GregOrigin - Sonant: Native Contextual Audio Middleware

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

Watch the promo video.

Read the GitBook docs.

STOP EDITING PROJECT SETTINGS.

Standard Unreal Engine audio implementation is a workflow bottleneck. To get basic footsteps, you have to define dozens of Physical Materials, assign them to every Material Instance, and build complex "Switch on Enum" graphs. To handle ambiance, you have to build elaborate Blueprint logic to detect when a player enters a Cave inside a Forest without breaking the mix.

MEET SONANT.

Sonant is a high-performance Gameplay Audio Manager that treats audio as Logic, not just Content. It runs entirely as a native Game Instance Subsystem.

CORE FEATURES:

1. INTELLIGENT SURFACE DETECTION (The "Zero-Config" Engine)
Sonant "reads" your specific context. Instead of relying solely on Physical Materials, Sonant scans the distinct name of the Material Interface (e.g., M_Temple_Stone_Wet) and matches it against a keyword registry you define.

• The Workflow: Map the keyword "Stone" to your Stone Sound Pack once. Now, every material in your project with "Stone" in the name works instantly.

• The Performance: Surface resolution is cached at runtime. The string search runs only once per material asset. Every subsequent footstep is a generic

  O(1) pointer lookup.

2. PRIORITY-BASED ATMOSPHERES (The "Wwise-Lite" Mixer)
Solved: The "Cave inside a Forest" problem.
Sonant replaces standard Sound Mix Modifiers with a Weighted Priority Stack.

• Tag your volumes (e.g., Indoor, Underwater, Combat).

• Assign a Priority Integer to each tag in the Config.

• Sonant automatically calculates the highest-priority active tag and blends the correct Audio Modulation Control Bus instantly. No visual scripting required.

3. NATIVE C++ PERFORMANCE
Your game thread is precious. Sonant adds zero components to your Character. It contains no ticking actors. All logic is event-driven via the C++ Subsystem.

4. METASOUND READY
Fully compatible with UE 5.7+ MetaSounds. Drive procedural footsteps (walk vs. run) by plugging a MetaSoundSource directly into the Sonant registry.

Sonant: Native Contextual Audio Middleware

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

Sonant Changelog

2026-03-11

🚀 Major Architectural Upgrades

• Massive Performance Overhaul: Refactored the core USonantSubsystem to completely eliminate Game Thread synchronous loading hitches. The TSoftObjectPtr configuration is now loaded exactly once during Initialize() and cached as a hard TObjectPtr, dropping per-frame/per-hit lookup times down to pure O(1) memory access.
• Amortized Raycasting (Auto-Reverb): Completely rewrote the UpdateReverb logic. Instead of firing 6 expensive, synchronous physical line traces in a single tick to calculate room volume, Sonant now amortizes the traces by performing exactly 1 trace per interval, drastically reducing CPU spikes while maintaining fluid, real-time spatial awareness.
• Multiplayer & Networking Component: Introduced USonantNetworkComponent. Developers can now drop this replication helper onto their Pawns or Weapons to instantly gain standard Server and NetMulticast RPC wrappers for both Footsteps and Impacts, fully resolving the prior local-only subsystem limitation.
• True BSP Volume Support: Introduced ASonantBSPVolume. Level Designers are no longer restricted to using primitive UBoxComponent shapes for ambient zones. They can now use standard Unreal Engine BSP brush tools to map complex, non-rectangular acoustic atmospheres (e.g., winding caves, angled corridors).

✨ New Features & API Enhancements

• Generic Impact Intensity API: Added PlayImpactByIntensity(Location, Intensity). This allows developers who don't use standard Unreal Physics (e.g., custom kinematic controllers or line-trace weapons) to trigger dynamic impact audio simply by passing a normalized float (0.0 to 1.0), decoupling the audio engine from rigid physics mass requirements.
• Configurable Gameplay Tags: Removed all hardcoded internal C++ strings. The base routing tags for events (e.g., Sonant.Event.Footstep, Sonant.Event.Impact.Heavy) are now fully exposed in the Project Settings via USonantSettings, allowing developers complete control over their tag hierarchies without touching source code.
• Spectator / Free-Cam Reverb: Upgraded Auto-Reverb tracing to intelligently query GetViewTarget() before falling back to GetPawn(). Cinematic cameras, unpossessed vehicles, and free-cam spectators will now calculate correct spatial audio.

