Wwise Help

Effects always consume CPU resources. In general, if you apply Effects at the Master-Mixer level, you use less CPU than at other levels. For example, if you apply a RoomVerb Effect on the Master Audio Bus of a game, only one instance is processed at runtime. If you apply the Effect at the object level instead, hundreds of instances might be processed concurrently, depending on the number of objects in your project.

You can also render Effects to conserve CPU resources. Rendered Effects are processed before they are packaged in SoundBanks, which means they do not require processing at runtime. You cannot apply RTPCs to rendered Effects, however, because the properties of these Effects cannot change after they are rendered.

Certain Effects, such as Delay and Parametric EQ, require minimal CPU. The Compressor, Peak Limiter, and Expander Effects use more. For reverb, the RoomVerb Effect uses a lot of CPU but produces high-quality sounds. Alternatively, you can use Matrix Reverb, which you can adjust to suit your quality and performance needs.

In general, the best strategy is to test your project with the game profiling tools. In this way, you can observe the CPU usage of Effects in real time and decide how to use those Effects. For more information about profiling, refer to Understanding the Different Types of Profiling in Wwise.

Avoid applying time-based Effects (such as Matrix Reverb or Delay) to music objects at the object level, because the effects can interfere with time-based properties and behaviors already assigned to them. To avoid this type of interference, apply the time-based effects at the Master-Mixer level, that is, to an Audio Bus.