AudioManager - A nifty unity extension [Testers?]

Hello there!

AudioManager (in lack of a fancy name), is a nifty little extension for Unity, which allows you to easily manage and play audio. Instead of keeping track of multiple audio sources, all your sounds are grouped in a single window, as shown below:



The cool thing is that it automatically generates convenient static methods, to play your sound effects. So to play a sound all you have to do is call the appropriate method. If you're using an IDE with autocompletion it will pop up as a suggestion:



If you want to contribute, you can fork the repo on GitHub.

More info and download here

The AudioManager will be freely available on the Asset Store once properly tested.

If you have any feedback, future requests etc. leave a reply..

Thanks

 

Here's the changes I made

• Removed need for Apply button
• Audio settings are updated live
• More compact layout
• Ability to sync settings between files
• A few extra settings

And a new screenshot

 

Looks awesome, ill give it a go

 

Yay, thanks mate!

Please don't freak out if you encounter bugs, just post them and I'll do my best to fix them.

EDIT: Just fixed the prefab contained in the plugins folder, so it doesn't contain references to my missing audio files

 

Okay it's come to my attention that the extension kinda breaks when downlaoding straight from the repo.

So there's now a perma link to the latest version in a unity package on the github page
The newest version also include some critical bugfixes.

ATM the tool doesn't support the webplayer platform, because of some IO operations.. Currently looking into this

 

Hey, this looks like a really neat tool! Correct me if im wrong but is this accessed globally or is this simply a component/gameobject you have to set up in your scene? Thanks.

 

Thanks

It is accesed globally through the window menu -> Audio Manager

It requires a gameobject with an AudioManager component in the scene, but that is automatically taken care of.

 

Added more stuff, as you can see in the screenshot:



You can tag a sound either as sound effect or music.. This is to make it easy to mute them independently, if needed

 

this is pretty cool I will have to check it out thanks!

 

yeah, seems like an interesting idea. i would like to give it a shot!

 

Thanks! Tell me what you think

 

Okay this thing is almost ready for the asset store, I think..



Here's what's updated:

• Support for webplayer platform
• Mute methods
• Support for collections of audio
• Minor bugfixes

I haven't heard from anyone, is everything working?

I need to make some tests to see if mobile platforms works, and how the editor looks with pro.
Any help is very much appreciated

 

When I import the files into Unity it insta-crashes.

Here is an image of the error message I get

 

Are you using a version of Unity prior to 4.0?

It also seams that you have more than one file called AudioManager.cs, this creates conflicts.
This might be because you have a file beforehand with the same name as one of my files.
You might have to rename your file then.

Thanks for the feedback

 

Just wobdering, Can this be used to control your music in game? (I mean, can I change all the volume settings and so during run time?)

 

Yup, in the latest version just uploaded, there are three static properties (AudioManager.MasterVolume, AudioManager.MusicVolume, AudioManager.SoundEffectsVolume). Setting these updates the audio volume levels.

 

Cool, I'll defiantly check it out.

One more question, How are you doing the whole fill up your list of audio sources?
just wanting to know how efficient it is.

 

The audio sources are created using a simple pooling system, so the instantiated audio sources gets reused.

 

When trying to import, I got an error that crashed unity.
After running unity again, I get this:

I'm gussing you made the prefab in unity4 and I'm using 3.5 so that might be it.
How was the prefab build? (so I can create a new one)

You might wanna create some simple help document.

 

The prefab is simply an empty gameobject with the AudioManager component applied to it.. The path 'Assets/Plugins/AudioManager/AudioManager.prefab' is vital..

And you guessed right, I made it with 4.1. I assume that I'll just have to export the package from an older version of Unity for those versions to be supported.

And yeah, I'm planning to create some in depth documentation for it.

Thanks!

 

I'm not sure why, but I'm not seeing the custom inspector.
Any ideas?

**edit**
nvm lol, didn't notice it's actually a custom window, not inspector.

 

Whne trying to play a sound in the AudioManager window, I get this error:

btw, It seems the manager is automatically deciding if the clip I'm adding is a music or sound effect.
Are you doing this by checking the clip length or something? its pretty cool!

 

Hmm, unforunateley I wansn't able to recreate the bug..

I think it might be a problem occuring becuase you used and older version of the AudioManager, and some audio sources are saved which aren't compatible with the new version.

To fix the problem, try selecting all audio sources in the hierachy and delete them. If that doesn't work, try downloading the latest version of the AudioManager and try with a new project.

And yes, the AudioManager checks the clips length, if it is above 8 seconds, it's assumed to be music

And thanks for the feedback, helps alot

 

I have another question.
I noticed that when using AudioManager.PlaySound() commend, you are creating an audio source in the scene that plays the given sound.
So how should I go about with 3D sound? my SFX are meant to come from a specific location.

 

Good question!
I haven't implemented support for it yet. But much like you can play a sound with a volume parameter, there will be an overload to spawn/move the source at a specific location, and also an option to child the source to a gameobject.

 

I think somthing like: AudioManager.PlaySound("soundsname", gameobject)
And have the manager add an audio source component to that gameobject with the given sound, will be best.

You might wanna add DontDestroyOnLoad to the AudioManager prefab.

 

Childing or adding it will have the same result. I find childing easier with the way the rest of the code works

Working on requested features now, thanks for the input!

