Audiokinetic Wwise Knowledge Base

Scenario

Let's say you are creating a first-person shooter game where the player experiences a temporary loss of hearing when a flash-bang grenade goes off nearby. How can I temporarily affect all sounds to imitate this type of effect?

Solution

The best way to achieve the “temporary loss of hearing” effect is by using states. For example, you can create a State Group called "GrenadeFX" that consists of two states: "Stunned" and "Normal". For the "Stunned" state, you can modify the Pitch, Volume, LFE Volume, and Low Pass Filter values to create your "temporary loss of hearing" effect. This state group can then be used on one or several control busses to affect your SFX, ambiances, music, and so on.

Tip #1 to add more realism:

On the same control busses that use the “GrenadeFX” State Group, apply RTPCs to influence the intensity of the proximity effect. The properties of the state (Volume, Pitch, LFE and LPF) and the RTPC are added so that you can reduce or increase their values based on the proximity of the grenade from the main character/microphone. To achieve this effect, you can do the following:

1. Create a new game parameter in the Game Syncs tab, such as “Grenade Proximity”, and define a Min and Max distance that fits your game.
2. On the control busses where you are using the State Group “GrenadeFX”, go on the RTPC tab and assign one or several properties to the game parameter “Grenade Proximity”.
3. Map the values in such a way that the closer the grenade impact is to the character the more intense the effect will be.

Fine-tune the state and RTPC values directly in the Soundcaster as you recreate an in-game simulation. For example, play music, ambiant sounds, voice and SFX, and then switch the State Group from “Normal” to “Stunned”. Don’t forget to fine-tune the Transition Time between the different states.

Note: You will need help from your audio programmer here so that he interpolates the game parameter value at the same time the State interpolates to return to normal. Otherwise, your Control Bus will keep a certain offset for some parameters.

Tip #2 to add more realism: If you use Environmental Reverb, you may want to "muffle" the reverb tail effect when your character is in Stunned state. By using RTPC on the reverb "LPF Cutoff Frequency" property and sync it with the State changes, you will be able to match your environmental reverb with the amount of LPF you set for the objects.