Wwise Source and Effect Plug-in Troubleshooting Guide

Wwise SDK 2023.1.9

Problem: At startup, Wwise displays an error message stating that two plug-ins have the same Company ID and Plug-in ID.

Each plug-in must have a unique Company ID / Plug-in ID combination. Refer to Plug-in Type Elements for details on how to define these IDs.

Problem: My plug-in is not available to the user in Wwise.

Verify that your plug-in description file specifies the right type of plug-in. The file should use the SourcePlugin tag for source plug-ins and EffectPlugin for effect plug-ins. Refer to Plug-in Type Elements for more information. This category must be matched in both the XML file and PluginRegistration class in your engine-side code.
Verify that your plug-in description file specifies the appropriate supported platforms. Refer to PluginInfo Element for more information.
Verify that the Company ID and Plug-in ID specified in your plug-in's XML file match those used by the AkCreatePlugin() function in your DLL and in the PluginRegistration object. See Sound Engine Plug-ins Overview for an example of PluginRegistration. Refer to Wwise Plug-in XML Description Files and Writing the Authoring Part of an Audio Plug-in for more details.
If Wwise displays an error message on startup stating that two plug-ins have the same IDs, refer to the corresponding problem on this page.
Verify that your XML and DLL have the same name
Verify that your XML and DLL are in the plugins folder.

Problem: My plug-in is not available to users on Mac but works on PC.

Your plug-in needs to be a 64-bit DLL. Wwise authoring only runs in 64 bits on Mac.

Problem: One of the controls in my plug-in's user interface is empty or disabled.

Verify that the property name specified in the control's text in the resources (for example Prop=SineFrequency) is the same as the name specified in your plug-in description file (for example Property Name="SineFrequency"). Refer to "Prop" Control Attribute and Properties Element for more information.
Verify that the control class (for example Class=SuperRange) is suitable for the property's type. Refer to "Class" Control Attribute and Properties Element for more information.

Problem: One of the Wwise controls in my plug-in's user interface does not appear correctly.

Make sure the Class attribute is properly set in your dialog resources. Refer to "Class" Control Attribute for more details.
Make sure your code doesn't change the control's text before the dialog is fully created. In this case Wwise doesn't have access to the Class attribute when required. Note that you should never change the text on a control that is bound to a property. Refer to "Prop" Control Attribute for more information.
Refer to Other Control Attributes and verify that the various control attributes are properly set.
Refer to How to Add Regular Controls to Your Dialogs and How to Add Wwise Property Controls to Your Dialogs for information on the two types of controls available in your plug-in dialogs.

Problem: My plug-in doesn't recognize property changes in the UI.

Verify that the AudioEnginePropertyID specified in your plug-in definition file is in the 0-32767 range, or 0-150 for the wcustomproperties file. Refer to Properties Element for more information about the AudioEnginePropertyID tag.
Verify that the AudioEnginePropertyID specified in your plug-in definition file matches the ID you use in your implementation of AK::IAkEffectParam::SetParam(). Refer to Properties Element for more information about the AudioEnginePropertyID tag, and AK::IAkPluginParam::SetParam() for details about implementing AK::IAkEffectParam::SetParam().

Problem: My plug-in works in Wwise but not in my game.

There are two possibilities:

If your game statically links the effects, make sure you link the plug-in library and include the corresponding factory header file in one of the CPP files.
If your game uses dynamic libraries (such as DLL, SO, and PRX), make sure your effect DLL is copied in the same folder as the executable. Or set AkInitSettings::szPluginDLLPath to add a DLL search path, if they are not in the same folder.

Problem: I can add my plug-in in a project, but I can't hear its effects when playing a sound in Wwise.

You can debug this issue if you click Start Capture before playing the sound with your plugin. If you see "Plugin not registered" in the Capture Log, then the issue will be fixed by adding AK_STATIC_LINK_PLUGIN(YourPlugin) in one cpp file of your Authoring-side DLL code.

Problem: My plug-in does not display debugging and/or diagnostic information.

To send debug or diagnostic information to Wwise Authoring, you can use AK::IAkPluginContextBase::PostMonitorMessage(), which is a method that can be called from the AK::IAkEffectPluginContext instance passed as an argument to your plug-in's AK::IAkSourcePlugin::Init() or AK::IAkEffectPlugin::Init() function.
To output debugging information to the debugger (Visual Studio), you can use AKPLATFORM::OutputDebugMsg() or AKPLATFORM::OutputDebugMsgV(), found in AkPlatformFuncs.h.

Problem: My plug-in doesn't work in Unity.

Here are a few points to validate for new plugins in Unity:

Plug-ins loaded by Wwise in Unity must be copied to \Assets\Wwise\Deployment\Plugins\[Platform]\DSP. Usually this is the Release version.
There must be a Windows\x86, Windows\x86_64, and a Mac version of the plug-in so the plug-in can work in the Unity Editor.
The standard Unity integration will detect the plug-in usage from the PluginInfo.xml that is created when generating the banks. The "DLL" tag in PluginInfo.xml comes directly from the "EngineDllName" tag written in the XML file describing the plug-in in the Wwise authoring folders. Make sure your DLL has the same name.

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