Tutorial: Adding Ambience to a Level This tutorial will guide you through the process of adding basic ambient sound to a Level. You will learn how to do the following: 1. Organize audio objects with a layer 2. Create and edit a trigger to play audio 3. Create and edit Audio Entities Creating a Layer for Audio Objects In the first section of this tutorial, you will learn how to create a Layer to separate Audio Objects from other types of objects in a level and how to use Groups to organize your layers. Step-by-step guide 1. Let's start by selecting the Layers tab on the RollupBar. 2. Click the New Layer button ( icon) to add new layer. 3. A dialog box will open with various layer settings. For this lesson, we will use the default settings. 4. Name the new layer Audio and click Ok. 5. Let's Group our new layer with the rest of the layers underneath Main. To arrange layers, hold down the Control key, Click on the layer that you want to move (in this case, the Audio layer), and Drag it on top of Main layer. Release the mouse and it will automatically become a Child of the Main layer. 6. Select Audio Layer. 1. Click the Select Current Layer button in the toolbar and select the Audio layer.
2. Make sure that Audio layer is visible ( Eye icon is selected) and writable ( Arrow icon is selected). 3. TIP: Deselect the Arrow icons next to any layer that you aren't working on to avoid accidentally selecting objects on that layer and to make it easier to select objects on the layer that you are currently working on. Creating an Area Shape In this section of the tutorial, you will learn how to create a Shape in a level that you will use to trigger ambient sounds using an Audio Entity. Step-by-step guide 1. Let's create an Area Shape around the Town. First, make sure that "Follow Terrain" is selected:
2. Then open the RollupBar, select the Objects tab, select Area, and, finally, select Shape 3. Click on the Level in the Viewport window to add Points around the town and to define the Shape. 4. Double-click the last point of the shape to finish the shape. Or hit Escape key to stop adding points. 5. With the Shape still selected, set its Height property in the RollupBar to 15.
6. Height (along with other properties) are set inside the Shape Params section of the Objects tab in the RollupBar. The Listener (which is attached to the Player Character by default) needs to be inside the Shape for the sound to play, so setting the Shape's Height to 15 should ensure that we have plenty of room for the ambient sound to play even if the Player Character jumps. You can adjust the Height of the Shape at any time if you find that you need more vertical space. 7. Once your Shape is defined and the Height set, it should look similar to this.
Editing an Area Shape If you need to change the Shape that you created, to add or remove points or to adjust the location of points for instance, you can edit it. In this section of the tutorial, you will learn how to edit an Area Shape. Step-by-step guide 1. To edit the Shape, first select the Shape object in the Viewport. 2. Then click on Edit Shape under Shape Parameters in the Object tab in the RollupBar. 3. Select a node by left clicking on it. 4. Then drag it to move it to another location, press the Delete key to remove it, or Control-Left Click to add more nodes to your shape. a. If you didn't have Follow Terrain selected, you may find that the area shape that you created is under the terrain. If so, select the Move tool and drag the shape up by clicking on the yellow Z axis arrow and dragging up.
5. Once your shape is defined in a way that you are happy with, click Reset Height to flatten the shape (useful when creating Shapes over hilly terrain). 6. Rename the Shape object to Shape_Town. Audio Entities There are two Audio Entities that you can use to add simple ambient sounds to a level; AudioAreaAmbience and AudioAreaEntity. This tutorial will show you how to use the AudioAreaAmbience entity to define what sound should play and how. Now let's add in an AudioAreaAmbience object and link it to the Area Shape that you just created. Step-by-step guide 1. In the Objects tab of the RollupBar window, click Audio and then AudioAreaAmbience. Place the object on your level. 2. To define what plays and its behavior, you will use the ATL Controls that we created in Lesson 01 "Add Audio Controls". a. On the AudioAreaAmbience properties section, click on the property field for the property that you want to set and click on the Folder icon that appears. b. This will open a window showing all of the Audio Controls available to use. c. Navigate and select the ATL control that you want to use for that property and double click to assign it. d. Assign Play_town_amb_loop for the PlayTrigger, Stop_town_amb_loop for the StopTrigger, and AmbFade for the RTPC.
e. After you have defined the PlayTrigger, RTPC, and StopTrigger controls, set RtpcDistance to 20 so the sound fades in volume over 20 meters as the Player moves toward and away from the exterior of the shape. f. Once you are done, the AudioAreaAmbience Properties should look like this: g. Rename the AudioAreaAmbience object to "AudioAreaAmbience_Town". 3. Next, link the AudioAreaAmbience to the Shape. a. Select the AudioAreaAmbience_Town from within the Viewport (if it's not still selected from the previous step). b. On the Objects tab in the RollupBar, click Pick underneath Shape Parameters, then click on AudioAreaAmbience_Town object in the viewport.
4. Type Ctrl+G to test the ambient sound. a. You should hear the sound as soon as the game starts. b. Leave the town area and the sound should fade out as you move away from the shape. c. The sound should fade in as you move back towards the shape.
Related tasks and tutorials From this point forward, you can continue the Wwise LTX Audio tutorial series and learn how to add sounds to a character. Continue on to the next tutorial: Adding Sounds to a Character We d love to hear from you! Head to our Tutorial Discussion forum to share any feedback you have, including what you do or don t like about our tutorials or new content you d like to see in the near future.