Wav file (.wav)

Introduction

Wav files can be used for sound effects in Glue. Wav files, which are uncompressed, are used because compression can introduce latency (delay before the sound plays).

SoundEffect and SoundEffectInstance

Glue can use .wav files to create two types of objects:

• SoundEffect
• SoundEffectInstance

By default .wav files are loaded as a SoundEffect, which is the simplest object to work with. The SoundEffect object allows fire-and-forget sound effects. Once a .wav file is added to Glue, the SoundEffect it creates can be used with a Play call as shown in the following code:

ExplosionSound.Play();

Once a SoundEffect Play call is made, the sound cannot be modified. It will play to completion and then stop. By contrast, SoundEffectInstances are single-instance sounds which can be played, and manipulated after playing. For example, the following code plays a sound, but then adjusts its volume after 0.5 seconds:

ExplosionSound.Volume = 1;
ExplosionSound.Play();

await TimeManager.DelaySeconds(0.5f);

ExplosionSound.Volume = 0.5f;

To change whether a .wav file is loaded as a SoundEffect or SoundEffectInstance, change its RuntimeType in Glue:

Adding a .wav to a Glue project

To add a .wav file to Glue:

1. Right-click on a Screen or Entity’s “Files” item
2. Select “Add File”->”Existing File”
3. Navigate to the location of the .wav that you would like to use and click OK

You should see the .wav file in your Glue project:

Playing a SoundEffect in custom code

Once a .wav file has been added to your Glue project, Glue will generate an instance of a SoundEffect in generated code. In this example, I’ve added a file called GunShotSound.wav, so the object that Glue creates is called GunShotSound. The following code can be added to CustomActivity to play the sound when the space bar is pressed:

public void CustomActivity(bool firstTimeCalled)
{
   if (InputManager.Keyboard.KeyPushed(Keys.Space))
   {
       GunShotSound.Play();
   }
}

For more information on SoundEffect in FlatRedBall, see theSoundEffect page.