Wwise Help

When viewing curves that are measured in decibels, you have the option to display these curves in a strictly linear manner or according to a more normal (logarithmic) falloff of sounds in decibels. In linear scaling mode, there is an equal distance between intervals on the Y axis. In dB scaling mode, the Y axis emulates how the human ear interprets sounds at different decibels. This translates into wider gaps between intervals closer to zero and smaller distances for lower decibel values.

The following illustration shows the difference between showing the same volume curve in dB scaling and linear scaling.

Since dB scaling affects the distribution of decibel units along the Y axis, the scaling method will also affect how control points move within the graph view. For example, a change of -5 dB in dB scaling will require more movement when a point is at 0 dB than when it is at -80 dB. In linear scaling, however, a change 0f -5 dB will always result in the same movement along the Y axis.

In most cases, dB scaling will result in a more accurate representation of how sounds will be heard at a particular game parameter value. However, in cases where you want to create a direct relationship between a game parameter and a Wwise property, you will want to use Linear scaling. For example, let's say you want to map the volume of the Voices bus to a volume slider in the game that allows the game player to increase or decrease the volume of voices. In this case, you will want a direct mapping of the volume of the sound with the volume in the game. Since the volume along the X axis is linear, the Y axis needs to be linear as well.

	Note
	The scaling method affects the units along the Y axis, so if two or more curves are displayed at the same time with different scaling methods, the units on the Y axis will not be displayed.