Wwise Help

Switch Containers allow you to group objects according to the different alternatives that exist within a game. Each alternative is represented in the Switch Container by a Switch or state. For example, a Switch Container can be created for all the different surfaces that a character can walk on. The container might contain Switches for concrete, wood, grass, snow, and any other surface that a character may come across in-game.

Within each Switch/State are the objects related to that particular alternative. For example, all the footstep sounds on concrete would be grouped into the “Concrete” Switch, all the footstep sounds on wood would be grouped into the “Wood” Switch, and so on. When the game calls the Switch Container, Wwise verifies which Switch/State is currently active to determine which container or sound to play.

The following illustration demonstrates what happens when an Event calls a Switch Container called “Footsteps”. This container has grouped the sounds according to the different surfaces a character can walk on in game. In this example, there are two Switches: Grass and Concrete. When the Event calls the Switch Container, the character is walking on grass (Switch=Grass), so the footstep sounds on grass are played. A Random Container is used to group the footstep sounds within the Switch so that a different sound is played each time the character steps on the same surface.