6. Managing Assets

Managing a project's audio assets is an important part of using FMOD Studio efficiently.

You can import, manage, organize, and audition audio files in the assets browser. The assets browser also allows you to add files you've imported to events and instruments, and to specify how they'll be encoded into banks.

In addition to importing audio files that you already own, you can buy a variety of audio files from our online store, FMOD.io.

6.1 Anatomy of the Assets Browser

The assets browser displays the audio files and folders in your project's assets directory. It allows you to audition, edit, and organize your project's audio files, as well as to add those files to instruments and events. It can be found in the event editor and the audio bin windows.

At the top of the assets browser is the browser search bar. Below it are all the files and folders in your project's "Assets" subdirectory. You can drag files from your file manager onto the assets browser in order to import them into your project. You can drag files from the assets browser onto instruments, tracks, playlists, and the events browser to use them in your project.

When an asset or folder is selected, its custom encoding settings and asset preview (if any) are displayed at the bottom of the assets browser.

In addition to setting the encoding format for the current platform, you can set an asset's loading mode. For more information about loading modes and compression, see the Compression and Platform Encoding section of this chapter.

The asset preview allows you to view the waveform of an asset, and to audition it both with and without compression.

6.2 Folders and Files

All the audio files and folders in your project's assets folder are displayed in the assets browser. This browser is your main tool for importing and organizing your project's audio files, and for adding them to instruments and events.

Please note that making changes in the assets browser makes changes to the contents of project directory on disk. If you create, delete, or move files or folders in the assets browser in FMOD Studio, the corresponding files and folders in the assets folder on disk are also created, deleted, or moved.

6.2.1 Importing Audio Files

To import a file into an FMOD Studio project, drag it from a file manager window onto the assets browser. This copies the file into the project's "Assets" folder. If you drag the file onto a particular folder in the assets browser, it is added to that folder.

You can also import files by selecting "File > Import Assets...," or by right-clicking in the assets browser and selecting "Import Assets...," and then selecting the files you want to import in the dialog. Files imported in this way are copied into your project's assets folder.

When creating audio files in a DAW for use in FMOD Studio, it is best to ensure their waveforms begin and end with a zero crossing. This is because waveforms that do not begin or end on a zero crossing may in some circumstances produce audio artefacts (especially pops and clicks) when they begin playing, reach their ends, or are looped.

Compatible File Formats

While any kind of file can be imported into FMOD Studio, only audio files can be auditioned and used in events. Specifically, FMOD Studio can load and play files with the file name extensions .wav, .mp3, .ogg, .aif, .aiff, .wma, and .flac.

The compression and encoding format of imported audio files has no bearing on the size, performance, and behavior of your game. This is because FMOD Studio replaces any existing compression and encoding as part of the bank building process.

That being said, we do recommend using files in uncompressed formats, and with 48 kHz sample rates. Such files allow faster workflow, as they are generally quicker for DAWs to encode and take marginally less time to load, process, and build in FMOD Studio.

6.2.2 Using Audio Files

You can use assets from the assets browser in your project by dragging them onto instruments, playlists, tracks, and the events browser.

Dragging one or more assets onto an audio track or master track creates a single instrument or multi instrument, depending on the number of assets selected.

Dragging assets onto the playlist of a multi instrument or scatterer instrument adds them to that playlist.

Dragging an asset onto the events browser creates a new event. If you drag more than one asset onto the events browser at a time, you'll be prompted to choose between creating a new event for each audio file, creating a new event containing a multi instrument, and creating a new event with one track per audio file.

6.2.3 Folders

Folders in the assets browser represent actual folders in your FMOD Studio project's assets folder. To create a new folder, right-click on an empty space and select "New Folder".

You can right-click on an asset or folder and select "Move Into New Folder" from the context menu to create a new folder in that location and move the selected item into that new folder.

You can move any item in the assets browser into a new folder by dragging it onto that folder.

6.2.4 Unimported Files

Audio files that were copied into the project's assets folder using a file manager application are automatically tagged by FMOD Studio as "#unimported", and are marked with a yellow "New!" icon in the assets browser.

