2.0-beta.17 Release + Transition Notes

[AC]

Steam Audio SDK 2.0-beta.17 is now available, with support for dual reserved queues on AMD GPUs, fully dynamic geometry, and spatializing Ambisonic audio. Check out the release notes[github.com] for more details.

Download[valvesoftware.github.io] the latest version of the Steam Audio SDK and let us know what you think!

Unity Plugin Transition Notes

To use the latest version of the Unity plugin, follow the steps below:

• Delete the Steam Audio Unity plugin from the Assets/Plugins folder before importing the new version of the plugin.

Known Issues

• Unity 2018.2 and later ship with an older version of OpenCL.dll on Windows, which overrides the system-wide version installed by the device driver(s) when running the Unity Editor. TrueAudio Next and Radeon Rays support in Steam Audio can fail due to this. This does not conform with the recommended way of distributing OpenCL.dll, and we are working with Unity to resolve this issue. As a workaround, rename or remove this file from your Unity installation folder (C:\Program Files\Unity\Editor\OpenCL.dll by default).

FMOD Studio Plugin Transition Notes

To use the latest version of the FMOD Studio plugin, follow the steps below:

• Delete the Steam Audio FMOD Studio plugin from the Plugins folder in your FMOD Studio project before importing the new version of the plugin.
  
• If using Unity as your game engine, delete the Steam Audio Unity plugin from the Assets/Plugins folder before importing the new version of the plugin.

C API Transition Notes

To use the latest version of the C API, make sure to note the following changes:

• The following functions have been added: iplCreateInstancedMesh, iplDestroyInstancedMesh, iplAddInstancedMesh, iplRemoveInstancedMesh, iplUpdateInstancedMeshTransform, iplCommitScene.
  
• The following function signatures have been modified: iplSetAmbisonicsRotation.
  
• The following structs have been added: IPLMatrix4x4.
  
• The following structs have been removed: IPLOrientedBox, IPLQuaternion.
  
• The IPLComputeDeviceFilter struct has been updated for Dual RTQ support.
  
• The IPLSimulationSettings struct has been updated with the irradianceMinDistance parameter.

Refer to the C API documentation for more details.

UE4 Transition Notes

To use the latest version of the UE4 plugin, make sure to note the following changes:

• For existing projects, it's critical that you re-export your scenes.
  
• To use Intel Embree or AMD Radeon Rays as your project's ray tracer, set your ray tracer type under Project Settings > Plugins > Steam Audio > (General) > Ray Tracer.
  
• You can now tag any actor with a Phonon Geometry component instead of just Static Mesh Actors.
  
• Only actors with static mesh components' mobility set to Static will be auto-tagged with "Add All" tagging. Any actors whose static mesh component that's set to a mobility other than Static, that have a PhononGeometry component attached, will be ignored in Scene Exports.
  
• Note the following changes to settings.
  
  • Phonon Reverb Source Settings: Indirect Simulation Type changed to Source-Centric Reverb Simulation.
    
  • Phonon Reverb Source Settings: Indirect Contribution changed to Source-Centric Reverb Contribution.
    
  • Global Settings: General > Min Compute Units was removed, now has fixed value of 0.
    
  • Global Settings: General > Max Compute Units changed to GPU Resource Reservation > Max Compute Units.
    
  • Global Settings: Indirect Sound > Reverb Simulation Type changed to Reverb > Listener-Centric Reverb Simulation.
    
  • Global Settings: Indirect Sound > Indirect Contribution changed to Reverb > Listener-Centric Reverb Contribution.
    
  • Global Settings: Indirect Sound > Impulse Response Duration changed to Reverb > Impulse Response Duration.
    
  • Global Settings: Indirect Sound > Indirect Spatialization Method changed to Reverb > Indirect Spatialization Method.

[mindBANG]

Hi AC, does the new Ambisonics decoder support rendering to multichannel speaker setups like 7.1 in Unity? From my tests, it only seems to work with stereo/binaural speaker setups. Are you planning to add support for that?