# Core Settings ## Configuration Reference All settings are under **Project Settings > Plugins > Excited Waves Acoustics**. This page covers the core detection configuration. For audio-specific settings, see [Native Audio Integration](/excitedwaves-docs/unreal-engine-native-audio.md) or the [Wwise Integration Guide](/excitedwaves-docs/unreal-engine-with-audiokinetic-wwise.md). ### Detection Settings that control how rays are cast and how the environment is analyzed. #### Ray Casting

Setting	Default	What to set
Ray Scanning Method	Umbrella	Umbrella – horizontal ray pairs with elevation, good general-purpose. Uniform – omnidirectional distribution.
Max Azimuth Ray Distance	10,000 cm	How far horizontal rays travel. Reduce for small indoor scenes.
Max Elevation Ray Distance	5,000 cm	How far vertical rays travel.

**Umbrella mode** specific: | Setting | Default | | --------------------- | ------- | | Pairs Per Iteration | 2 | | Azimuth Iterations | 1 | | Elevation Rays | 1 | | Angled Ray Iterations | 2 | Angled rays help to semi-open structures better. **Uniform mode** specific: | Setting | Default | | ------------------ | ------- | | Uniform Rays Count | 16 | #### Distance Bins Ray hits are classified into four bins. Adjust to match your level scale:

Bin	Default	What it represents
Close	360 cm	Tight, enclosed spaces
Mid	1,000 cm	Medium rooms
Far	5,000 cm	Large halls
Outdoor	beyond Far	Open air

### Frame Limiting (Performance) Rays are spread across frames to keep CPU stable:

Setting	Default	What to set
Enable Rate Limiting	on	Keep on for production. Disable for faster detection (higher spikes).
Max Rays Per Frame	16	Per-frame ray budget per detector. Increase for faster results, decrease for tighter budgets.

#### Detector Load Balancing

Setting	Default	What to set
Maximum Active Detectors	32	Limits heavy work to the N closest emitters per frame. 0 = unlimited.
Detector Tick Frame Spread	2	Spreads detectors updates across frames. 1 = every frame.

### LOD (Level of Detail) Reduce CPU for distant emitters:

Setting	Default	What to set
Position Change Threshold	100 cm	Movement distance that triggers re-detection when LOD is off.
Enable Distance-Based LOD	on	Scales detection frequency by emitter-listener distance.
LOD Distance Radius	6,000 cm	Close emitters inside this radius use tighter thresholds.
Close Emitter Threshold	100 cm	Minimum movement to re-scan when near the listener.
Far Emitter Threshold	400 cm	Minimum movement to re-scan when far from the listener.

### Audio #### Cross-Room Blending

Setting	Default	What to set
Enable Cross-Room Reverb Blending	on	Blends listener's room reverb into emitter sends for natural doorway transitions.
Cross-Room Blend Max Distance	1,000 cm	Range over which blending occurs.
Max Cross-Room Contribution	0.5	Maximum listener reverb added (0–1).

#### Direct-to-Reverb Ratio

Setting	Default	What to set
Enable Direct-To-Reverb Ratio	on	Scales reverb sends by emitter-listener distance. Closer = less reverb.
Min Value	0.5	Controls dry level at close range.

#### Other

Setting	Default	Purpose
Use Results Interpolation	on	Smooth transitions between detection cycles.
Interpolation Duration	1.0 s	Blend time from old to new results.
Enable Enclosure Scaling	on	Scale reverb by enclosure. Open spaces = less reverb. Enclosure Scale Min: 0.3.

### Surface Absorption Map Unreal Physical Material surface types to absorption coefficients. This drives reverb preset selection – high absorption surfaces select drier presets, low absorption selects more reverberant ones.

Setting	Default	What to set
Surface Type Absorption Entries	(empty)	Add one entry per Physical Surface type. Coefficient range: 0 (reflective) to 1 (fully absorbing).
Default Absorption	0.0	Used for unmapped surfaces.

**Example:** Concrete = 0.05, Wood = 0.15, Carpet = 0.60, Curtain = 0.85. Surface types are configured in **Project Settings > Physics > Physical Surface**, assigned on Physical Materials. ### Chaos Destruction These settings are under **Project Settings > Plugins > Excited Waves Acoustics Chaos**.

Setting	Default	What to set
Notification Radius	5,000 cm	How far from a destruction event to search for affected detectors.
Min Break Magnitude	100.0	Minimum impact (mass × velocity) to trigger re-scan. Lower = more sensitive.
Per-Detector Cooldown	0.5 s	Prevents detection spam from repeated destruction.
Auto-Scan Interval	5.0 s	How often to discover new destructible objects. 0 = only on level start.
Multi-Iteration Detection	on	Runs multiple detection passes after destruction for smoother results.
Max Iterations	3	Number of passes.
Iteration Interval	0.5 s	Time between passes.

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