🛠 Demo & Onboarding Improvements

• "Acoustics Laboratory" Showcase: Completely scrapped and rewrote SonantFeatureDemo. It is now an interactive 4-wing lab that perfectly spaces out and visually explains:
  • North Wing: Material Walkway (Footstep testing).
  • East Wing: Dynamic Reverb Chambers (Closet, Hall, Cavern volumes).
  • South Wing: Physics Impact Arena (Live simulation pit).
  • West Wing: Atmosphere Tag Volumes (Overlapping nested state visualization).

⚙️ Build & Compliance

• Unreal Engine 5.6 Compatibility: Fixed a backwards-compatibility bug regarding EPhysicalSurface missing from ChaosEngineInterface.h in older engine builds.

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

Sonant Changelog

[0.2.0] - 2026-05-17

New Features

• Setup Wizard (FTUE)
  • Introduced a new Editor-only module (SonantEditor).
  • Added a native Slate window accessible via Window > Sonant > Sonant Setup & Scanner.
  • 1-Click Initialization: Automatically creates the default USonantConfig DataAsset, populates it with 8 industry-standard starter keywords (Wood, Metal, Stone, etc.), and assigns it directly to your Project Settings.
• Smart Material Scanner
  • Integrated into the Setup Wizard.
  • Automatically scans the /Game directory for UMaterialInterface assets.
  • Matches material naming conventions against common archetypes and auto-registers missing keywords into your active Sonant Config, eliminating manual data entry.
• Visual Debugger
  • Added a new Cheat Console Variable: Sonant.Debug 1.
  • Reverb Trace Visualization: Draws real-time green debugging lines showing the 6-way amortized raycast used for Auto-Reverb estimation, alongside an on-screen readout of the calculated Room Radius and active Mix.
  • Acoustic Occlusion & Impact Data: Draws a sphere at sound impact sites (Cyan for clear, Red for occluded) and prints an on-screen log detailing the exact GameplayTag triggered, occlusion status, Volume, and Pitch.

UI / UX Improvements

• Stylized Editor Interface
  • Overhauled the Sonant Setup window with a premium “Audio Orchestrator” aesthetic.
  • Features a dark space-blue palette (#050D1E), glowing Cyan (#00CCFF) typography, and a custom drop-shadow.
  • Implemented structured, numbered blocks (“01”, “02”) for a clean, modern user onboarding flow.

Architecture

• Module Split: Separated Editor-only UI tools into the new SonantEditor module to ensure they are cleanly stripped from packaged runtime builds.

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

0.3.0 update, 2026-06-05

Runtime Source Changes

• Added native built-in Sonant gameplay tags:
  • Plugins/Sonant/Source/Sonant/Public/SonantNativeTags.h
  • Plugins/Sonant/Source/Sonant/Private/SonantNativeTags.cpp
• Updated USonantSettings defaults to use native tag objects instead of FGameplayTag::RequestGameplayTag(...).
• Updated footstep and impact fallback logic to use native tags when settings are missing or invalid.
• Updated demo atmosphere zones to use native atmosphere tags directly.
• Removed hard-coded sample-project asset dependency from SonantDemoGameMode.
  • The plugin now defaults to ASonantDemoCharacter::StaticClass().
  • It no longer hard-loads /Game/ThirdPerson/... assets.
• Added missing Engine/Engine.h include in SonantSubsystem.cpp for clean plugin packaging.

Gameplay Tag Config Changes

• Added plugin-distributed tag config:
  • Plugins/Sonant/Config/Tags/SonantTags.ini
• Added project gameplay tag entries:
  • Config/DefaultGameplayTags.ini
• Tags covered:
  • Sonant
  • Sonant.Event.Footstep
  • Sonant.Event.Impact
  • Sonant.Event.Impact.Light
  • Sonant.Event.Impact.Heavy
  • Sonant.Atmosphere
  • Sonant.Atmosphere.Outdoor
  • Sonant.Atmosphere.Cave
  • Sonant.Atmosphere.Underwater

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

0.3.0a update, 2026-06-10

Architecture

• Dedicated Demo Module
  • Moved all demo/showcase classes (SonantDemoCharacter, SonantDemoGameMode, SonantDemoGenerator, SonantFeatureDemo, SonantAutoShowcase, SonantSpectacle, SonantGodRayShowcase) out of the core Sonant runtime module into a new dedicated SonantDemo runtime module.
  • The core middleware module is now lean (only the shippable runtime). The demo still ships and can be disabled per-project.
  • Added CoreRedirects in Config/DefaultEngine.ini so existing level/Blueprint references to the relocated classes resolve to /Script/SonantDemo.*.