Unimported files are not included in your project's metadata, cannot be assigned custom encoding settings, and are ignored by FMOD Studio's integrated source control solutions.

Dragging an unimported audio file onto an audio track, an instrument, a playlist, or the events browser automatically imports it. You can also import an unimported file by right-clicking on it and selecting "Import" from the context menu.

6.2.5 Filename Clashes

If you attempt to move or import a file into the same location as a different file with the same name, you will be prompted to replace or rename the file.

Choosing to replace the file overwrites the file already in that location with the file being imported or moved.

Choosing to rename the file automatically appends a number to the name of the file being imported or moved. For example, a file named A.wav will be renamed A (2).wav.

You may also choose to cancel the operation. If you do, the file will not be imported, moved, or changed.

6.2.6 Open in an External Sample Editor

You can use an audio file editing application to edit any audio file in the assets browser. To do this, right-click on the audio file in the assets browser and select "Open in External Sample Editor" from the context menu.

This opens the audio file using the external sample editor specified in the assets tab of the preferences dialog. If no external sample editor is specified, the file is opened using the application associated with that file type in your operating system.

FMOD Studio does not automatically update all instruments that use an asset when that asset is edited. To update all instruments that use an edited asset, right-click on the asset in the assets browser and select "Refresh" from the context menu.

6.2.7 Searching for Assets

You are able to search through your FMOD Studio project's assets in the assets browser.

In addition to searching for assets by name, you can search for assets that fit particular categories by clicking the magnifying glass icon and selecting an item from the menu. Each menu item automatically fills the browser search bar with a specific search term and filters the browser to display only files and folders that fit specific criteria, as follows:

Menu item	Term	Displays
Filter by Missing Assets	#missing	Assets that are missing.
Filter by Modified Assets	#modified	Assets that have been modified in an external application.
Filter by Unimported Assets	#unimported	Assets that are unimported (tagged as "New!" in the assets browser).
Filter by Unused Assets	#unused	Assets that are not used in any event. Note that assets used in audio tables are still shown if they are not also used in events.
Filter by Streaming Assets	#streaming	Assets that are streaming.
Filter by Custom Encoding Settings	#customized	Assets and folders that have custom encoding settings. Assets in folders with custom encoding settings are not shown.
Filter by File Length	#query:(AudioFile.length > x)	Find assets with a length longer than x (where x is a duration in seconds).

These search terms may also be manually typed into the search bar.

For more information about searching for browser content, see the Searching section of the Organizing the Project chapter.

Searching for Assets Examples

Example	Code
Search for all unused assets that are longer than 10 seconds	#unused #query:(AudioFile.length > 10)
Search for all streaming assets that contain the word "Ambience"	#streaming ambience
Search for all modified assets with custom encoding settings	#modified #customized

6.3 Compression and Platform Encoding

In order for content to be used in your game, it needs to be built into banks. As part of this process, FMOD Studio automatically compresses and encodes your project's assets.

The assets browser allows you to set the encoding settings to be used for each asset and asset folder in your project. These encoding settings, if specified for an asset or asset folder, are used for that asset or the assets in that folder in place of the encoding setting specified for the platform in the "Build" tab of the preferences dialog. Encoding formats are always platform-specific, and so apply only for the platform selected when the new encoding setting is set.

The assets browser also allows you to specify the advanced loading modes of individual assets within your project.

For information about banks and building your project, see the Getting Events into Your Game chapter.

For information about specific encoding formats, see the compression formats and platform settings section of the Getting Events into Your Game chapter.

6.3.1 Custom Platform Encoding Settings

When an asset or folder is selected in the assets browser, and that asset or folder does not currently have custom encoding settings for the current platform, the words "Click to add a custom platform encoding setting" appear in blue at the bottom of the assets browser. You can click on this text to add a custom encoding setting to the selected asset or folder.

Once custom encoding settings have been added to an asset or folder, the blue text is replaced by the Encoding Format, Quality, and Advanced Loading Mode drop-down menus. These menus can be used to change the corresponding settings of the asset or folder. You can change the encoding and loading settings for multiple assets or folders at a time by multi-selecting them before adjusting their settings.

Assets and folders with custom encoding settings are labeled with those settings in the assets browser.

