The Positioning tab allows you to define how sounds will propagate in your game. The propagation of a sound will depend on its type of positioning. In Wwise, your sounds can use either speaker panning or 3D spatialization. The main difference between the two types of positioning is the way in which the source channels are mapped to the output speakers. By default, the source channels of a panned sound are linked together and are played through the front left and right speakers regardless of the position or orientation of the listener or game object. You can, however, use the Speaker Panner to balance the volume of each channel so the sound can be heard through different speakers.
For 3D spatialized sounds, each input channel can be output to any speaker in a surround environment making it easy to simulate movement of the sound in relation to the listener. With 3D spatialized sounds, you can either predefine the spatialization yourself in Wwise or use the actual position of the game object in game.
3D spatialization depends on the position of the emitter relative to the listener. For 3D spatialization to occur, both emitter and listener game objects should therefore be distinct. In the Wwise Project, objects of the Actor-Mixer hierarchy are associated to their emitter when the game posts events. When Wwise Objects have the Listener Relative Routing option enabled, their output busses are instead associated to the listener. Normally, the Listener Relative Routing option is enabled in the Actor-Mixer hierarchy, so that busses that follow are associated with the listener. Incidentally, 3D spatialization can only be performed with Wwise Objects that have Listener Relative Routing enabled since it must happen at the point where an object associated with an emitter is being mixed into a bus that is associated with a listener.
![[Note]](/images/2022.1.18_8567/?source=Help&id=note.png) | Note |
|---|---|
You should enable Listener Relative Routing on sounds and other objects of the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy even if they don't utilize 3D spatialization. Otherwise, their output busses will be associated with the emitter instead of the listener, resulting in distinct instances of busses. |
You can also apply distance attenuation to sounds based on the distance between the emitter and listener game objects, and then share these settings across many different objects within Wwise using an Attenuation ShareSet.
Positioning for less sophisticated devices, such as game controllers, is not an issue because the motors within these devices cannot simulate a 3D environment. You can, however, use attenuation to reduce the intensity of the motion signal as it moves away from the game player.
| Note |
|---|---|
Although the positioning of busses must be considered in relation to its impact on all objects which go through it, their Positioning tab is almost identical to the Actor-Mixer and Interactive Music objects' Positioning tab. Only the Override parent option is inapplicable. |
|
General | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Interface Element |
Description | ||||||
|
[name] |
The name of the object. | ||||||
 |
Displays the object's color. Clicking the icon opens the color selector.  Select a color to apply it to the object. When you choose a color for an object, a palette icon appears on the selected square, as well as a yellow triangle in the lower-right corner, as shown. To inherit the parent object's color, select the square at the far left of the color selector. | ||||||
     |
Controls the Mute and Solo states for the object and shows the implicit mute and solo states for the object. Muting an object silences this object for the current monitoring session. Soloing an object silences all the other objects in the project except this one. A bold M or S indicates that the Mute or Solo state has been explicitly set for the object. A non-bold M or S with faded color indicates that the object's Mute or Solo state was implicitly set from another object's state. Muting an object implicitly mutes the descendant objects. Soloing an object implicitly mutes the sibling objects and implicitly solos the descendant and ancestor objects.
| ||||||
|
Inclusion |
Determines whether the element is included in the SoundBanks when they are generated. When selected, the element is included. When unselected, the element is not included. To optimize your sound design for each platform, you might want to exclude certain elements on certain platforms. By default, this check box applies across all platforms. Use the Link indicator to the left of the check box to unlink the element. Then you can customize the state of the check box per platform. When this option is unselected, the property and behavior options in the editor become unavailable. Default value: true | ||||||
  |
Indicates the number of elements in your project that contain direct references to the object. The icon is displayed in orange when references to the object exist, and in gray when no references exist. Selecting the button opens the Reference View with the object's name in the References to: field. | ||||||
|
Notes |
Any additional information about the object properties. | ||||||
|
Sets the display of the Property Editor's selected tabs. By default, there is one panel that displays a single selected tab. You can, however, click a splitter button to display two panels, divided horizontally or vertically. The selected option is highlighted with a background color. You cannot open the same tab in both panels. If you try to open the same tab in both panels, the first panel automatically opens a different tab.
| ||||||
![[Tip]](/images/2022.1.18_8567/?source=Help&id=tip.png)
|
Positioning | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Interface Element |
Description | ||||||
|
Center % |
The amount or percentage of volume that is passed through the center speaker.
Default value: 0 Range: 0 to 100 | ||||||
|
Speaker Panning |
The default is Direct Assignment, where FL maps to FL, FR maps to FR, and so on. If set to Balance-Fade, allows you to adjust the volume of each channel in a 2.0 to 7.1 Audio Bus. In reference to the Speaker Panner, channels closer to the circle will have their volume increased, while channels further from the circle will have their volume decreased. If set to Steering, allows you to redistribute the content of the sound’s channels amongst the channels of the output bus. The distribution will be weighted towards the circle in the Speaker Panner. The Panner works independently of the number of channels within the source.
