Audio middleware unity package missing assembly references

Question

I want to use AudioKinetic WWise middleware to implement audio to a mobile game I'm working at the moment but I'm experiencing trouble assembly references thus I'm not able to code the audio scripts I need for the game.

Setup

• Unity 2021.3.22f1
• Visual Studio Community 2019
• Unity development with Unity VS workload
• Wwise 2022.1.5.8242
• Wwise Unity integration 2022.1.5.8242.2798

Packages

• Visual Studio Editor 2.0.18
• Firebase
• Doozy UI

Attemps to sort out the issue

• Install the work environment from scratch
• Pull repo from scratch
• Add missing reference to the main project assembly definition as described here: Unity - Manual: Assembly definition files
• Remove all .csproj .sln files from the root folder
• Check Building settings platform is Android
• Integrate Wwise to another project -> works fine!
• Integrate a different audio middleware FMOD Studio -> didn't work either
• Regenerate files from Preferences -> External tools regenerate project files
• Check that Visual Studio is indeed my External script editor
• Keep a clean console from error non-related to this issues (console has been clean always)
• Remove manifest.json
• Reimport project

What bothers me is that the issue happens with this specific project and I've not been able to nail down what is preventing me from using any middleware API. My last resort is to implement audio logic with Unity native audio API because I'd need to code a lot and my result is potentially more error prone than relying on APIs that having been thouroughly tested. If you are an audio person, you know how painful not being able to work with an audio middleware can be.

Does anyone have previous experience with the same issue?

Console output

Error CS0234 The type or namespace name 'Event' does not exist in the namespace 'AK.Wwise' (are you missing an assembly reference?) _ai-space-shooter C:\Unity Projects\NFTCo\ai-space-shooter\Assets\_ai-space-shooter\Audio\PlayAudioEvent.cs 7 Active

Answer 1

This is not an exact answer (I haven't used Wwise), but more of a troubleshooting process that's too long to fit in a comment.

It's hard to get support for specific third-party plugins here because you're not very likely to find another user that is using the same plugin and has encountered the same issue.

For commercial plugins, it's often best to start by contacting the company that makes the plugin for technical support. It looks like Wwise charges for technical support, so you'd need to weigh the cost against the amount of time that you might save. If you don't want to pay the support cost, your second option is the Wwise community Q&A.

If you can't get answers from the web, you can try further troubleshooting on your own. You mentioned that the plugin works in a new project but not in your existing project. One way to troubleshoot this kind of issue is to copy things from the problem project into the new project one at a time, checking after each to see if the new project still works.

For example, let's say your project has several plugins besides Wwise, a few open-source libraries, and your own code and assets. Copy the first plugin into the new project, then test Wwise. If it works, copy the next plugin, then test again. Repeat with each plugin and library that you're using, then with your scripts and assets. If you copy in something and then Wwise stops working, you've found your problem and can start a more focused search for answers. If you copy all of the files over and it still works, start copying project settings, again testing after each step.

It's possible that after copying everything over, Wwise will still work in the new project for no apparent reason, in which case you just delete the old project and continue development using the new one.

Answer 2

Turns out that WWise didn't work for us this time. We replaced it with FMOD and added its main assembly reference definition manually on the inspector. Even though this was the solution, I still find value in Kevin's answer as step by step strategy to overcome problems between third party technologies and Unity.