New Haptics Instrument in Version 2.03.11 and using in Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine
1

Hi, we have recently upgraded to fmod studio 2.03.11 and we’re trying out the new haptics instrument which seems pretty cool so far.

I have the vibration preview working when pressing play play on an event containing a haptics instrument in fmod, however is this something that can be piped to Unreal Engine? (version 5.4) I can’t seem to find any information on this. Thanks in advance and keep these updates coming!

2

The relevant information on how to get additional plugins setup in Unreal can be found here Unreal | Plugins | FMOD Haptics Setup. To audition haptics in PIE it should just be a matter of adding fmod_haptics to your Dynamic Plugins list. Tnd there are a few additional platform-dependent steps for Deploying FMOD plugins in a build.
Please give that a try and let me know if you run into any issues getting it working.

3

Thanks for your reply Jeff, that’s working now :slight_smile:

Next question, can these haptic files/instruments be triggered via code? Instead of authoring them into events in the fmod studio editor? Could they even be fired from a programmer instrument or are these for use in studio solely?

4

You can play a haptics clip purely with code with these steps:

  1. Retrieve a plugin handle with System::loadPlugin
  2. Create a plugin instance with System::createDSPByPlugin
  3. Read the raw bytes from a haptics clip
  4. Pass the plugin instance the haptics clip with DSP::setParameterData
  5. Play the haptics clip with System::playDSP
#include "fmod_haptics.h"

...

FILE *fp = fopen("path/to/your_haptic.haptic", "r");
if (fp)
{
    char buffer[4096]{};
    fgets(buffer, 4096, fp);
    fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_END);
    int sz = ftell(fp);
    fseek(fp, 0L, SEEK_SET);

    FMOD::System *CoreSystem;
    StudioSystem->getCoreSystem(&CoreSystem);

    unsigned int HapticsHandle;
    FMOD::DSP *HapticsDSP;
    FMOD::Channel *HapticsChannel;

    FMOD_RESULT result = CoreSystem->loadPlugin("path/to/fmod_haptics.dll", &HapticsHandle);
    result = CoreSystem->createDSPByPlugin(HapticsHandle, &HapticsDSP);
    result = HapticsDSP->setParameterData(FMOD_HAPTICS::FMOD_HAPTICS_CLIP, buffer, sz);
    result = CoreSystem->playDSP(HapticsDSP, 0, false, &HapticsChannel);
}

I haven’t attempted this inside a programmer instrument, but I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to.

5

Thanks for your reply, this is really helpful.

One thing I’ve noticed when testing with both PS5 and Xbox Series controllers, it they behave differently; the Ps5 one is punchy and as expected, whereas the Xbox one I found it behaved like it was waiting for the vibration to finish before triggering another (this is without any stealing behavior applied)
Do you have a recommended app for generating the needed .haptic files? As I am using the Meta Haptics Studio, and wondered if it was related to that?

6

As far as I know Meta Haptics Studio is currently the only tool for creating .haptic files.
The Xbox controller is sluggish as it has more primitive vibration hardware than the PS5 controller, and currently there is a resource contention issue when multiple hosts are open (i.e, FMOD Studio and Unreal Editor open simultaneously), which makes it even worse- we are hoping to correct this in the next release.
It shouldn’t be waiting for voices to finish though, can you please try reconnecting the controller with just FMOD Studio or just Unreal open and let me know if that improves things at all?

7

Thanks again for your replies on this. I tried again with fmod closed and it behaves as expected, so yeah it sounds like the issue you are describing.

We did have one more issue that is hard to track down what happened exactly… but I submitted some banks not related to the haptics, and they caused some other sounds to stop functioning. I think it’s when the Unreal build/project itself doesn’t have the haptics plugin in the dynamic plugins list. Does the haptics instrument write some information to ALL banks?

8

The haptics instrument doesn’t write information to all banks. If you added a “haptics event” to your master bank I can imagine that causing problems if you haven’t added the plugin to your list, but other events should be able to play if there is a missing plugin definition in the plugin list.
Can you please tick Enable API Error Logging, set the Logging Level to “LEVEL LOG”, and share the output of Unreal’s log after trying to play one of these failing events?

9

Hi, I’ve not been able to repro that issue but will save out the log if it occurs again. Thank you.

We are looking to implement the above coded method you decibe, but can I just check with you how Unreal gets the .haptic files at runtime from a bank? Is it best to setup an audio table pointing to a folder? I have them just in a folder named ‘Haptics’ in assets currently.

I am getting the error ‘Failed to open haptics file from path:’ and then ‘Play2DEffect - Could not find a valid HapticsDSP’ even though the haptics plugin is loaded.