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Lesson 5

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Platform Exclusion

As the adventurer dashes through the high grass, her every step comes with a crackling thrust, followed by a decisive thud. Every move delivers a unique but firm resonance in the Woodlands.

One way to achieve variation is to use multiple audio structures in a Random Container. However, the more the sounds you include in your SoundBanks, the more physical and runtime memory your SoundBanks will take up. When building for multiple platforms, good practice is to exclude a certain type of variation for the platforms that have less runtime memory resources. One of the most frequently used sounds with many variations is the footsteps. Let’s now reduce the amount of variation on a specific surface material using the Player_Footstep_dirt_run Random Container. All other footstep Random Containers have been configured in the same manner.

  1. In the Platform Selector, make sure Android is selected.

  2. In the Search field, type ‘Footstep Dirt Run’ then select the Player_Footstep_dirt_run Random Container.

  3. Right-click anywhere in the background of the Object Tab to prompt the shortcut menu, then select Find in Project Explorer > Selection Channel 1.

    You’ll now see the Player_Footstep_dirt_run Random Container in the Project Explorer. By expanding it, you’ll find six footstep Sound SFXs. Let’s exclude half of the footstep sounds.

  4. Expand the Player_Footstep_dirt_run Random Container.

  5. In the Project Explorer, hold Ctrl while selecting the bottom three footstep Sound SFXs, then right-click the Player_Footstep_dirt_run_04 Sound SFX and select Inclusion > Unlink.

  6. Exclude all selected Sound SFXs by deselecting the Player_Footstep_dirt_run_04 Sound SFX.

    These three footsteps have now been excluded from the Android platform.

  7. Select Windows from the Platform Selector.

    Notice that all the sounds in Player_Footstep_dirt_run are included, but the three that were unlinked now have a half-filled Link/Unlink Indicator.

    Let’s evaluate the variation, in the Android platform. Be aware that the Player Footsteps are very subtle and low in volume compared to other sounds, and so you might want to turn up your audio output temporarily.

  8. Switch back to Android, make sure the Player_Foostep_dirt_run Random Container is selected, and in the Transport Control click Play multiple times.

    You can switch between Android and Windows to compare the result.

    [Note]

    The Inc. only toggle in the Transport View can be selected to only play the linked audio structures in the current platform.

    You’ve now reduced variation on Android by using platform exclusion and saved approximately half of the runtime memory used. However, should you have some CPU headroom, you can restore some variation without having to affect the runtime memory usage, by the use of the Randomizer. Let’s add slight randomization in pitch, but only for the Android platform.

  9. Make sure that Android is selected in the Platform Selector.

  10. In the Project Explorer, make sure the Player_Footstep_dirt_run Random Container is selected.

  11. In the Property Editor, make sure that the General Settings tab is selected.

  12. Then unlink the Pitch property by right-clicking the Link/Unlink Indicator and setting it to Unlink.

    As described in Property Field Exclusion section, start by determining the bounds of the pitch variation by sliding the property slider left and right.

  13. Double-click the Randomizer icon, enable it, then set your estimated Pitch values.

  14. In the Transport Control click Play multiple times.

With these steps, you retain variation on both platforms, but keep the amount of Sound SFXs to a minimum.

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