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Building Smart Pitch Curves

When you tie the pitch of sounds to Game Parameters using RTPCs, complex curves are key to creating realistic results. Smart pitch curves allow you to create natural-sounding RTPC pitch curves with a minimum of effort.

Smart pitch curves are based on two variables:

  • Native value: The Game Parameter value at which the sound is heard at its original pitch.

  • Subdivision level: The precision of the curve, graded from 1 to 10.

For example, in a racing game, you could apply a smart pitch curve to your engine sounds. If an engine rev sound were recorded at 2,000 RPM, you would create an RTPC pitch curve with the native value at 2,000 RPM. Wwise then extrapolates the rest of the points required to create a natural-sounding curve.

When you use smart pitch curves to create a pitch RTPC curve, Wwise uses the following equation to create its linear subsegments:

The more subsegments your curve has, the more precise it will be. However, these additional subsegments require additional processing at runtime. To save CPU and memory, you should choose the lowest subdivision level that gives you the results you need.

[Tip] Tip

For more information on ensuring accurate curves, refer to Valid Ranges for Smart Pitch Curves.

To build a smart pitch curve:

  1. Create a pitch curve in the RTPC graph view. For more information on how to do this, refer to Assigning Wwise Properties to Game Parameters.

  2. Right-click the pitch curve and select Build Smart Pitch Curve from the menu.

    The Build Smart Pitch Curve dialog box opens.

  3. Enter a native value for the smart pitch curve. This is defined as the property value at which the sound was recorded.

  4. Enter a subdivision level for the smart pitch curve. The higher the subdivision level of your curve, the more segments it will have and the more time it will take to evaluate at runtime.

  5. Click OK.

    A smart pitch curve is created.

    [Note] Note

    Smart pitch curves can only be created for pitch values between 4800 and -4800 cents. Beyond that, the curve will “clamp” at one of the extreme values.

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