FMOD_StudioEventEmitter crashing PS4 build while system is saving/loading

Hi,

We have a FMOD project integrated with Unity and have placed many objects around the levels with the FMOD_StudioEventEmitter script.

We are now testing the PS4 build and are experiencing various problems while loading these levels. It seems there is some sort of conflict between the PS4 save system and FMOD: if any event is loaded while the PS4 save system is saving/loading, the game will either crash or have massive FPS drops.

On the Desktop Build, everything is working fine there.

We are using Fmod Studio 1.06.02 and Unity 5.3.3f1.

Any help?

Thanks.

I would upgrade the FMOD library to make sure the PS4 SDK matches Unity’s.

The integration you’re using from 1.06.XX is now called the Legacy integration and it’s last release was 1.07.07. You’ll need to the whole integration to 1.07 first, and then to get a version with the latest SDK you’ll have to download the standalone FMOD PS4 Programmers API in replace the PRX files inside the integration.

Thank you for the help.

So, I have now upgraded our integration to version 1.07.02 (from the information that is present on the website, I was a bit unsure if the last legacy version was this one or 1.07.07).
I have also installed the PS4 Programmer’s API v. 1.07.02.

Unfortunately, the problem still persists. We’re experiencing massive stutters/crashes and FPS drops on levels with Fmod_StudioEventEmitters.

All my PS4 banks are encoded with AT9 with 50% Quality. Also, I am only streaming music, so the great majority of the assets played by the Fmod_StudioEventEmitter script are not being streamed.

Any help? Would migrating to v. 1.08 help? I was trying to avoid this as it will be very time consuming to update all scripts but will do it in case it is the only solution.

1.07.02 was when we split into legacy and V2 integration, but we kept doing bug fixes on the legacy integration until it reached 1.07.07. And I was recommending you go all the way to PS4 programmers API 1.07.15 to get the latest SDK. There shouldn’t be any compatibility problems between 1.07.07 integration and 1.07.15 native libraries.

Thank you again for the help.

So, after upgrading the integration to 1.07.07 and the PS4 programmers API to 1.07.15, we have managed to connect the profiler to the PS4.

With this, we have realized that most of the resources that FMOD is using comes from events wit Scatterer sound modules. As an example, a set of events with this type of module on PC, encoded with Vorbis, is consuming around 1% CPU. The same set of these events on PS4 encoded with AT9 consumes around 15%. A few sets of these events will easily add up and surpass 100%, causing the game to stall frequently.

Is there a general good practice for the use of scatterer sound modules for PS4? Have you had any problems with these on PS4 in the past?

Thank you again.

The only things that I can think of are the scatterer is starting up a large number of channels at once or there is channel mismatch causing a expensive up or downmix. Do you have a call to setSoftwareFormat() to match the system format to your projects format? PS4 will be in 7.1 by default.

If you’re still having trouble package up the profile capture and send it to support@fmod.org

Did you find the source of your CPU spikes?

Yes. We tried calling setSoftwareFormat() to match the 7.1 format, but didn’t see much improvements. So, we decided to change our format to Stereo and now it’s running smoothly. I also simplified a few events that had a variety of Scatterer Sound Modules, that also helped.

Many thanks,
Cheers.