Using atmoky Ears

As the plug-in is used to render a final mix to binaural headphone signals, it is best inserted into a main bus at the end of the signal chain.

Supported channel configurations

The plug-in supports both standard channel configurations (channel-based) and Ambisonics (scene-based). In order to being able to render sources from all directions including below the listener, we recommend using Ambisonics. However, atmoky Ears will deliver its high perceptual quality also for channel-based configurations.

Standard layouts

atmoky Ears renders all standard layouts currently available in Wwise Authoring, starting from mono to full Auro 13.1. The layouts' loudspeaker directions are virtually adjusted to deliver the most immersive results when used in VR/AR applications.

Ambisonics

atmoky Ears gives you the full potential of spatial audio when used with Ambisonic configurations, supporting all Ambisonic orders. As a rule of thumb: the higher the order, the higher the spatial fidelity in reproduction. With atmoky's patented perceptually optimized rendering, even lower orders will sound as good as higher ones. That's why you might not hear big differences beyond third order Ambisonics. In other words, atmoky Ears delivers the spatial reproduction quality of fifth order, at only the cost of third order Ambisonics, cutting required memory and CPU resources in half (required resources are actually even lower!).

Externalizer

Having the feeling of the mix being inside your head? Well, what's completely normal for regular stereo shouldn't happen with binaural spatial audio! The externalizer will help you with that, psychoaccoustically!

In case sounds use little or no spatial room information like reflections or reverb, the brain will struggle finding plausible positions of the sound sources, leading to a inside-your-head localisation. In that case, try dialing in the externalizer amount to give you that out-of-your-head feeling. You can shape the character of the externalizer using the Character control, giving it more of an airy quality by dialing it up, or creating a more warmer feeling by bringing it down. Both Amount and Character are RTPC-capable, and can be adjusted in realtime.

Some notes on performance: With Amount set to 0 (OFF), it will be completely bypassed and won't need any additional rendering resources. It can also be turned on/off without any discontinuities of the audio signal.

Personalization

The plug-in offers three different personalization settings, optimized for different age groups. With that you can deliver customized mixes for children, teens, and adults. The personalization property is RTPC-capable, so you may adjust it during run-time, e.g. forwarding the setting to your users.

Performance Mode

Enabling the performance mode will replace the DSP engine with a more efficient one, switching to symmetric HRTFs and a more efficient externalizer backend. With the performance mode engaged, the plug-in's required memory and CPU resources will be reduced by up to 50%, making the rendering even more efficient. This can be very useful on mobile platforms with lower hardware capabilities and more strict battery requirements.

In contrast to the parameters of the externalizer and personalization feature, the performance mode is not destined to be realtime controllable. The replacement of the engine will allocate resources and is therefore not realtime-safe. However, you still can enable or disable it at run-time, just make sure to not process audio during the switch, as it might lead to unwanted discontinuities of the signal.

Authoring User Interface

The user-interface provides access to all the properties you can control. In case their corresponding properties are currently RTPC-enabled, the rotary controls and the personalization interface will be deactivated. The controls will then also display RTPC. With it enabled, the parameters can only be controlled via game-parameters.

Quick help

Did not memorize everything in this manual? No problem! Click the info icon in the upper right corner of the user interface to display an overlay briefly describing the parameters. It will also show the current build version of the plug-in.

Supported platforms

The plug-in comes with binaries for macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, and Linux, for Wwise versions 2019.2, 2021.1, 2022.1, and 2023.1.

Bulding for iOS

When building for iOS, the Apple Accelerate framework is required. You can change the linker settings in the Xcode project to link against the framework, or add the following C# script to your Unity project:

//AddAcceleartorFramework.cs
#if UNITY_IOS && UNITY_EDITOR
 
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEditor.Callbacks;
using UnityEditor.iOS.Xcode;
using UnityEngine;
 
public class AddFrameworksToXcode
{
    [PostProcessBuild]
    public static void OnPostProcessBuild(BuildTarget buildTarget, string pathToBuiltProject)
    {
        if (buildTarget != BuildTarget.iOS) return;
 
        // Path to the Xcode project
        string projectPath = PBXProject.GetPBXProjectPath(pathToBuiltProject);
 
        PBXProject proj = new PBXProject();
        proj.ReadFromString(File.ReadAllText(projectPath));
 
        string targetGuid = proj.GetUnityFrameworkTargetGuid();
        proj.AddFrameworkToProject(targetGuid, "Accelerate.framework", false);
        proj.WriteToFile(projectPath);
    }
}
 
#endif

Installation Acknowledgements