Mixing and matching FMOD and UE4 versions

We are just about to release FMOD Studio 1.08. That means we will now release our UE4 integration using FMOD 1.08 runtime.

Most users will just want to download the latest version and use it. But you might want to do something different. The two most common situations are described below.

1.) Update FMOD runtime without updating the integration.

If you have shipped your game or are near shipping, then you might not want to jump into a whole new FMOD version. If there are any FMOD fixes that you want to apply, you can just download the FMOD Programmers API and drop new .dll and headers into your existing UE4 integration.

Note that even though FMOD has released version 1.08, we still release patches for version 1.07. Click on “Previous Versions” on the FMOD download page.

To summarize this approach:

  • Keep the same UE4 integration
  • Keep the same major FMOD version
  • Just update the minor FMOD version with .dll and header files

2.) Use the latest integration with a different UE4 engine version.

You may want to use our latest integration and runtime, with a different UE4 engine version. It might be because you’ve already started using a new engine version before FMOD has officially supported it, or it may be because you want to use an older version of the engine.

You can create a new code project, create a Plugins directory, and put the integration there. Make sure the FMODStudio\Binaries and FMODStudio\Intermediate directories are writeable. When you next build the code project, it will rebuild the integration as well.

The UE4 engine introduces changes that we may not be able to support, so for example the latest integration may not compile with a very old engine version. In that case, you’ll have to stick with an older version of the integration so it compiles.

To summarize this approach:

  • Use the new UE4 integration
  • Use the new FMOD version
  • Recompile with a different engine version