<aside>

Hello! My name is Morgan and I’m a game music composer. In my time collaborating with game developers, particularly during game jams, I’ve noticed a disconnect when it comes to the technicalities of how to creating dynamic, interactive audio.

This is a resource I’ve created to help both musicians and game programmers navigate the fundamentals of how to connect the game engine Unity with the audio middleware FMod to empower everyone involved in the process to be more equipped to create cool game audio, even in a game jam setting.

✨ You can find more about me here ✨

</aside>

▶️ Slides from Galaxy Games Fest

<aside>

💡 First Time Setup

• You’ll need Unity and FMod Studio both downloaded
  • https://www.fmod.com/download#fmodstudio
  • https://unity.com/download
• Also find FMod for Unity on the asset store and add to My Assets
  • https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/audio/fmod-for-unity-2-03-311497 (or find the right version number for you) </aside>

⚒️ Project Setup

• Create the FMod project (save it in your game project Github if collaborating - make a new folder FMod to put it in)
• Open the Unity project and connect FMod
  • Window → Package Manager → Packages: My Assets → FMod for Unity → Import
  • Follow the FMod popup steps (add the gitignore if collaborating)
• Set the attenuation object (the thing that is listening to your sounds i.e. the player) if needed
  • Main Camera → FMod Studio Listener → Attenuation Object → drag in the Player Character object for your game

Scripts

Audio Manager

• Creating AudioManager to manage music
  • Create an empty game object and name it AudioManager
  • Create a folder in Scripts called Audio
  • Inside, create a C# script called AudioManager and drag it into the AudioManager game object

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using FMODUnity;
using FMOD.Studio;

public class AudioManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Creates a place in the UI to select your FMod event file
    //-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
    public EventReference musicEvent;
    
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Setting up the instance of the event
    // (in Start we will put the Event we selected above into this variable)
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    private EventInstance musicEventInstance;
    
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Setup this audio manager and make sure there is only one of it
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    public static AudioManager Instance { get; private set; }
    private void Awake()
    {
        if (Instance != null && Instance != this)
        {
            Destroy(gameObject);
            return;
        }

        Instance = this;
        DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
    }

    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // On game start, create an instance of the music event and play it
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    private void Start()
    {
        musicEventInstance = RuntimeManager.CreateInstance(musicEvent);
        musicEventInstance.start();
    }

    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Method to stop the music event, allowing the
    // ADSR envelope fadeout settings from FMOD
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    public void StopMusic()
    {
        musicEventInstance.stop(FMOD.Studio.STOP_MODE.ALLOWFADEOUT);
        musicEventInstance.release();
    }
    
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Method for setting a parameter
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    public void SetMusicParameter(string parameterName, float value)
    {
        musicEventInstance.setParameterByName(parameterName, value);
    }
    
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    // Method for playing a one-shot sound
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------
    public void PlayOneShot(EventReference sound, Vector3 position)
    {
        RuntimeManager.PlayOneShot(sound, position);
    }
}

FMOD Events Manager

• Do the same setup to create an FMODEvents script attached to an FMODEvents game object under the AudioManager game object
  • WHY make an events manager
    • Once place in the unity editor UI to assign all our FMOD events to sounds - makes it easy and accessible for the audio team members
    • Makes it cleaner to trigger those elsewhere in the code by simply referencing both the audio manager and FMod events scripts to handle everything

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using FMODUnity;
using FMOD.Studio;

public class FMODEvents : MonoBehaviour
{
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    // This creates the UI to select/drag in the FMOD file paths
    // for all your sounds. Just copy and paste this line and
    // rename for as many sounds as you need.
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    [field: SerializeField] public EventReference exampleSound { get; private set; }

		// -----------------------------------------------------------------
    // This sets up the FMODEvents manager and ensures there is only one
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    public static FMODEvents Instance { get; private set; }
    private void Awake()
    {
        if (Instance != null)
        {
            Debug.LogError("Found more than one FMOD Events instance in the scene.");
        }

        Instance = this;
    }
}

Controlling Sounds from any script

• Triggering one-shot SFX anywhere in your code
• Parameter setting anywhere in your code
• Stopping the music anywhere in your code