# Can "Programmer sound" play unpacked soundfiles?

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/can-programmer-sound-play-unpacked-soundfiles/16721>\
**Category:** Unreal Engine\
**Created:** [February 7, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/can-programmer-sound-play-unpacked-soundfiles/16721 "2021-02-07T22:36:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jojojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@jojojo](https://qa.fmod.com/u/jojojo)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/can-programmer-sound-play-unpacked-soundfiles/16721/1 "2021-02-07T22:36:23Z")

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Is it possible in UE4 to play a soundfile as a “programmer sound” that is not packed in a .pak file (or that is not located in the game’s content folder)?  
We are using “plugins” in UE4 to let people create mods for our game (and programmer sounds to allow people to add their own sounds) but the problem is that fmod only seems to look for files in the game’s content folder, which naturally the person creating a mod won’t have.

Any kind of help is very appreciated.

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**Author:** ![joseph](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/joseph/32/264_2.png) [@joseph](https://qa.fmod.com/u/joseph)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 12:01am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/can-programmer-sound-play-unpacked-soundfiles/16721/2 "2021-02-09T00:01:27Z")

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As described in the [Programmer Sounds by Path](https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-ue4?version=2.1&page=user-guide.html#programmer-sounds-by-path) section of the [FMOD UE4 Integration User Guide](https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-ue4?version=2.1), it is entirely possible to have a programmer instrument play a “loose” audio file from disk.

Moreover, as described in the [Programmer Sounds via API](https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-ue4?version=2.1&page=user-guide.html#programmer-sounds-via-api) section of the user guide, it is possible to use the same API calls to specify a loose audio file that are available in the FMOD Studio API.

Unfortunately, without knowing exactly how you intend mod-making for your game to work, we can’t provide any more specific advice on this topic.

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**Author:** ![jojojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@jojojo](https://qa.fmod.com/u/jojojo)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2021, 6:35pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/can-programmer-sound-play-unpacked-soundfiles/16721/3 "2021-02-10T18:35:17Z")

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Thanks, this sentence “If you do this, you’ll need to make sure that directory with the media files is added to directories to package in the packaging settings” makes it sound like all programmer sounds need to be packaged with the game. But we figured it out in the meantime.

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**Author:** ![joseph](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/joseph/32/264_2.png) [@joseph](https://qa.fmod.com/u/joseph)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/can-programmer-sound-play-unpacked-soundfiles/16721/4 "2021-02-10T23:34:08Z")

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> [@jojojo](#):
>
> this sentence “If you do this, you’ll need to make sure that directory with the media files is added to directories to package in the packaging settings” makes it sound like all programmer sounds need to be packaged with the game.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! We’ll correct this in a future release of our documentation.