You can preview how your assets will sound when compressed by turning on audition with compression mode before auditioning them. In this mode, assets auditioned in the asset preview are compressed and encoded for the purposes of auditioning in the asset preview only. To turn on audition with compression mode, click on the "Compress" button in the asset preview. Audition with compression mode cannot be used to audition the XMA and AT9 compression formats.

6.3.2 Sample Rates

The sample rate of each asset can be customized to suit the needs of your game. Matching the sample rate of the platform you are building to avoids resampling at runtime, resulting in better performance. For more information on each platform's default sample rate, see the platform details section of the FMOD Engine User Manual.

High sample rates allow pitching up and down with better quality, but at the cost of larger files and slower performance. Low sample rates can have noticeable artifacts when pitched, but have smaller file sizes and faster performance.

The sample rates of FADPCM, PCM, Vorbis, and XMA encoded assets can be set to one of three modes:

• Custom (Default) - The sample rate can be set to a custom value between 4.00kHz and 48.00kHz using the sample rate number box.
• Optimized for Size - The sample rate is the lowest sample rate possible that does not audibly affect the frequencies of the asset.
• Preserved - The sample rate matches the sample rate of the original asset.

Assets with custom platform encoding settings are set to custom sample rate mode by default.

6.3.3 Quality

The AT9, XMA, Opus, and Vorbis encoding formats offer a quality property that control the amount of compression used when building. While the quality property represents quality in percentages, the actual compression ratio of some encoders will be fixed within a certain range. For example, AT9 encoding won't have any difference in compression ratio when the quality property is set between 40% and 48%. You can see how FMOD Studio determines compression ratios below:

• Vorbis - The quality maps linearly to FMOD Studio's quality property. It defaults to 37% as recommended by Vorbis for the best balance between compression and quality.
• AT9 - The bitrate (Kbps) depends on channel count and the quality property steps up every 16%. For more information see the FMOD FSBank API.
• Opus - Opus per-channel bitrates of 0.8 Kbps to 64 Kbps map linearly to the range 1% to 80% on FMOD Studio's quality slider, and per-channel bitrates of 67.2 Kbps to 128 Kbps map linearly to the range of 81% to 100%. Opus quality defaults to 63%, which corresponds to the bitrate of 50.4 Kbps used by default in the Opus reference implementation.
• XMA - The quality maps linearly to the quality property.

The Vorbis and XMA encoding formats allow both sample rate and quality to be set.

6.3.4 Advanced Loading Modes

There are several different ways in which an asset can be loaded into memory for use in your game.

Each advanced loading mode has its own advantages and disadvantages:

• Compressed - Assets are loaded into memory in compressed format when loaded, and then decompressed when played. This requires less memory than decompressed loading mode, but requires slightly more CPU when playing assets.

• Decompressed - Assets are completely decompressed into memory when loaded. This uses more memory than streaming loading mode and compressed loading mode, but requires very little CPU when playing assets. This loading mode is most commonly used for short assets that are played frequently and for mobile platforms.

• Streaming - Assets are continuously loaded piecemeal from disk into a small memory buffer while playing. This substantially reduces the memory required to load and play assets. However, most platforms can only support a single-digit number of simultaneously playing streams, as streaming assets require constant disk access while playing. Streaming loading mode is most commonly used for music and background ambiances.

By default, assets ten seconds or longer are automatically set to the streaming advanced loading mode when imported. Shorter assets default to the advanced loading mode specified for the platform in the build tab of the preferences dialog. You can change the length of assets that are automatically set to steaming advanced loading mode in the assets tab of the preferences dialog.

You can change the advanced loading mode of an asset with custom platform encoding settings by using the "Advanced Loading Mode" drop-down menu.

You can change the advanced loading mode of an asset that does not have custom platform encoding settings by clicking on the "Stream" button. This toggles between streaming advanced loading mode and the advanced loading mode specified for the platform in the build tab of the preferences dialog.

Because streaming assets are loaded as they play and must be buffered before they can begin playback, an instrument that plays a streaming asset may exhibit latency when triggered. It is therefore best to use non-streaming assets in instruments that require low latency.

