Bug in Haptic Plugin (FMOD 2.04): Sounds Play from Wrong Positions

Unreal Engine
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Hi,

I believe there may be a bug in the haptic plugin in version 2.04.

After the migration, some sounds were being heard from extreme positions (mostly from the right side). I spent several hours tracking down the cause, and it turned out to be the haptic plugin.

Here’s what I found: when a track containing a haptic plugin instrument has its output set to Surround 4.0 or higher (rather than mono or stereo), the sound plays from an incorrect position instead of from the attached socket.

As a temporary workaround, I’ve changed the output setting of the events containing haptics from Automatic to Stereo. I’d appreciate it if you could look into this and fix the bug as soon as possible.

Thank you!

  • Unreal Engine 5.8.3
  • FMOD 2.04
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I have not been able to reproduce this issue. Is this occurring in FMOD Studio, Unreal during PIE, or in a packaged build of your game?

Can you please send me an event that reproduces this issue?

  1. Make a copy of your project
  2. Remove everything in it except for this event, and any asset required to play it
  3. Package your project with File → Package Project…
  4. Ensure the “Assets” option is selected and click “Export”
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  5. Upload the resulting .fspackage file to your FMOD Profile
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Got it, I’ll get that ready soon. Before I do, I have a question. Whenever an event containing a haptic instrument is played, the following warning message always appears: “The plugin has reserved its input format and it cannot be changed.” Do you know why this happens? I’d never seen this warning before migrating to 2.04, so I wanted to ask. (For reference, the warning appears no matter what the track’s input or output is set to.)

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Looks like it’s a new warning that has been added in 2.04, and it means that the DSP in question has an explicit FMOD_DSP_DESCRIPTION::inchannels configured, but something is trying to override it with DSP::setInputChannelFormat.

I can reprdouce this warning in FMOD Studio when I play a Haptics Instrument- it seems to be spurious in this instance, since the runtime ignores the error and continues down its normal course, but I will talk to the dev about downgrading that warning to a log. Thanks for letting us know!

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Just following up on this - have you managed to resolve the issue? If not, as previously asked for by Jeff, could I get you to upload a repro event to your FMOD user profile?

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  1. I’ve uploaded haptic_bug_test.fspackage to my profile.

  2. As a temporary workaround, I’ve changed the output of every haptic instrument track used in our project to Stereo. However, the warning “The plugin has reserved its input format and it cannot be changed.” still appears every time a sound containing a haptic instrument is played. The warning appears no matter what I change the input format to.

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  3. I’ve also included a profiler session called “haptic_problem” that captures the issue. If you play it back, the first two hit sounds are from the sfx_combat_hit_body event with its Haptic track output set to Automatic, and the following three hits are with the output set to Stereo. As you’ll hear, the first two sounds come from slightly to the left rather than from the center.