Best uses for sub-events?

FMOD Studio
1

I’ve been wondering what is the best use for sub-events in Studio, as opposed to Event References or Event Sounds?

In the manual it says that sub-events appear in the parent event as audio tracks, and share the 3D panning of the parent. And they can be triggered separately from the parent event. But this is also the case with the other ways (event refs, event sounds), except for the separate triggering.

Also:

  • Sub events are difficult to review in Studio: you can’t trigger them while the parent event is playing
  • Their parameters aren’t exposed for automation in the parent, as is the case with references and event sounds
  • What happens if you only trigger a sub-event in the game, but the parent event is not present in the scene?

So what are sub-events best used for? How should they be handled by the game?

2

Subevents lifetime, and playback control including parameters are controlled via the API like any other top level event, the only difference is they are routed into an event instance before the signal enters the global mixer. Another way of thinking of it is a non-global mixer which can be instanced and adjusted via parameters.

One of the intended use cases is as a subcomponent of an object which need to be positioned differently, tires of a car for example. However there is a known issue where the tool only allows 3D panners on the master track which means if you try to position both the subevent and it’s parent, the subevent will get panned and attenuated twice.