Unreal Engine 4.16 Preview

[dan.reynolds]

@Obsidiaguy;700222

I would like to test out the new audio engine with Steam Audio, but I can’t find documentation for it and am having a tough time figuring out how to set it up. I’ve added phonon source/geometry/material components to sounds and objects, added phonon related volumes and generated points, baked sound propagation, and anything else I could try by following the unity tutorial, but I feel like there should be some general settings section somewhere I’m missing, since Unity has so many more steam audio options than I’m seeing in UE4.

Hello Mitchell!

Once the Phonon Plugin is enabled, there are several assets that will be available–these are attenuation assets. We found early on that the new Audio Engine already had data on the Sound Source’s world information and so a “Phonon Source” component was unnecessary. Instead, you will want to apply an Attenuation Object to your Sound Source that has Phonon Asset Overrides.

I made the following procedure steps that should still be usable in its current state. However, please keep in mind that we are still working with Valve on refining the implementation and that at the moment the integration is experimental.

Steam Audio Procedures
Spatialized Direct Audio

1. Change Spatialization Parameter on Attenuation Settings to: HRTF Spatialization
2. Create/Add Phonon Spatialization Settings

Enabling Occlusion

1. Tag Occluding Static Meshes with Phonon Geometry Component
2. Export Scene (Under Build Drop-Down Menu)
3. Enable Occlusion on Attenuation Settings
4. Create/Add Phonon Attenuation Settings
5. Set Phonon Attenuation Settings to Raycast or Partial

Enabling Realtime Propagation on a Source Sound

1. Tag Reflective Static Meshes with Phonon Geometry Component
2. Export Scene (Under Build Drop-Down Menu)
3. Create/Add Phonon Reverb Settings to Source’s Attenuation Settings
4. Set Phonon Reverb Settings’ Indirect Simulation Mode to: Realtime

Enabling Baked Propagation on a Source Sound

1. Tag Reflective Static Meshes with Phonon Geometry Component
2. Export Scene (Under Build Drop-Down Menu)
3. Create/Add Phonon Reverb Settings to Source’s Attenuation Settings
4. Set Phonon Reverb Settings’ Indirect Simulation Mode to: Baked
5. Add Phonon Probe Volume to scene
6. Scale Phonon Probe Volume to fit around reverberate space and geometry
7. Set Probe Volume Placement Strategy to: Uniform Distribution
8. Set Horizontal Spacing to something reasonable
9. Click Generate Probes
10. Add a Phonon Source Component to Audio Component
11. Set Phonon Source Component’s Baked Radius to be larger than the sound source’s attenuation range
12. Click Bake Propagation

Enabling Baked Listener Reverb

1. Tag Reflective Static Meshes with Phonon Geometry Component
2. Export Scene (Under Build Drop-Down Menu)
3. Change Global Indirect Simulation Mode to Baked (In Project Settings)
4. Add Phonon Probe Voluem to scene
5. Scale Phonon Probe Volume to fit around reverberate space and geometry
6. Set Probe Volume Placement Strategy to: Uniform Distribution
7. Set Horizontal Spacing to something reasonable
8. Click Generate Probes
9. Bake Reverb (Under Build Drop-Down Menu)
   Any sources that have a non-null reverb setting will be routed through this reverb.

EDIT: It’s worth noting that all these new Audio Engine features are Early Access/Experimental at the moment and can only be accessed by enabling the Audio Engine (with commandline it’s -audiomixer).