Importing Media Files

You will need to import your SFX or voice media files into Wwise at different times and for different reasons, depending on how you intend to use these media files. Usually you would import files in the following situations:

To bring media files into your project at the beginning of the project, or as the files become available.
To replace media files that you have previously imported. For example, you might want to replace placeholders or temporary files that you used at the beginning of the project.
To bring language media files into the project for localization. For more information on localization, refer to Localizing Your Project.

In Wwise, you can import the media files into your project using the Audio File Importer, or you can use the Quick Import shortcuts to carry out your audio file imports.

Quick import

The following table lists the shortcuts you can use to import media files into Wwise.

To	Use this shortcut
Import SFX media files.	Drag the files into Wwise.
Import voice media files.	Shift+drag the files into Wwise.
Import SFX media files without opening the Audio File Importer.	Ctrl+drag the files into Wwise.
Import Sound Voice media files without opening the Audio File Importer	Ctrl+Shift+drag the files into Wwise. If you are importing languages using this shortcut, makes sure that the reference language is selected in the Language Selector.
Import media files into the Contents Editor as new sources.	Drag the files into the Contents Editor.

	Tip
	If you use a spreadsheet program to manage the thousands of voice assets in your project, you can use the Voice Asset Importer to quickly create the corresponding Sound Voice objects in Wwise. For more information on importing voice assets into Wwise, refer to Importing Voice Assets from a Text File.

Understanding file length limitations in Wwise

You can import files into Wwise with filename lengths of up to 256 characters. This file length limitation is actually a limitation of Windows and relates to the entire path of the filename. For example, a filename at the root of a directory can have up to a maximum of 252 characters. If the file is within a folder, the length of the folder name is taken into account as well. This limitation can cause problems when importing or converting media files in Wwise.

If you try to import media files that are near or at the maximum limits, you may experience some import problems. If the filename length is too long, either of the following errors will be displayed:

Not a valid WAV file.
Error copying the file to the originals folder.

In some cases, Wwise will allow you to import files that are near or at the maximum limit, but you may then encounter problems converting the files. In this case, the following error message will be displayed:

Can't open source or output file.

To work around these issues, you will need to either reduce the length of the filename or reduce the overall length of the filename path.

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