There are several ways to generate the Wwise SoundBanks: from Wwise Authoring, from the Unreal Editor, or through a commandlet. This section explains how to generate SoundBanks in Unreal.

After you generate SoundBanks, you can access Events and other Wwise Objects through the Wwise Browser (see Managing Assets with the Wwise Browser), Blueprints, and so on.

To generate SoundBanks in Unreal:

1. Do one of the following:

   • From the menu bar, click Build > Generate SoundBanks.
   • In the upper-right corner of the Wwise Browser, click Generate SoundBanks
     

   The Generate SoundBanks dialog opens.

   

   The dialog lists the platforms and languages that the Wwise project supports.

2. Select the desired platforms and languages. If you do not select any platforms or languages, all items in the respective list will be generated.
3. (Optional) To reduce soundbank generation time, select Skip generation of localized assets.
4. Click Generate. The SoundBanks are generated.

SoundBank Generation Details

SoundBank Generation with WwiseConsole

When WAAPI is disabled or Wwise Authoring is closed, SoundBanks are generated with WwiseConsole in the GeneratedSoundBanks folder.

SoundBank Generation with WAAPI

When WAAPI is connected, the command to generate SoundBanks is sent directly to Wwise Authoring through WAAPI, but banks are still generated on disk in the GeneratedSoundBanks folder.

SoundBank Generation Watchers

When the Unreal Editor is open, a directory watcher monitors changes in the GeneratedSoundBanks folder. Changes to files in this folder trigger a countdown timer that appears in a temporary window in the lower-right corner of the screen. Any subsequent changes reset the timer.

When the timer expires, the JSON metadata in the GeneratedSoundBanks folder is parsed, which updates the integration's internal database of the Wwise project.

After the project is parsed, all currently loaded Wwise assets are reloaded to properly apply changes in project data.

Triggering Generated SoundBanks Parsing

If you do not manually generate SoundBanks, any operation that synchronizes the GeneratedSoundBanks folder contents causes the directory watcher to trigger the parsing process.

The following operations parse the project metadata from the GeneratedSoundBanks folder:

• Opening the Unreal Editor.
• Clicking Refresh in the Wwise Browser.
• Clicking Refresh Project Database in the Build menu.
• Changing the Generated SoundBanks Folder setting in the Unreal project's Wwise Integration Settings.
• Changing the Generated SoundBanks Folder User Override in the Unreal project's Wwise User Settings.
• Changing any of the files in the GeneratedSoundBanks folder.

Optional Asset Reloading

To avoid reloading in-memory assets every time you change the contents of the GeneratedSoundBanks folder, you can select an option in the Unreal Project Wwise User Settings to enable a prompt before assets are reloaded. When this setting is enabled, Wwise assets can only be reloaded with explicit user input except during the initialization of the Wwise Project Database when the Unreal editor is opened.

This is the prompt that appears in the bottom right corner of the screen:

After 10 seconds, if you do not click either option, the "Not Now" option is automatically selected.