Fixes & Hardening

• Surface Cache
  • Re-keyed the material → surface cache by FObjectKey to eliminate dangling/recycled material-pointer false hits, and it now invalidates when the active config changes.
• Multiplayer
  • Fixed footsteps/impacts playing twice on the initiating client (USonantNetworkComponent). The client predicts locally once and the NetMulticast now skips the autonomous proxy.
• GC Safety
  • Converted stray raw pointers in the showcase actors to UPROPERTY/TObjectPtr (and FHitFlash/FPulsingWall to USTRUCT), preventing use-after-free when spawned actors/materials are recycled.
• Subsystem
  • Null-guarded GetLocalPlayer() in UpdateReverb and PlaySoundAtLocation.

Demo

• Self-Contained Input
  • SonantDemoCharacter now binds WASD / mouse-look / action keys directly, so the demo runs with no project input mappings (no Enhanced Input or DefaultInput.ini setup required).
• Cleanup
  • Removed a hard-coded /Game/M_Sonant_Demo material reference; the demo relies only on engine content.
  • Moved demo logging from LogTemp to a dedicated LogSonantDemo category.

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

0.3.1 update, 2026-06-11

Core Bug Fixes

• Editor Crash Resolution: Fixed a critical Editor crash during garbage collection by refactoring the SmartCache in USonantSubsystem to use FObjectKey and FString values instead of raw pointers.
• Atmosphere Stack Leak: Patched a stack leak in USonantVolume by validating that overlapping components match the Pawn’s Root Component, preventing duplicate atmosphere pushes from overlapping child colliders (like weapon meshes).
• Material Lookup Bandwidth Bug: Decoupled RPCs in SonantNetworkComponent from sending the full FHitResult to the server. The client now passes lightweight data (FVector and Intensity) to PlayImpactByIntensity, drastically saving bandwidth and preventing mismatched server-side physical material lookups.
• Multi-Listener Spline Audio Fix: Fixed a logic flaw in USonantSplineAudioComponent that clamped distances to the server’s local camera. It now accurately computes distance dynamically based on the local player’s view target, enabling multiplayer support.
• Performance Optimization: Changed TSoftObjectPtr in the PhysicsMap back to TObjectPtr<UPhysicalMaterial> after identifying that async loading inside synchronous trace loops was causing micro-stutters.
• Atmosphere State Corruption Fix: Prevented state corruption where leaving a volume sometimes failed to revert the audio mix. The system now accurately caches and restores the CurrentAppliedMixAsset.

Setup Wizard & Workflow Enhancements

• Memory-Safe Config Loading: The Setup Wizard now safely uses LoadObject instead of FindObject, ensuring that previously created Config assets on disk aren’t accidentally overwritten or broken if they aren’t resident in memory.
• Automated Physics Mapping: The Smart Scanner now automatically searches the Asset Registry for UPhysicalMaterial assets across the /Game/ directory and pre-populates the PhysicsMap seamlessly.
• Dynamic Keyword Discovery: Implemented a string-parsing fallback in the Smart Scanner. If a material doesn’t match a core keyword, it automatically extracts the suffix (e.g., “Mud” from “M_Ground_Mud”) and creates a custom KeywordMap entry.
• Automated Saving: Setup Wizard actions now immediately serialize the generated Configuration Data Assets to disk using UEditorLoadingAndSavingUtils::SavePackages, protecting progress from Editor crashes.
• Interactive UI Polish: Added dynamic Slate UI highlighting (GetDependentButtonColor) and an FScopedSlowTask progress bar dialogue during heavy Asset Registry scans to improve user experience.
• Automated Collision Injection: Added a “Step 4: Inject AudioTrace Channel” button to the Setup Wizard. This safely parses DefaultEngine.ini and automatically claims an available ECC_GameTraceChannel for dedicated Sonant traces.

Performance & Architecture

• Runtime Async Pre-Caching: Added PrecacheMaterials() to USonantSubsystem::Initialize. The subsystem now proactively sweeps all loaded UMaterialInterface assets and populates the SmartCache during the loading screen, eliminating trace stuttering on the first footstep.
• Data Validation & Error Checking: USonantConfig now intercepts PostEditChangeProperty to automatically trim whitespace typos from KeywordMap string keys.
• Blueprint Volume Validation: USonantVolume now utilizes Unreal’s CheckForErrors framework to throw clickable Map Check warnings and Property Editor alerts if a level designer forgets to assign a required AtmosphereTag.
• Python Content Pipeline: Engineered a complete pipeline (GenerateWavFiles.py and GenerateSonantContent.py) to procedurally synthesize royalty-free demo content natively within the Unreal Engine environment.

[andgregori (Andras Gregori)]

Current Python demo content generators are also shared here:

GenerateSonantContent.py (4 KB)
GenerateWavFiles.py (2.4 KB)