6.4 Consolidating Assets

It's occasionally necessary to replace one audio file in your project with a different audio file, or with a newer version of the same audio file. When doing this, it is not necessary to manually edit every instrument in which the old file was used. Instead, you can use the assets browser to replace the new and old files.

To replace some files, you must first multi-select the audio files to be consolidated in the assets browser. To multi-select audio files, hold down the Shift or Ctrl key when clicking on the files you want to add to the multi-selection. Right click on the selected assets, select "Replace with", and select the asset you with to replace the selected assets with.

Replacing assets deletes all assets in the selection. It also automatically replaces all references to the deleted assets with references to the asset selected in the "Replace With" dialog.

For example, in the above screenshot, right-clicking on ExplosionLarge.ogg and selecting "Consolidate..." from the context menu would cause ExplosionMedium.ogg and ExplosionSmall.ogg to be deleted from the project, and would also update all instruments that reference ExplosionMedium.ogg and ExplosionSmall.ogg to reference ExplosionLarge.ogg instead.

6.5 Dealing with Missing Files

FMOD Studio monitors the contents of your project's "Assets" folder for changes. Should an audio file be moved, deleted, or renamed outside of FMOD Studio, it is automatically tagged as "#missing" in the assets browser. Changing the path of your project's assets folder in the assets tab of the preferences dialog also results in missing files if the files are not found under the new path.

When FMOD Studio tries to audition an instrument that contains a missing file, it plays no audio for that asset. If you try to audition a missing audio file in the asset preview, an error message is displayed, stating that the file cannot be found. A similar error message is displayed when trying to build a bank with a missing file.

You can search for missing audio files by searching for "#missing" in the assets browser's search bar.

The simplest way to fix a missing file is to add a file with the same filename as the missing file to the folder where the missing file is supposed to be. After replacing the file, right-click on it in the assets browser and select "Refresh" from the context menu to update all instruments that use the formerly-missing asset throughout your project.

Another way is to consolidate the missing asset with another asset in your project. For more information about consolidating assets, see the consolidating assets section of this chapter.

6.6 FMOD.io

FMOD.io is an online service where you can preview, purchase, and download audio files for use in your projects. All these files have been specially selected for use in games, and are brought to you by Soundrangers and Sound Ideas.

To access FMOD.io, either click on the FMOD.io tab in the audio bin window, or select "Jump to FMOD.io" from the "FMOD.io" menu.

You will need to sign in to an FMOD.com account in order to purchase or download audio files from FMOD.io. If you do not already have an FMOD.com account, you can sign up for one at www.FMOD.com. Creating an FMOD.com account automatically adds 50 free audio files to that account's library.

All audio files purchased through FMOD.io are yours to keep forever, and are licensed for use in any media you choose. For more information on licensing and the terms and conditions of use, please click on the "Terms of Use" button located at the bottom right of the FMOD.io window.

6.6.1 Browsing the catalog

You can browse everything that FMOD.io has to offer by clicking on the "Browse the Collection" link underneath the search bar.

You can also search the catalog for specific audio files by typing search terms into the search bar and clicking the "Find" button.

Results with a right-facing green arrow are categories of audio files. You can click on any category to view the files and bundles it contains. You can go back up a category by clicking on the Back button at the top left of the FMOD.io window.

Results with a forward slash and a number next to them are bundles of multiple audio files.

You can click on any audio file or bundle of files to view its details. While viewing the details of a file or bundle, you can preview an audio file by clicking on its name.

6.6.2 Purchasing from FMOD.io

Clicking on the price next to an audio file adds it to your cart.

The total number of items in your cart and their total value is displayed at the bottom of the window next to the shopping cart icon.

You can click on this icon to view the contents of your cart. Clicking on the "Checkout" button prompts you to enter payment details and finalize your purchase.

6.6.3 Importing audio files from FMOD.io

To import audio files from FMOD.io into your project, sign in to FMOD.io and click on your account name at the bottom of the window to view your library of purchased sound files.

You can navigate through your library by clicking on the categories and sub-categories. To import a file into your project, drag it onto the assets browser. You can also drag files directly onto instruments, playlists, tracks, and the events browser as if you were using an already-imported asset.