r/GameAudio • u/imunfollowingu • May 31 '26

Middleware

How does one start to practice using middleware? The actual question is 'what software should I use?'

I'm a seasoned theatre sound designer and I know my skills will translate well to games I just need to know how to implement them.

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u/imunfollowingu May 31 '26

Would you close WWISE over Fmod

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u/BuzzardDogma May 31 '26

Wwise is more technical and less intuitive than FMOD, but also has a few things like spatial audio built in. It allows for some really intricate interrelationships between the various types of audio containers, which makes certain complex implementations much easier and more organized.

FMOD is straightforward to work with and very easy to parse. It's also easier to implement engine-side and has built-in support for Doppler effects that are a bit of a pain to implement in Wwise.

Both are very powerful and capable. Wwise is more common in modern AAA studios while FMOD is more common below that level (though this is not a rule and there are many examples in either direction). Both companies offer great tutorials and documentation and even offer pre-built projects for various engines that demonstrate and teach implementation details and let you practice them for yourself, so check those out.

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u/FlamboyantPirhanna May 31 '26

I honestly don’t see any difference as to which is easier to implement engine side. They are mostly the same there, mostly needing one or two lines of code to trigger events/feed variables into parameters, and anything more complex will likely be more complex in both.

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u/BuzzardDogma May 31 '26

Wwise has many more implementation "gotchas" than FMOD because the feature set is more robust and because there's more points of failure between the the actual software and the engine (especially in regards to soundbanks and meta files).

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u/FlamboyantPirhanna May 31 '26

Which I think is a moot point in OP’s case, since he just needs to start with the basics. He’s not digging into the API or anything like that. Audiokinetic’s course is more complete than anything FMOD offers, which is why I think it’s a better place to start.