What are the recommended settings for Unity 5 audio file imports for iOS?

Before Unity 5, there were 2 basic ways to set your audio import settings for iOS:

1. For sound effects you generally used Native (WAV) uncompressed set with Load Type = "Load into memory"
2. For music you generally used MP3 compressed files

Since upgrading to Unity 5 those settings have changed and I don't understand how to properly set my audio file import settings so they are optimized for iOS now.

None of the Unity documentation about these settings has been updated to reflect the changes since Unity 5. So these resources still talk about the "old" settings and offer no insight on the new stuff:

• iPhone Getting Started
• Audio Clip Import Settings

The new settings in Unity 5 that have left me confused for iOS are:

• "Load in Background" checkbox (what does this mean, when should I use it?)
• "Preload Audio Data: checkbox (what does this smean, when should I use it?)
• "Load Type" is now "Decompress on Load", "Compressed in memory", or "Streaming" (I have no idea what my WAV sound effects should use as these all seem to force compression?)
• "Compression Format" is now forced to either "PCM", "Vorbis" or "ADPCM" (again I have no idea how to set my WAV sound effects to NOT use compression based on this?)

What are the recommended settings for iOS audio files now? How should I setup my WAV sound effects vs my MP3 music files?

So far the things I have tried have resulted in very slow delays before playing sounds on iOS devices and even blocking loads to get the music playing.

Thanks,

 

I have since found this document: http://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/UpgradeGuide5-Audio.html

I gives me a bit of info on the changes, however it still doesn't list any specifics about the new settings. It sounds like the "Compression Format" of PCM is not actually compressed, so I'm guessing I should use that for my WAV file sound effects.

If anyone has more insight about the changes and how to best optimize iOS audio import settings for Unity 5 please let me know. For now I am just trying things blindly to see what I can decipher.

 

I believe you should use wav for your sound effects. Playing an mp3 takes 20x more startup time, or more.

 

Yes, but what import settings should I use for those WAVs? The setting options have all changed and I don't know what they specifically mean now because there is no documentation I can find that explains them.

The iOS restrictions are still there and haven't changed, an iOS device can only decompress and play one mp3 at a time (which is why you usually use that for long music playing in the background and all the other sound effects need to be uncompressed WAVs). But all the new Unity audio import settings for preloading, background stuff, compression format, etc., are not explained and I don't know what they are doing in regards to iOS.

 

Please file a bug to Unity saying that the new settings aren't documented. We all need these new settings explained.

 

I have posted about it in the documentation forum here: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity-5-audio-import-documentation-out-of-date.322359/

 

Awesome, Tiny! Subscribing to that thread.

 

1) Reducing the amount of alpha transparency in textures so that you can use a non-alpha compression system, or

2) Using texture atlases to put everything onto a single texture rather than several separate ones.

 

Hi austin11, I'm not sure what that has to do with audio import settings? You are talking about image settings and I am asking about the audio settings.