ValveSoftware
SteamAudioWWise 4.6.0 A loud pop or burst of noise is emitted
System Information Please provide the following information about your system:
- Steam Audio version: 4.6.0
- (If applicable) Unity version:
- (If applicable) Unreal Engine version: 5.4
- (If applicable) FMOD Studio version:
- Operating System and version:
- (Optional) CPU architecture (e.g. x86-64, armv7):
Issue Description Issue Description
We are using Steam Audio with Wwise for 3D spatial audio in our Unreal Engine 5.4 project. We have configured HRTF processing through the Steam Audio plugin in Wwise, and are attempting to dynamically enable/disable HRTF at runtime using a RTPC (Real-Time Parameter Control) to control the Bypass parameter of the HRTF effect.
Expected Behavior:
When the RTPC value changes to bypass the HRTF effect, the HRTF processing should be disabled smoothly, and audio should continue playing without artifacts.
Actual Behavior:
When disabling HRTF via RTPC Bypass, a loud and persistent audio pop/crackling (audio burst) occurs immediately. This artifact continues to play and significantly degrades audio quality, making this dynamic switching method unusable in production.
This issue only occurs when disabling HRTF — enabling it works without issues. The problem persists across different sound sources and platforms.
Steps To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior: 1.Set up Steam Audio 4.6.0 with Wwise in Unreal Engine 5.4. 2.Configure a 3D spatial sound in Wwise with Steam Audio HRTF enabled. 3.Create an RTPC in Wwise (e.g., HRTF_Bypass) and map it to the Bypass parameter of the Steam Audio HRTF effect on the bus. 4.At runtime, change the RTPC value from 0 (HRTF ON) to 1 (HRTF OFF). 5.Observe: a loud pop or burst of noise is emitted and may persist.
If you are able to provide a minimal project or minimal source code that reproduces the issue, include a link to the project/code here.
Additional Notes
The issue appears to be related to how the Steam Audio plugin handles effect bypass transitions in Wwise. We suspect a lack of smooth fade-out or internal state reset when bypassing the HRTF filter. This prevents us from implementing dynamic HRTF toggling for performance or UX reasons (e.g. menu vs gameplay).
Crash Dump
If the issue you are reporting involves a crash, and a crash dump (e.g. .dmp file) is available, provide a link to it here.
No crash occurred. The issue is an audio artifact, not a crash.
@LeoCui232 I am able to partially reproduce the issue: bypassing the Steam Audio Spatializer via RTPC causes a brief pop/crackling artifact, but it does not persist. Un-bypassing also results in a similar artifact, which again does not persist. Can you provide a brief audio clip of the artifact you're encountering, especially an example of the artifact persisting?
One thing to note though: when the effect is bypassed (or un-bypassed), Wwise asks the effect to reset its internal state (which we do), but then does not call its Execute method, so we don't get a chance to output anything. The actual pop/crackle artifact is coming from Wwise. The documentation also warns about this: https://www.audiokinetic.com/en/public-library/2024.1.7_8863/?source=SDK&id=soundengine_plugins_effects.html.
