Request: Expose Audio Occlusion and Advanced Attenuation Properties in UEFN

[Sermox]

I’d like to request that UEFN exposes more of the built-in Unreal/Fortnite audio settings, especially Audio Occlusion, Advanced Attenuation, and Override Attenuation options for Audio Components, Sound Cues, Sound Waves, Blueprint Audio Components, and worldbuilding audio.

Currently, creators can create generic audio in UEFN by using attenuation, there are hidden settings inside of the audio attenuation that expand the functionality of our audio, giving creators more control on how they use their audio. However, as of v41.00 many of these properties are hidden from the UEFN interface are now flagged as Illegal Property Overrides and produce validation errors.

I have tested these audio features rigorously inside UEFN, and they work flawlessly in-game. Most Fortnite props already seem to use occlusion audio behavior, so the feature clearly fits Fortnite’s worldbuilding and gameplay style. The issue is that creators do not currently have a clean, exposed, validation-safe way to use these same settings on our own audio.

Audio Occlusion allows an incredible depth to be added to your world. Using it, you can create immersive experiences in which:

• Ambient sounds from outdoors may have a muffled effect while transitioning into buildings.
• Speaker sounds in a city map may feel muffled on the other side of a wall.
• The machine or generator ambient sounds may give a real presence of them in a room.
• Ambients for cave or bunker interiors may feel enclosed in the way they should.
• Horror maps may have ambient sounds blocked behind doors/walls.
• Adventurous maps can use better directional sound.

Otherwise, without using these settings, environmental audio sounds very two-dimensional, even if there is a transition between indoors and outdoors on a map. While visual worldbuilding in UEFN has advanced greatly, **audio requires the same level of attention.
**
Again, most props in the UEFN Content Browser already have occlusion built in, which have worked for several years.
Example Prop with occlusion: /Game/Athena/Apollo/Environments/BuildingActors/PowerPlant/Props/Apollo_PowerPlant_Turbine_02

UEFN Voice chat has received a new audio upgrade:

Immature

Here is an example of these properties working inside of UEFN:

EDMIRE

As stated in a reply they are now using a Validation Bypass to override the audio invalidation, granting an advantage for our problem.

EDMIRE

Creators have already raised concerns about UEFN audio options being limited and missing important workflows, and Epic has acknowledged that audio tooling is continuing to evolve:

Major - UEFN - Audio options are very limited, obscure and unnecessarily complicated

Thanks for the additional feedback. I’ll share this back with our team

Creators asked about Sound Cue attenuation, air absorption, occlusion, and audio volumes in the 2023 Audio AMA. Which was overlooked:

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

So glad we’re finally getting an AMA about Audio, I’ve been hoping we get some more Audio features so here’s some questions I have: Are there any plans to add MetaSounds anytime soon? 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? Are there any plans to make the Audio Mixer instigator based so we can add different volume mixes for different players? For exam…

Only Audio Gameplay Volumes were mentioned:
“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.” This was in 2023, and no update has been posted since.

The main settings creators need exposed and validation-safe are:

• bOverrideAttenuation

• AttenuationOverrides

• bEnableOcclusion

• OcclusionTraceChannel

• OcclusionLowPassFilterFrequency

• OcclusionVolumeAttenuation

• OcclusionInterpolationTime

• bUseComplexCollisionForOcclusion

• bAttenuateWithLPF

• AbsorptionMethod

• LPFRadiusMin

• LPFRadiusMax

• LPFFrequencyAtMin

• LPFFrequencyAtMax

• HPFFrequencyAtMin

• HPFFrequencyAtMax

• bAttenuate

• bSpatialize

• AttenuationShape

• AttenuationShapeExtents

• FalloffDistance

• DistanceAlgorithm

Additional settings for Reverb:

• bEnableReverbSend
• ReverbSendMethod
• ReverbWetLevelMin
• ReverbWetLevelMax
• ReverbDistanceMin
• ReverbDistanceMax
• ManualReverbSendLevel

Audio occlusion, attenuation, LPF, air absorption, and eventually reverb controls would give creators the ability to make Fortnite islands feel much more alive. These features would help close the gap between visual worldbuilding and audio worldbuilding.

The current validation warnings show that these settings are being treated as illegal overrides, even though they are exactly the type of tools creators need for deeper environmental sound. Resetting them to default removes the polish and immersion these features provide.

Please consider making audio occlusion and advanced attenuation officially exposed, supported, and validation-safe in UEFN.