using UE5’s concurrency settings, as well as its priority system + resolution rules. Would recommend testing with restricted voice counts (~10-20 max) and then increase a tad if the culling becomes too noticeable. We’ll want to play a careful balancing act between gaining enough performance overhead and culling the less noticeable parts of the soundscape.
For example, I’d set music and your main ambient bed(s) as high priority (will always play - as it’s very noticeable when missing and can help mask culling).
Then, establish the next tier/priority group. For example, player sounds (within these, some sounds may be high priority/noticeable), as well as any important pieces of key feedback/game interactions.
This should help reduce CPU load to allow for the additional DSP you mentioned (real time pitch modulations) to help stay within the audio’s performance budget! Would try to stay under 20 active voices while testing.
In addition, Could also consider creating an isolated test map and gradually introduce audio systems to see if the issue lies elsewhere.
One more idea that comes to mind: Would check for memory leaks / lingering components or voices not getting cleaned up or destroyed. Mostly considering as you mentioned “…but once it manifests, it persists until the game is restarted or reopened via the Switch main menu.”
This one you should be able to test on PC with audio console commands:
Basically want to make sure that voices are being destroyed / stopped when they’re supposed to. Would run the game for a while and then try these commands:
au.DumpActiveSounds 1 - get list of all sounds playing
au.Debug.AudioMemReport - generate documents detailing memory usage
Can also try during build:
au.3dVisualize.Enabled 1
au.3dVisualize.ActiveSounds 1
Hoping we can resolve the issue. Wishing you great luck!
Kindly,
Eric