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Lesson 2

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Using Large Mode

In the dungeon, there is an old library with a large armoured statue and lava below the floor. You are about to implement the lava ambience, but one problem remains. Where would you position the Ambient_Lava Event to best represent the widespread area?

[Tip]

Play the game in full if you haven't already done so, and become familiar with the Library in particular, which will be this section's environment.

For some objects like water, lava, or wind, you'd rarely get a convincing result with just a single positioned sound. In an attempt to solve this, one might add tons of Event instances in the same area to diffuse the sound, which would result in a significantly higher performance usage due to the increased number of voice instances. AkAmbient's Large mode solves this problem by providing the ability to create multiple point emitters while only using a single voice instance. These point emitters can then be used to mimic a volumetric sound propagation, with substantially fewer resources than multiple game objects using Simple mode.

[Tip]

Read more about Setting multiple positions for a single game object or Integration Details - 3D Positions on the Audiokinetic website.

In the following steps, you will set the lava in the Wwise Adventure Game to AkAmbient Large mode.

  1. In the Unity menu, go to Audiokinetic > Certification > 301 > Lesson 2 and select AkAmbient Position Types.

    To get a sense of how the Library region is currently set up, let's teleport to it and have a look around.

  2. Click Play to enter Play mode.

  3. Press ESC to enter the game menu and teleport to the Library.

  4. Take a walk around the center of the bridge, while observing the Lava area just below.

    Notice that the Lava sound is only coming from one direction; despite appearing to fill the floor completely, it is really only emitting the sound from the center of the game object. Let's locate the Ambient_Lava game object to see how we can improve the situation.

  5. Press ESC to open the WAG menu and click Play again to exit Play mode.

  6. In the Hierarchy, go to L2_3B - Dungeon Environment Scene > Wwise and select the Ambient_Lava game object.

  7. Position your mouse into the Scene view and press 'F' to focus on the Ambient_Lava game object.

    In the Inspector you will see the AkAmbient component. As you might recall, the Position Type property is located just above the Event Name. It is currently set to Simple Mode, so let's change it.

  8. In the Position Type property, select Large_Mode.

    Below the Show Attenuation Sphere: property two buttons will be revealed. Here you can click Add Large Mode position and a new position object will be created as child to the Ambient_Lava game object. As long as a game object has the AkAmbient Large Mode Positioner component on it, it can be used as a positioner object in a AkAmbient component. By clicking Add Large Mode position the script will automatically be added onto a new game object.

    [Tip]

    Consider adjusting the Scene view to monitor the Lava area in full. You will need the larger overview in order to position the game objects later on.

  9. Click Add Large Mode position object.

    By expanding the Ambient_Lava game object in the Hierarchy, you should see a AkAmbientPoint0 game object.

    The position of all child game objects will be relative to it's parent. So when moving the Ambient_Lava game object, you move all children position objects as well. As such, to only move the AkAmbientPoint0, you should select it in the Hierachy.

  10. In the Hierarchy, select the AkAmbientPoint0 game object.

    You can now start moving the child game object to where the sound will be emitted.

  11. Use the Move tool ('W') to move the AkAmbientPoint0 game object into the center of one of the quadrants.

    Let's add more points until each of the quadrants have been given at least a couple of points.

  12. Use the AkAmbient Tool Bar and the Move tool to add more position objects in all quadrants.

    As previously explained, you can enable Attenuation Spheres in the AkAmbient component. This is true for any of the position types, and for the Large mode you will get a sphere for each for the position objects referenced in the AkAmbient component. The Attenuation Spheres are transparent and, when overlapping, can stack in opacity. This will allow you to assess whether the game objects are distributed well and how much of the area will be covered by the Lava sound.

  13. In the Show Attenuation Spheres property, select Current_Event_Only.

    As some of these spheres will be overlapping, their stacking opacity will describe the intensity of the Lava sound represented in that area.

    Let's now evaluate in game as well.

  14. Click Play to enter Play mode.

  15. Press ESC to enter the game menu and teleport to the Library.

  16. Press ESC to open the WAG menu and click Play again to exit Play mode.

You can now evaluate whether the Lava ambience is represented faithfully, by standing on an edge and moving the camera out on top of the Lava. If you discover a position near the edge where the Lava is not represented very well, you can simply add or remove position objects in that area.

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