If you somehow missed my twitter explosion about the upcoming Wwise Authoring API you should really check it out. Supposedly if you’re at GDC 2017, you can get more information over at the audiokinetic booth.
As I’m not going to GDC 2017, I’m going to have to sit on my hands and wait a bit. I figure however, while my hands go to sleep, I can put my brain to good use and try to express to you how big of a deal this is for any interactive sound designer.
In case you’re ready to tune out – let me share you Mike D‘s opinion on this:
Super-excited about this new API. I think it's 1 of the biggest things we've added 2 #Wwise in years, and it's useful 4 EVERYONE #gameaudio https://t.co/1OAoSxh75E
— Mike D. (@AKMikeD) February 21, 2017
Yeah… so here’s what I’m dreaming up.
- Connecting Wwise to all of your DAWs.
This is the most clearly obvious thing. It’s even spelled out on the audiokinetic blog.
“allowing external applications to talk to it”
Yeah. Imagine very little (or seamless via a single key) switching between your creation tool (DAW) and your implementation tool (Wwise).
Obviously, Wwise can be used to do much more than implement wav files. The PopCap team has proved this quite a few times, building sounds from wave generation within Wwise itself.
But for the vast majority of users, having Pro Tools, Audition, Reaper, etc talk back and forth with Wwise via a plugin would be a real big dream.
- Implement and control Wwise via an external controller
On the blog, it’s theorized that you could create an iPad or phone app to control Wwise or put audio meters on your phone.
Personally, I think it would be way cooler if you could use a physical external controller. What if you could control Wwise and live mix from a control surface? Or use a small keyboard to fire custom commands?
There’s no official documentation yet, so who knows if this would actually be possible – but audiokinetic are definitely looking for suggestions if this is something you want!
#gameaudio community: share your ideas with us about the Wwise Authoring API. We want to be sure to meet your expectations.
— Bernard Rodrigue (@decasteljau) February 21, 2017
- Connect custom internal tools
As argued spectacularly by Rob Bantin, I’m firmly behind the idea that sound designers should be pushing for in-house tools sets that support their aesthetic vision.
Even now, many teams pull time from in-house engineers to get simple custom tools made to improve efficiencies in the audio team.
Now, this vision can extend directly to Wwise. Anything you can imagine including source control, batch processing/updating, sound libraries, and databases will all be able to be hooked directly into Wwise.
Imagine if a large game developer shared resources across multiple teams and had a large sound effect library processed in an external database tool. What if you could click a pre-processed sound and select “add to new event in Wwise”?
Crazy idea right? But could be totally real very soon.
To say I’m excited is an understatement.
Thanks to the hard working folks over at audiokinetic! Hopefully we’ll hear and see more soon!
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