Skip to main content

THX Spatial Audio+

Table of Contents​

Introduction​

THX Spatial Audio+ is a spatial audio processing plugin for Audiokinetic Wwise.

Specifications:

  • Platform: Windows x64
  • Wwise Version: 2024.1 and 2025.1
  • Channel Configuration: 7.1.4 input (12 channels) to Stereo output (2 channels)

Installation​

  1. Download the plugin from this link.

    Installation Files

  2. Follow the Audiokinetic documentation to install the plugin.

    • Start the Audiokinetic Launcher.
    • Open the Plug-ins tab.
    • Choose the Wwise version and click Add from directory.

    Audiokinetic Launcher

  3. Select the folder with the unzipped files and press Modify.

    • The plugin will be installed to the selected version of Wwise.

    Modify Wwise

  4. Follow additional steps to install plugins to the engine integration. The Unreal/Unity Audiokinetic documentation can be found here.

    • Go to the Unreal Engine tab in the launcher.
    • Select the project using integration and click Modify Wwise in Project.

    UE Integration

    • Click Modify on the next page.

    UE Integration Modify

Note: UE5 Wwise Integration uses dynamic libraries by default. That is the suggested way of usage.

Usage​

Authoring​

  1. Create a new Wwise project.

  2. Add a child Audio Bus to the Master Audio Bus.

    Master Audio Bus

  3. Choose 7.1.4 channel configuration for this new bus.

    Channel Configuration

  4. Add the THX Spatial Audio+ plugin to this Audio Bus.

    Add Plugin

  5. Create a test SFX in the Containers (Actor-Mixer) hierarchy.

    Create SFX

  6. Route it to the Audio Bus created with the THX Spatial Audio+ plugin.

    Route SFX

  7. Enable 3D positioning for this SFX.

    3D Positioning

  8. When playing the SFX, THX Spatial Audio+ processing will be applied.

Parameters​

THX Spatial Audio+ provides a set of parameters to control the binauralization effect.

Room Direct​

Controls the direct path of the signal, representing the audio reaching the listener without reflections or reverb.

Room Direct Parameters

  • Room Direct Enabled: Enables or disables the direct path of the signal.
  • Direct Gain: Controls the gain level of the direct signal in decibels.
  • EQ: A 10-band equalizer applied to the direct signal path.
    • Direct EQ Enabled: Enables or disables the 10-band equalizer. Room Direct EQ
    • Band Enabled: Enables or disables the EQ band.
    • Band Filter type: Selects the filter type for each EQ band (Peak, Low Shelf, High Shelf, High Pass, Low Pass, Notch, Band Pass, All Pass).
    • Band Frequency: Sets the center frequency of the EQ band in Hz.
    • Band Gain: Controls the gain of the EQ band in decibels.
    • Band Q: Controls the Q-factor (bandwidth) of the EQ band. Late Reverb Parameters

Late Reverb​

Generates the late reverb to simulate the acoustic characteristics of a room.

Late Reverb Parameters

  • Late Reverb Enabled: Enables or disables the late reverb processing.
  • Late Reverb Gain: Controls the gain level of the late reverb in decibels.
  • Num Comb Filters: Sets the number of comb filters used to generate the reverb.
  • Num All-Pass Filters: Sets the number of all-pass filters.
  • Comb Filter Delay Mult: Multiplies the delay times of comb filters, affecting perceived room size.
  • Room Size: Controls the perceived size of the reverb space.
  • All-Pass Feedback: Controls the feedback amount in all-pass filters.
  • Damp: Controls high-frequency damping to reduce brightness.
  • Width: Controls the stereo width of the reverb output.
  • Stereo Spread: Creates stereo separation and spatial width.
  • Wet: Controls the level of the wet (reverberated) signal in the output mix.
  • Pre EQ: 10-band equalizers applied before processing.
  • Post EQ: 10-band equalizers applied after processing.

Early Reflections​

Calculates and processes early reflections, simulating the first few sound reflections arriving before the reverb tail.

