There are a number of important new features in Wwise 2017.2 and its Unity Integration. These include the following:

• Edit Mode Support
  • Loading and Unloading Banks in Edit Mode
• Additions to WwiseGlobal Game Object
• Wwise Audio Input Plug-in
• MIDI Events
• Automatic SoundBank Management

Edit Mode Support

The Wwise sound engine is now initialized while Unity is in Edit mode. This means Wwise Events can be triggered from the editor without entering Play mode. In order to demonstrate this, the inspectors for AkEvent (and AkAmbient) have been updated. There are now buttons in the inspector that can be used to play and stop the Events directly from the editor. The Play/Stop button plays and stops individual Events. When multiple objects that have AkEvents are selected, the Play Multiple and Stop Multiple buttons play or stop all currently selected Events. The Stop All button stops all currently playing Events.

Loading and Unloading Banks in Edit Mode

Note that in order for the edit mode functionality to work correctly, the corresponding AkBank components should have their Load On: property set to Awake and their Unload On: property set to Never.

Additions to WwiseGlobal Game Object

The WwiseGlobal game object now has an AkEditorEventPlayer component. This component is editor only, and is used to play WwiseEvents that are associated to AkEvent components in Edit mode. The WwiseGlobal object also now has Rigidbody, AkGameObj, and AkAudioListener components. These are used for interactions between AkEnvironment, AkGameObj, and AkRoom components in Edit mode. See Changes to your Unity Project.

Wwise Audio Input Plug-in

The Wwise Audio Input Source Plug-in is now accessible via C# scripting. See Using the Audio Input Source Plug-in in Unity for more information.

MIDI Events

MIDI events can now be posted to Wwise via C# scripting. See Sending MIDI to Wwise for more information.

Automatic SoundBank Management

Automatic SoundBank management has been added. See Deploying SoundBanks in single-platform projects and Deploying SoundBanks in multi-platform projects for more information.

Spatial Audio Integration

Added spatial audio API to the Unity integration. See Spatial Audio in Unity for a tutorial.