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Lesson 2

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Conversion Settings

A way to reduce the runtime memory budget is by compressing the audio files using Conversion Settings. The beauty of Conversion Settings is that you can set different settings per platform, while keeping a categorized view (Ambiences, Enemies, and so on) of your sounds.

There are three ways of reducing the size of audio files.

  1. Reducing Sample Rate.

  2. Using compressed audio file formats.

  3. Reducing the Number of Channels.

To simplify the Conversion Settings with multiple audio structures, Conversion Settings can be saved as ShareSets, which you can then apply to an audio structure. Let’s head into the Enemy_Actions Conversion Settings ShareSet.

  1. In the Project Explorer’s ShareSets tab, go to Conversion Settings and expand the Default Work Unit > Enemies Work Unit.

    In the Enemies Work Unit you’ll find two Conversion Settings ShareSets. The Enemy_Actions Conversion Settings ShareSet is assigned to the audio structures that play a central role in communicating an action, like whenever an enemy is hurt, shoots, or dies. These actions are more essential to preserve and generally louder, so they will be prioritized above other enemy sounds. Let’s now assign the Evil Head Charge sounds to the Enemy_Actions Conversion ShareSet, as these sounds are both very audible and essential to notice. To find the Evil Head Change object, you can search for it using the Search Field. The Search Field is very useful with projects like WAG with a deep hierarchical structure, as you can quickly find an object with a certain name.

  2. In the Wwise toolbar’s Search field, search for Evil Head Charge, then select the EvilHead_Attack_Charge Random Container.

    As the EvilHead_Attack_Charge Random Container currently inherits its parent Conversion Settings ShareSet, you’ll have to override the parent and reassign a new Conversion Settings Shareset.

  3. On the Object Tab, select the Conversion tab.

  4. Select Override Parent.

  5. Using the Selector, select the Enemies > Enemy_Actions Conversion Settings.

    Notice that the Conversion Setting ShareSet assigned is also called (Custom) at the end. You should use the same Conversion Settings as all other Enemy_Actions sounds, and so you need to set the mode to ShareSet instead of Custom.

  6. Open the Mode list box and select Use ShareSets.

    The Conversion Settings was just changed, so the new file has not been generated. Let’s now convert the audio source.

  7. In the Conversion Settings group box, click the Pop Out button next to the Enemy_Actions Conversion Settings.

    In Conversion Setting you will see all Audio Sources that will be processed by Conversion, along with all original and converted audio values.

  8. In the Conversion Settings Editor, select Convert….

    For a quick preview, you can convert for only your current working platform. All Audio Sources will automatically be converted while generating SoundBanks, if you don’t choose to convert all of them at this point.

    [Note]

    Make sure you have selected the currently working platform. For example, if you are on a Windows, make sure Windows is selected in the Platform Selector.

  9. In the Audio File Conversion dialog, click Convert.

    You’ve now converted all Audio Sources within the EvilHead_Attack_Charge Random Container. Should you choose to set different Conversion Settings for any other audio structures, make sure you maintain a relevant name for the Conversion Setting ShareSet. This way, you’ll make it easier for yourself to change Conversion Settings for an entire category of sounds, without having to make a format compromise because you assigned Audio Sources with very different characteristics to the same ShareSet.

  10. Close the Conversion Settings Editor.

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