Unity Workflow LibraryUWLAbout

Topic 11 · Audio

Timing cues to picture and gameplay

Read each cue time from the picture that plays it, and prove the offset on the played result.

Markdown version

Where a cue time comes from

  • An AnimationEvent calls a script function at a set time in a clip, with zero or one parameter (float, int, string, object reference or the event). Authoring the sound trigger as an event on the clip keeps the timing visible and editable in the Animation window.
  • The audio clock (AudioSettings.dspTime) and the frame clock (Time.time) are different clocks; dspTime follows samples processed.
  • DSP Buffer Size in the Audio settings trades latency for performance (Best Latency, Good Latency, Best Performance) (Audio settings). Measure offsets with the setting the build ships.

HIT-IS-MEASURED-AGAINST-ITS-FRAME

  • A hit plan names the frame the picture peaks and the frame the sound peaks. The picture's frame comes first. When they share a clock, the sound peaks on the next frame.
  • Prove it on the played or decoded result: the listener mix (RECORDED-AUDIO-IS-THE-LISTENER-MIX in the Live play testing via Unity MCP page) or the clip sample time. When the picture clock and the audio clock differ, name the clock and both endpoints (NAME-THE-CLOCK-AND-ENDPOINTS).
  • Loudness stays the dBFS rows in SET-GAIN-FROM-THE-IMPORTED-CLIP. The developer-listen step in the polish pass still stands.
  • Why: the offset is a pair of frame numbers a sample can read.

Florence (@flxrnc), "Opus 5.5 Motion Lab: Make Claude Animate Like a Studio", a post on X. Attribution only. Score from frame numbers and measure the decoded or played result.

CUE-TIME-IS-READ-FROM-THE-PICTURE

  • A cue's time is read from the picture that plays it: an animation event, an Animator state, a Timeline marker, a tween callback, or the VFX time that effect already uses. Write the time down from that source. Read it with the gameplay mix silent, then place the clips.
  • Each motion or UI cue carries one tag: cut (the frame the picture changes across the whole frame), move (the frame of peak speed), land (the frame motion stops), appear (the frame an element pops in). A cue exists for one of those actions. Gameplay rows the bank already has (shots, impacts) stay that bank.
  • On a logo, a reveal, or one authored UI moment, one hero sound per about 4 seconds of that moment. World and combat voice caps stay the Audio section of the perf memory page. Ducking under a hero stays MIXER-GRAPH-FROM-CODE.
  • HIT-IS-MEASURED-AGAINST-ITS-FRAME still names both frames and measures the played result. The picture frame in that rule is this derived time.
  • Why: the cue time is a sample the picture already produced.

0xCodila, "Sound design for Opus 5.5: no more cheap beeps", a post on X. Attribution only. The post's lab repo is not a dependency.