Runtime Audio Loader decodes MP3, OGG/Vorbis, WAV and FLAC into Unity AudioClips at runtime. It is a pure C# library: no native plugins (.dll/.so/.dylib), no third-party packages, no NuGet, and no extra setup. Drop it into a fresh project and call it in two lines.

🚫 Format Disclaimer 🚫

AAC/M4A and Opus are not supported (they fail with a clear error).

Embedded tags are read from OGG and FLAC; MP3 and WAV report format, duration and channels but no tags.

DECODING

- MP3: MPEG-1/2 Layer III (decoder based on NLayer, MIT).

- OGG: Vorbis (decoder based on NVorbis, MIT).

- WAV: PCM 8/16/24/32-bit and 32-bit float (RIFF).

- FLAC: native lossless decoder.

- AAC/M4A and Opus are not supported and fail with a clear, typed error (never silently mis-read). Purely unsupported due to licensing.

All four decoders are managed C# and produce identical samples on every platform under both Mono and IL2CPP.

SOURCES

- Local files: absolute paths, persistentDataPath, StreamingAssets.

- Remote URLs: http/https, downloaded then decoded.

- Raw bytes: byte[] in memory (asset bundles, encrypted blobs, TextAssets).

API

- Three call styles: synchronous (Load), async/awaitable (LoadAsync), and coroutine + callback (LoadRoutine).

- Every call returns a typed AudioResult; nothing is thrown for bad input. Errors come back as a typed AudioError plus a message.

- Probe / ProbeAsync read format, channels, sample rate, duration and tags (artist/title/album) without a full decode.

- AudioLibrary.ScanFolder / ScanFolderAsync scan a folder and return metadata for every track, ready for an in-game music browser.

- Progress reporting (IProgress<float>) and CancellationToken support on async loads.

STREAMING

- Stream long tracks instead of loading them fully into memory: decoding runs on a background thread and feeds the audio thread through a reused ring buffer.

- The audio-thread callback is allocation-free; on underrun it outputs silence rather than glitching.

- Streamed clips own background resources; call AudioLoader.Release(clip) when done (a no-op for full-load clips, so it is always safe).

PLATFORMS

- Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and WebGL.

- WebGL is single-threaded: off-main-thread decoding and threaded streaming automatically fall back to main-thread work; prefer full load there.

- WebGL has no direct file access; load from a URL or byte[].

NOTES

- Tags (artist/title/album) are read from OGG and FLAC. MP3 and WAV report format, duration and channels but no embedded tags.

- Render pipeline agnostic: no rendering, shaders or materials, so it works with Built-in, URP and HDRP.

- Demo UI works with the legacy Input Manager, the new Input System, or both, with no configuration.

- Scripting: .NET Standard 2.1. Tested on Unity 2021.3 LTS and Unity 6 (6000.4).

- Source code included. Bundled MIT decoders are redistributable; see Third-Party Notices.txt.

MP3 OGG WAV FLAC Loader & Streamer - Runtime Audio Loader