"I previously used version 1.10.20 of FMOD SDK for my project, and we are planning to upgrade it to 2.02.21 now. However, there are some concerns that I’d like to clear up:
Besides the enhancements to FMOD’s event features that I already know about, such as the addition of global parameter controls, what other new features have been added that are particularly good?
After the upgrade, will FMOD’s performance be better than before? What optimizations have been made? Or could it potentially result in higher performance overhead than before?"
You can find a full list of new features added between versions 1.10.20 and 2.02.21 in our detailed revision history. It’s hard to say which are “particularly good” because every game has unique requirements; without knowing what you need, it’s hard to say which new features you will find valuable.
That being said, the biggest and most significant new features tend to be added in new major versions rather than patch releases - so if you want to know what new features are most likely to have a big impact on your project, you’ll find them in versions 2.00.00, 2.01.00, and 2.02.00.
We aggressively optimize every part of the FMOD Engine, and always have - and so while we have made the numerous optimizations listed in the FMOD Engine revision history, they’re generally marginal improvements to already-efficient processes.
FMOD Studio, by contrast, has benefited from numerous optimizations that noticeably improve performance and responsiveness. You’ll find that saving and loading large projects, editing complex events, recording profiler sessions, and other common operations are all more responsive than they were in version 1.10.20.
Thank you very much for your answer, it was very enlightening! However, could I ask for your assistance to summarize the key optimization projects for the new version of FMOD in games, focusing on CPU, memory, IO, etc? For example, has it reduced the memory needed for audio processing, or improved memory utilization? Has it reduced the demand of audio processing on the CPU? Or, has it reduced the time required to read and write audio data?
Every game has unique requirements and uses FMOD differently, and so is impacted differently by FMOD performance optimizations. As such, if you want to know how your game’s performance is affected by the optimizations we have made, the only reliable way to find out is to test your game’s performance and resource consumption before and after updating your FMOD Engine version.