Early Reflections Parameters

  • Early Reflections Enabled: Enables or disables early reflections processing.
  • Early Reflections Gain: Controls the gain level of early reflections in decibels.
  • Early Stagger Enabled: Adds a random delay offset to each reflection for natural patterns.
  • Virtual Room Dimensions: Defines virtual room dimensions (Length, Width, Height) for timing calculations.
  • Number of Reflections: Sets the maximum number of reflections to process per emitter.
  • EQ: 10-band equalizer applied to the early reflections path.

Emitters​

Defines virtual emitter (loudspeaker) positions in spherical coordinates relative to the listener. They represent the 7.1.4 channels: L+R (left/right), C (center), LFE (subwoofer), LRS+RRS (rear surround), LS+RS (surround), LTF+RTF (top front), LTR+RTR (top rear).

Emitters Parameters

  • Azimuth: Horizontal angle of the emitter relative to the listener (degrees from front center).
  • Elevation: Vertical angle of the emitter relative to the listener (degrees from horizontal plane).
  • Radius: Distance from the listener to the emitter position in meters.

Presets​

To import the presets, use Project -> "Import Factory Assets..." and then select "THXSpatialAudioPlus". The following presets are provided (as ShareSets):

  • THX_Default
  • THX_Large
  • THX_Medium
  • THX_Small
  • THX_Studio

Presets

Passthrough​

Since THX Spatial Audio+ binauralization shall be placed at the last stage of processing, we suggest the following workflow for passthrough compatibility.

  • Setup a Spatial Mix buffer as described in Authoring.
  • Insert Wwise 3D Audio Mixer effect to Audio Objects bus, which mixes all objects to 7.1.4 channels. Busses
  • The plugin renders the 7.1.4 mix to stereo. The resulting two-channel output is then mixed with the Passthrough bus and sent to the output device (WASAPI).

Passthrough

UE5​

Packaging​

When packaging your Unreal Engine project, THXSpatialAudioPlus.dll is automatically copied to the packaging output (e.g., Plugins\WwiseSoundEngine\ThirdParty\x64_vc170\Debug\bin).

However, you must also copy data.bin (the file installed with the plugin into the Authoring/SDK folders). There are two ways to ensure this:

  1. Manually: Place data.bin into the same folder as THXSpatialAudioPlus.dll in the packaged build.
  2. Automatically: Modify the Wwise integration code before packaging.
    • Open Plugins/WwiseSoundEngine/Source/WwiseSoundEngine/WwiseSoundEngineVersionBase.Build.cs
    • Inside Apply(...), replace the runtime dependency block with the following snippet:
	SE.PublicDelayLoadDLLs.AddRange(WwiseUEPlatformInstance.GetPublicDelayLoadDLLs());
	foreach (var RuntimeDependency in WwiseUEPlatformInstance.GetRuntimeDependencies())
	{
	    SE.RuntimeDependencies.Add(RuntimeDependency);
}
  • Replace it with the following snippet so that data.bin is staged automatically
SE.PublicDelayLoadDLLs.AddRange(WwiseUEPlatformInstance.GetPublicDelayLoadDLLs());
string runtimeBinDir = null;

foreach (var RuntimeDependency in WwiseUEPlatformInstance.GetRuntimeDependencies())
{
    SE.RuntimeDependencies.Add(RuntimeDependency);
    if (runtimeBinDir == null)
    {
        runtimeBinDir = Path.GetDirectoryName(RuntimeDependency);
    }
}

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(runtimeBinDir))
{
    var dataBinPath = Path.Combine(runtimeBinDir, "data.bin");
    if (File.Exists(dataBinPath))
    {
        SE.RuntimeDependencies.Add(dataBinPath, StagedFileType.NonUFS);
    }
}
  • Rebuild project / engine to update Wwise UE integration.
  • In the final packaged folder (for example YourProject\Plugins\WwiseSoundEngine\ThirdParty\x64_vc170\Debug\bin) verify that data.bin sits next to THXSpatialAudioPlus.dll. If it is still missing, double-check that the file was already present under ThirdParty/.../bin/ before you started packaging.