# Streaming and Latency **URL:** \ **Category:** FMOD Engine\ **Created:** [August 18, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-and-latency/24467 "2026-08-18T23:48:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zanhulme](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/zanhulme/32/5069_2.png) [@zanhulme](https://qa.fmod.com/u/zanhulme)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-and-latency/24467/1 "2026-08-18T23:48:11Z")
Hello! It has generally been my understanding that for sounds that require precision timing and minimal latency, the **Stream** load setting is best avoided. However, I have some questions about the details of streaming latency, in case it is useful for an edge case that requires minimising memory use. In [this forum post](https://qa.fmod.com/t/latency-when-going-from-one-transition-region-to-another-and-when-pause-instance/15641/2), @joseph said:\* “Streaming assets incur around 85.3 ms of additional latency due to the need to buffer the stream.”\* and [in this one](https://qa.fmod.com/t/event-playback-latency/17950/3), that it is _“…impossible to pre-load streaming assets or schedule them to play with sample-accurate timing.”_ So I have two main questions about this: 1. Is the latency for streaming applied to only the playing of the asset, or the entire event? A couple of examples of what I mean: 2. Can the streaming buffer be “primed” by starting to stream a sound and then pausing it, allowing it to be resumed later without the latency incurred by initialising the streaming buffer? I’ve been having a discussion about this with some other technical sound designers who also aren’t certain about it, so I would really appreciate an explanation of how streaming behaviour functions at this level for our collective enlightenment! Thanks, Zander ---
**Author:** ![Leah\_FMOD](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/leah_fmod/32/3685_2.png) [@Leah\_FMOD](https://qa.fmod.com/u/Leah_FMOD)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2026, 4:53am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-and-latency/24467/2 "2026-08-21T04:53:30Z")
Hey Zander, To answer your questions in order: > [@zanhulme](#): > > 1. Is the latency for streaming applied to only the playing of the asset, or the entire event? A couple of examples of what I mean: In both cases, both instruments will be scheduled to play at the same time. If the stream takes longer to ready for playback than the non-streaming asset, the latter will be delayed to match the former. > [@zanhulme](#): > > 1. Can the streaming buffer be “primed” by starting to stream a sound and then pausing it, allowing it to be resumed later without the latency incurred by initialising the streaming buffer? Technically yes, although you would need to use the API to pause the event instance, and not a sustain point. Loading stream sample data is handled on demand i.e. when the instrument falls within the scheduling window the stream is created. In the hypothetical case where you’d “prime” the stream, what you’d essentially be doing is pausing while the stream is within the scheduling window, which would allow the stream’s buffer to be filled, and then unpausing afterwards. To do this, you’d likely want to start the event instance and hook into the instance’s callback to pause the event once [FMOD\_STUDIO\_EVENT\_CALLBACK\_STARTED](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/api/studio-api-eventinstance.html#fmod_studio_event_callback_started) or [FMOD\_STUDIO\_EVENT\_CALLBACK\_SOUND\_PLAYED](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/api/studio-api-eventinstance.html#fmod_studio_event_callback_sound_played) fires, depending on how the event is set up. With that said, a more effective way of reducing scheduling delay for streams would likely be to modify [`FMOD_STUDIO_ADVANCEDSETTINGS.streamingscheduledelay`](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/api/studio-api-system.html#fmod_studio_advancedsettings_streamingscheduledelay) using [`Studio::System::setAdvancedSettings`](https://www.fmod.com/docs/2.03/api/studio-api-system.html#studio_system_setadvancedsettings). ---
**Author:** ![marko.ravnjak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c67d28/32.png) [@marko.ravnjak](https://qa.fmod.com/u/marko.ravnjak)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2026, 8:17am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-and-latency/24467/3 "2026-09-02T08:17:08Z")
A “competing solution provider” has a “zero latency” option for streamable events. I guess they just preload (and keep it) a small chunk of the stream data? Has something like been discussed for for future impl? ---
**Author:** ![Leah\_FMOD](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/leah_fmod/32/3685_2.png) [@Leah\_FMOD](https://qa.fmod.com/u/Leah_FMOD)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2026, 4:13am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/streaming-and-latency/24467/4 "2026-09-07T04:13:17Z")
> [@marko.ravnjak](#): > > Has something like been discussed for for future impl? Yes, this feature has been discussed and is currently on our feature tracker. I’ll note your interest in the feature!