UGTK / Toolkit / Gameplay Systems / Audio System Completed

Audio System

Summary

The Audio System is a powerful tool for managing and manipulating game audio within Unity. It offers advanced control over audio playback, including play, pause, resume, stop functions, and dynamic volume adjustments across different audio channels. The system utilizes audio pooling to handle playback efficiently, activating and deactivating audio sources as needed.

Modules Dependencies

The Audio System module requires the following dependencies:

PoolingSystem: Manages the creation and destruction of audio sources for efficient performance.
DatabaseSystem: Provides the SO_AudioDatabase for storing audio clip data.
Singleton: Ensures a single instance of the Mn_AudioManager.

Ensure that these dependencies are correctly imported and configured in your project.

Carried inside the prefabs. These modules are not referenced by the assembly definition - the components are simply already attached to the prefabs this module ships. Remove one of them from the project and the prefab keeps its layout and loses that behaviour, with nothing in the console to say so.

Module	Component, and the prefab carrying it
`UIModule/TextUpdaterSystem`	`Mn_TextUpdater` (in `AudioModifier`)
`UtilitySystems/ActivationSystem`	`Mn_GameObjectActivation` (in `AudioTotalScreen`)

Setup

To set up the Audio System, follow these steps:

Audio Manager

Add AudioManager prefab to your first scene:

Set up Audio Settings channels:

Audio Database

Create a new Audio database

2.Add the database to AudioManager

3.Create new Audio

How To Use

To use the Audio System, call the Mn_AudioManager public API (no static event bus):

Reproduce Audio:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.Play("MyAudioID");

Pause Audio:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.Pause("MyAudioID");

Resume Audio:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.Resume("MyAudioID");

Stop Audio:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.Stop("MyAudioID");

To modify volumes, call:

Volume Change:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.SetChannelVolume(E_AudioChannelType.Master, 0f);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.SetChannelVolume(E_AudioChannelType.Music, 0f);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.SetChannelVolume(E_AudioChannelType.Environment, 0f);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.SetChannelVolume(E_AudioChannelType.Effects, 0f);

Mute Channel:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.MuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Master);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.MuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Music);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.MuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Environment);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.MuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Effects);

Unmute Channel:

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.UnmuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Master);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.UnmuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Music);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.UnmuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Environment);

     Mn_AudioManager.Instance.UnmuteChannel(E_AudioChannelType.Effects);

Testing Scene

Open AudioScene in the module's Debug/ folder and select AudioManager. The Play test and Active sounds blocks need Play mode, and outside it they say so rather than showing an empty list.

What to do, in order:

Pick a Track Id - the block reports the clip length - and press Play. Active sounds lists it with its routing (2D · Music here) and a bar that follows the playhead. Stop empties the list again.
Play a clip from each category and check it lands on the right mixer group.
Move the volume sliders and confirm each affects only its own group.
Play many clips at once, past the number of available sources.
Stop play and restart: the saved volumes should come back.

Step 4 is where a pooled audio system shows its limit: it either drops the new sound or steals a playing one, and which one it steals is very audible if it picks the music. Step 5 catches the common oversight of volumes that are applied but never persisted.

Technical Info

The following are the main scripts and workflow of the Audio System. Refer to the UML section for the detailed structure.

Scripts:

Mn_AudioManager: Central manager for audio operations, handling the logic for playing, stopping, and managing audio sources.
Mn_AudioController: Manages the playback of individual audio clips using AudioSource.
SO_AudioDatabase: Scriptable object serving as an audio clip database, linking audio files to their respective playback settings.
Mn_AudioManager audio notifications: Runtime C# events for AudioPlayed/Paused/Resumed/Stopped (for code-driven sync).
AudioChannel: Represents an audio channel, encapsulating properties like volume and channel type.