Game development projects vary greatly in complexity, size, and team composition. Depending on the size of the development studio and the nature of the project, sound design and integration might be a specialized task with its own team of internal sound designers, it might be outsourced to a third party that specializes in sound and music, or it might be divided among a small development team responsible for all aspects of game development.

In different development scenarios, the development workflow changes accordingly. Some roles might use Wwise exclusively and no other development tools, others might use Unreal exclusively, while others might use both tools. The development workflow affects some aspects of the Wwise Unreal Integration because certain integration features require an active connection between Unreal and Wwise through WAAPI.

Development Workflows for Large Teams

Large development teams usually divide work among specialists such as sound designers, game developers, and audio integrators. Depending on the structure of the team, some contributors might work with Unreal and Wwise, while others might only use one of the two. The following sections contain suggested configurations for different development roles.

Setup for Game Developers

Many game development roles do not need to work with Wwise: 2D and 3D artists, gameplay developers, UI/UX specialists, and so on. For these users, Wwise Authoring is not required but we recommend that the appropriate team add the GeneratedSoundBanks folder to your source control system. Specifically, we strongly recommend that you add the following file extensions to source control:

• *.json
• *.bnk
• *.wem In order for developers to run the Integration code and have sound, they only need to do two things:
• Install the Wwise plug-in.
• Be able to access the GeneratedSoundBanks folder for the Editor platform (Windows or Mac). You can change the GeneratedSoundBanks path in Unreal in the Project Settings under the Wwise Integration Settings, and in Wwise Authoring in the SoundBank Settings.

Setup for Audio Integrators

The recommended setup for audio integrators is almost the same as the one for game developers, although in this case a Wwise Authoring installation can be beneficial. Audio integrators can use the WAAPI connection between Wwise Authoring and Unreal to streamline asset integration, although this is not a requirement.

The principal advantage of installing both Wwise and Unreal is that this setup supports dynamic asset creation and modification of the Wwise project through the integration: you can create or fix Events and names in Wwise Authoring or in Unreal through the Wwise Browser.

Using Naming Conventions for Asset Creation

Audio integrators must sometimes ensure that assets follow naming conventions. The setup described in the previous section facilitates predictable asset naming in two ways:

• You can first create assets in Wwise according to the desired naming convention, which ensures Events with stable GUIDs and correct Event IDs. In Unreal, you can then use the Wwise Browser to drag the newly created Events into folders in the Content Browser.
• Alternatively, you can create assets together with the synchronization option. This approach requires both Wwise Authoring and Unreal to be open at the same time.

Setup for Technical Audio Designers

Technical audio designers typically work in both Wwise and Unreal. Therefore, in an optimal setup, both Wwise Authoring and Unreal are open at the same time and a WAAPI connection is maintained between the two. If you enable the WAAPI asset synchronization option, any Wwise Events you create in the Wwise project are automatically created in the Unreal project as well. These assets are created in a default folder hierarchy, but you can move them if required.

If SoundBanks are generated by a server or if designers need to experiment, you can temporarily override the GeneratedSoundBanks folder location through a user setting. You can do this in Unreal (through the project's Wwise User Preferences) and in Wwise Authoring (in the SoundBank Generation user preferences). Ensure that both point to the same folder location.

Setup for Third-Party Interactive Audio Designers

Third-party audio designers often work exclusively in Wwise, so the only things they need are Wwise Authoring and the Wwise project. If the designers prefer not to use Wwise Soundcaster, then obviously they need Unreal as well.

Setup for Servers

For large projects, it can be useful to have a dedicated server for SoundBanks. The SoundBank generation commandlet (see Generating SoundBanks with the GenerateSoundBanks Commandlet) can run on this server on a schedule, for example every night, and push the generated SoundBanks to a location under source control. Other developers can then work with latest SoundBanks in Unreal without the need to generate the banks themselves. In large projects, SoundBank generation can be time-consuming and there might be multiple contributors who work on different parts of the game audio (music, speech, sound effects, and so on) so automation can make the process more efficient than manual SoundBank generation.

However, some users might need to generate SoundBanks themselves to experiment or test during the course of development. In this case, you can maintain the server-based setup but use user overrides to generate SoundBanks locally. Refer to Overriding Generated SoundBanks Directories for Local Users for more information.

Development Workflows for Small Teams

Small teams develop their products holistically, without a variety of specialists who work on different aspects of the game (such as audio). In this scenario, we recommend that all users start with the same generic configuration: use the same pre-installed Unreal Engine and the same version of Wwise Authoring. It might be necessary for the developers to generate SoundBanks every time they retrieve the project from source control, although this process is much faster for small projects than for large ones.