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Audio System Overview

The O3DE audio system consists of Gems, components, and content.

Gems

O3DE provides two audio Gems:

  • AudioSystem
  • AudioEngineWwise

AudioEngineWwise is an audio engine implementation provided by O3DE for Audiokinetic Wwise. An audio engine implementation translates generic Audio Translation Layer (ATL) state requests into real calls to the audio middleware API. It also implements low-level hooks for file I/O and memory allocation as needed for the audio middleware.

The AudioEngineWwise Gem depends on the AudioSystem Gem. It is recommended that you enable both Gems to enable audio, but the AudioSystem Gem has no dependencies and can be enabled by itself. This leaves open the possibility of other audio middleware Gems to be developed and used instead of AudioEngineWwise.

O3DE audio Gems feature the following modules:

ModuleDescription
Audio SystemPart of the Audio System Gem. Contains the audio translation layer (ATL) code and manages the state of the audio system in O3DE. Most of this module runs on the audio thread, but it also synchronizes with the main thread.
Audio System EditorA O3DE Editor plugin, and part of the Audio System Gem. Contains the Audio Controls Editor (ACE) to create and manage ATL controls.
Audio Engine WwisePart of the Audio Engine Wwise Gem. Contains the implementation of AudioSystemImplementation interfaces for Wwise. Contains all Audiokinetic APIs. This is the only module that links with Wwise SDK. Can be configured to use Wwise LTX or the full version of Wwise.
Audio Engine Wwise EditorA O3DE Editor plugin, and part of the Audio Engine Wwise Gem. This is an additional module that the Audio Controls Editor loads when O3DE uses Wwise.

Components

Core audio components available in O3DE Editor enable you to trigger sound effects, play ambient music, change sound variables using RTPC, apply environmental effects, place listeners to act as virtual microphones, and more. For a complete list, see Audio Components.

Content

O3DE audio features the following content:

ContentDescription
MediaO3DE loads soundbanks and loose media at runtime. The audio middleware authoring tools compiles and generates the media files.
ProjectThe audio middleware authoring tools use a project to manage source audio files, adjust sounds and settings, and generate runtime ready media. The Audio Controls Editor also uses the project to help map ATL controls to the audio middleware equivalents.
ATL LibrariesWhen the audio system maps ATL controls to their audio middleware equivalents, it creates ATL libraries, which are saved as XML files. O3DE loads these libraries at startup and populates the ATL with runtime data so that the game can control the audio system.