EDIT: About the don't destroy on load thing.. The Audio Manager is supposed to be destroyed, otherwise you might end up with multiple instances. If the AudioManager is missing in a scene, you simply have to open the scene and add focus to the AudioManager window for a second. I know this isn't very intuitive, I'll see what I can do

 

But if I have 2 Audio Managers (one in each scene) each one will have different audio clips/settings/whatever.
I want to have one Audio Manager placed on the first scene and that is it.
To prevent your script from creating multiple instances, so can just do something like:

Code (csharp):

1. if (!GameObject.Find("Audio Manager")){
2.    //spwan an Audio Manager
3. }

 

Nope, the settings are synced from the prefab. Or at least it should be, is that not the case?

 

How are they synced? something has to hold all settings and everything.
If whats holding the setting is the Audio Manager located in the scene, then no, that is not the case.
when going to a different scene, all gameobject from previous scene are gone.

 

The AudioManager prefab, located in your assets folder
When changing settings you are actually changing the local prefab directly.

 

OH... ok, wasn't sure if its possible...
I'm gonna test it and see if it really works and get back to you

 

Thanks a lot mate

 

It seems the volume are being saved.
But I stumbled upon two issues.

1. When misspelling a name of a clip, you get no indication.
You should add some check when calling AudioManager.PlaySound() to see if the name of the clip is available in the AudioManager and if not, show an error.

2. Not sure why but when trying to play a clip with AudioManager.PlaySound() on a diffrent scene then the one with the AudioManager, I hear nothing.
I can see the created audio source with my clip inside, but I can't hear anything.

And I'm still wating for SFX support

 

Hmm, that's odd because I throw a null ref exception if the clip isn't found.. Here's the implementation, it works for me.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.     /// <summary>
3.     /// Plays a sound matching the given name.
4.     /// </summary>
5.     /// <param name="name">
6.     /// The name of the audio clip.
7.     /// </param>
8.     /// <param name="volume">
9.     /// The volume factor, from 0 to 1.
10.     /// </param>
11.     /// <param name="position">
12.     /// Where to place the audio source.
13.     /// </param>
14.     /// <param name="parent">
15.     /// The used audio source will be a child of this transform.
16.     /// </param>
17.     public static void PlaySound(string name, float? volume, Vector3? position, Transform parent)
18.     {
19.         // Find an audio item matching the given name
20.         AudioItem item = instance.AudioItems.FirstOrDefault(a => a.Name == name);
21.  
22.         if (item == null)
23.         {
24.             throw new NullReferenceException("No audio items matched the given name");
25.         }
26.  
27.         // Play the sound
28.         instance.PlaySound(item, volume, position, parent);
29.     }
30.  

Not sure about the volume problem though, sounds wierd.

Try the new version, added SFX support
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4375689/Permanent/AudioManagerLatest.unitypackage

 

I will be happy if you could export a 3.5 version.

 

Another thing I just noticed.
Plugins are not supported for webplayer.
You might wanna think about a way to make it supported for webplayer as well.

 

I must say a big THANK YOU Mathias for this excellent plugin. It took me 3 seconds to set up and get it to work...! Wow. Being able to play sounds with one line of code is quite elegant.

I am also having a problem with building the game for the webplayer. I get this error :

It is a bit strange, since when I test in Unity, everything works flawlessly. I am using Unity 4.1.3 for now (will update once my little game is done). Could this be due that my Unity isn't up-to-date enough? FYI, I'm using an empty scene with a cube, one script to play the audio and a couple of audio assets.

Once again, kudos for your effort to share a wonderful tool.

 

I've managed to build for the WebPlayer and PC with this very simple edit.


UNITY_EDITOR functions don't get compiled into the game build. That was the cause of the warning earlier. For anyone curious and wants more info - Platform Dependent Compilation

To be able to build, we simply have to let Unity know what not to be included in the build. You only need to edit two of the scripts [ AudioWindow.cs ] and [ AudioManagerSettings.cs ].

For [ AudioWindow.cs ] :

Code (csharp):

1. #if UNITY_EDITOR //Add this line at the top of the script
2.  
3. using System.IO;
4. using UnityEngine;
5. using UnityEditor;
6.  
7. ...(rest of the code)...
8.  
9. #endif   //Add this line at the bottom of the script
10.  

For [ AudioManagerSettings.cs ] we simply add #if UNITY_EDITOR and #endif to isolate the using UnityEditor; command.

Code (csharp):

1. #if UNITY_EDITOR //Add this line here
2. using UnityEditor;
3. #endif    //Add this line here
4. using UnityEngine;
5.  
6. [System.Serializable]
7. public class AudioManagerSettings
8. {
9.  
10.     public bool IsAllMuted;
11.     public bool IsMusicMuted;
12.    
13.     ...(rest of the code)...
14.  
15. }
16.  
17.  

Hope this can help anyone who might have this problem too. Once again, awesome sound library...!!

 

Hey thanks a lot, I'm glad you like it despite the bugs

I stopped working on it because I got hired for a full time position as a programmer, so it was hard to find the time.
I'll see if I can find the time for it one of the upcoming weekends since there's actually interest for it. Also I hate having half done projects lying around..

I will email you the first working version, as soon as I've looked at it (probably in 2 weeks or so)

 

Hey sounds cool! 'Grats on the job.

If it feels right and you are up to it I'd love to give you a hand.

 

Hey!

If you find any bugs, it would be awesome if you added them to the issue tracker on github

https://github.com/mathiassoeholm/AudioManagerExtension/issues

Also feel free to fork the repo and send pull requests if you wanna work on it, otherwise just letting me know about the bugs would help a lot!

 

I fixed this on GitHub now, it'll be in the next unity package

https://github.com/mathiassoeholm/AudioManagerExtension/commit/31dbe43f62f2d98080311381579875b97d272ca0