Default value: Direct Assignment | ||||||
 |
Opens the Speaker Panner. | ||||||
|
Listener Relative Routing |
When enabled, the emitter-listener association is evaluated at this Wwise object. Evaluating emitter-listener association is almost always required with objects of the Actor-Mixer Hierarchy, because Actor-Mixers are associated with emitters, whereas busses are typically associated with the listener. In the case of busses, listener relative routing is only desirable when the submix conveyed by this bus represents an independent emitter which needs to be explicitly positioned by the game and 3D spatialized against the listener. Notable use cases are the Auxiliary Busses associated to Rooms by Wwise Spatial Audio and the early reflection bus hosting the Reflect plug-in. Make sure to enable Listener Relative Routing on at least one object in your signal chain, regardless of the positioning type; the opposite would result in a complete duplication of the mixing graph (that is, busses and their Effects). Aside from using more CPU, most bus insert Effects, such as compressors, will not work as intended. Evaluating emitter-listener association is also required for any game object-driven 3D positioning to occur (attenuation and spatialization). | ||||||
|
3D Spatialization |
Specifies whether the positioning of the source is calculated to simulate movement within a 3D space. When set to Position or Position + Orientation, movement of the source is reflected by a sound being heard through specific speakers within the surround environment. With Position + Orientation, the sound’s multichannel content also rotates with respect to the relative orientations of the emitter and listener. Orientation only has an effect with multichannel input files, and spread greater than zero. When set to None, the source is panned according to the Speaker Panning setting. Default value: None | ||||||
|
Speaker Panning / 3D Spatialization Mix |
Crossfade between Speaker Panning and 3D Spatialization. Available when spatialization is anything but None. Default value: 100 Range: 0 to 100 | ||||||
|
Enable Attenuation |
When set, the attenuation curves of the designated Attenuation ShareSet apply. You may add an RTPC on this property to enable and disable the application of attenuation curves at run-time. Default value: true | ||||||
 (Selector) |
The list of attenuation instances that can be applied to the object. To remove an attenuation instance, select the None option. | ||||||
|
|
Opens the Attenuation Editor where you can define the distance-based attenuation settings for the selected attenuation instance. If you use a ShareSet, any changes you make to the attenuation settings will be applied to all objects using this ShareSet. | ||||||
|
Mode |
Determines whether the attenuation instance is a unique instance or shared across several objects within your project. The mode can be either:
| ||||||
 |
Displays the selected ShareSet in the ShareSets tab of the Project Explorer. | ||||||
|
Position | |||||||
|
3D Position |
Defines how positions are calculated for the purpose of 3D positioning (attenuation and spatialization).
Default value: Emitter | ||||||
 |
Opens the Position Editor (3D Automation), where you can define the spatial positioning of your object in a surround environment using animation paths. | ||||||
|
Hold Listener Orientation |
Determines whether the position of the animation path is locked to the orientation of the listener. When this option is not selected, the path moves with the listener. This means that the sound will always be heard through the same speakers regardless of the orientation of the listener. When selected, the listener moves independently of the path. This means that the sound will be heard through different speakers as the listener turns around. For example, let’s say you are using automation around the listener to create non-localized bird sounds in your game. You have a one-point path that is located in the front-right quadrant. As the listener turns around in game, the following will occur:
This option can be useful for creating non-localized ambient sounds. This option can only be tested in game because the listener concept has not been integrated into the Wwise authoring application. Default value: false | ||||||
|
Hold Emitter Position and Orientation |
When enabled, stores the game object’s instantaneous position and orientation when the sound starts playing, and base positioning off of it for the whole duration of the sound.
Default value: false | ||||||
|
Diffraction and Transmission |
Enables diffraction and transmission processing in Spatial Audio for the sound. Diffraction simulates the acoustic phenomenon of sound bending around obstacles, whereas transmission simulates sound passing through obstacles, in a virtual environment. Obstacles are defined by rooms, portals, and/or geometry, which have been passed from the game to Spatial Audio via the API. A sound bending around an obstacle is subject to diffraction, and a sound passing through an obstacle is subject to transmission loss, both of which effect the resulting volume and filtering of a sound. For diffraction and transmission simulation to take place, the game must define level geometry or rooms and portals and send it to Wwise Spatial Audio. When diffraction and transmission are enabled for a sound, the following takes place in Wwise Spatial Audio:
Default value: false | ||||||
|
Override parent |
Determines whether the positioning and attenuation settings will be inherited from the parent or defined at the current level in the hierarchy. When this option is not selected, the positioning controls are unavailable. If the object is a top-level object, this option is unavailable. Default value: false |
Related Topics
Was this page helpful?
Need Support?
Questions? Problems? Need more info? Contact us, and we can help!
Visit our Support pageTell us about your project. We're here to help.
Register your project and we'll help you get started with no strings attached!
Get started with Wwise