Wwise SDK 2025.1.0

Introduction

In certain circumstances, the game engine requires information about the current playback position of a particular sound. For example, games that support rendering video and audio contents in a synchronous manner must query the playback position of sounds to render game visuals appropriately. If this has to be done on a frame-by-frame basis (such as to synchronize lip movement and dialog), then playback position queries are preferable over markers. Another advantage of playback position queries is that the source files do not need to be edited. The AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition() method returns the time elapsed on an event's first sound playback.

Note: Markers are useful for signalling specific events happening in a sound file, as opposed to small increments in sound playback.

You can then call the AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition() method by passing the AkPlayingID received from the call to AK::SoundEngine::PostEvent() to get the current playback position of the source being played.

Example

The following piece of code illustrates the AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition() method's usage:

(...)
static AkPlayingID g_markersPlayingID = 0;
(...)
 
(...)
 
g_markersPlayingID = AK::SoundEngine::PostEvent( AK::EVENTS::PLAY_MARKERS_TEST, GAME_OBJECT_ID_MARKERS );
 
(...)
 
AkTimeMs uPosition = 0;
// Somewhere in your game loop (happens periodically):
AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition( g_markersPlayingID, &uPosition );
// Now handle lip synchronization by using uPosition

Limitations

When an event contains multiple play actions, GetSourcePlayPosition() returns the position of the first source played by the target of the first play action occurring at time 0. When this source stops, the source whose position is returned is undefined.
Continuous (random or sequence) containers return the position of the sound that is currently playing. When there are many sounds, the source whose position is returned is undefined. In crossfade or sample-accurate transitions, the next source returns its position only when the previous source has finished playing.
When used with extrapolation, looping sources may overshoot the loop end for a short period of time when the loop occurs.
Some virtual voices are killed when their priority falls under a certain threshold. When this happens, you might receive an error code from AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition(). You should always check the return value when calling AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition().
Dynamic pitch changes may result in slightly offset playback positions for a short period of time during the transition.

See also

AkTimeMs

AkInt32 AkTimeMs

Time in ms.

Definition: AkTypedefs.h:43

AK::SoundEngine::GetSourcePlayPosition

AKSOUNDENGINE_API AKRESULT GetSourcePlayPosition(AkPlayingID in_PlayingID, AkTimeMs *out_puPosition, bool in_bExtrapolate=true)

AK::SoundEngine::PostEvent

AKSOUNDENGINE_API AkPlayingID PostEvent(AkUniqueID in_eventID, AkGameObjectID in_gameObjectID, AkUInt32 in_uFlags=0, AkCallbackFunc in_pfnCallback=NULL, void *in_pCookie=NULL, AkUInt32 in_cExternals=0, AkExternalSourceInfo *in_pExternalSources=NULL, AkPlayingID in_PlayingID=AK_INVALID_PLAYING_ID)

AkPlayingID

AkUInt32 AkPlayingID

A unique identifier generated whenever a PostEvent is called (or when a Dynamic Sequence is created)....

Definition: AkTypedefs.h:42

Was this page helpful?

Need Support?

Questions? Problems? Need more info? Contact us, and we can help!

Visit our Support page

Tell us about your project. We're here to help.

Get started with Wwise

Introduction
Example
Limitations

Wwise SDK