Test

Play the game as normal while also seeing the gadgets and windows live. You can also adjust tweak menu settings as you play using the imp, if the imp is shown while playing. (Tg)

Use this mode to easily see what the internals of gadgets are doing as you interact with the game. Pin windows to the screen so you can see the gadgets you are interested in while running around.

Includes tools to help you find performance issues.

# Unlock Camera

When off, the view will be locked to where the normal in-game camera view would be, including the default camera that orbits possessable controller sensors.

When on, allows free-roaming even while testing. (Tg)

# Heatmaps

A number of visualisers that can be used to better understand the performance impact of the scene. Choose one of the following:

# Heatmaps Off

When on, normal viewing is used.

# Overdraw

This illustrates how many times each pixel on the screen has been drawn due to overdraw.

When on, everything is shown as dark blue. Pixels are shown as more red, the more they are drawn over. they are drawn on top of other flecks. (Tg)

# Spotlights

Indicates how many spotlights are being calculated for each pixel on the screen. (See Rendering Spotlights for more information.)

When on, everything is shown as dark blue.

Surfaces on flecks and sculpts that are lit by a spotlight are shown in other colours. The colour goes through purple, red, and yellow as the surface is overlapped by more spotlights. The brightness of the colour is affected by how bright the spotlight is, as normal. (Tg)

Spotlights are more costly to render, as they have a shape to them, can cast shadows, and can affect how the light is absorbed through waxy objects. When an object’s surface is rendered it has to take into account each spotlight affecting that surface. The more spotlights that overlap the same spot, the more time is taken to render that part of the surface. Also the resulting look of the surface may not be that different from using one or two spotlights or even a diffuse light in an area.

# Physics

When on, all sculpts are shown as solid colours depending on their physics simulation status:

Movable collidable sculpts show their physics spheres, used for simulating collisions. The more physics spheres, the more red or yellow they are. The fewer physics spheres, the more blue they are. (Tg)

They will be green while “sleeping.”

This colour coding can be useful in figuring out what is causing a puppet to be shoved around seemingly with no cause. (Tg)

# Analysis

Play the scene as you would in normal play—without seeing gadgets etc. Statistics, the screen, and the camera’s position is recorded as play continues. On the screen are real time percentage cost readouts and warnings for performance, depending on what type of anaylsis mode was started (see below).

End Analysis: Use the OPTIONS/pause button to come out of analysis mode to the Analysis Overview.

Choose which set of performance cost meters are displayed while playing:

# Analyse Game:

The left meter shows the graphics cost on performance, and the right meter shows gameplay cost on performance. (Tg)

There is no way of simulating lower-end hardware on higher-end consoles. It’s best to test your more intensive creations on lower-end hardware if possible. But if you cannot, the following are very rough estimates of how processing compares:

Exits to the Analysis Overview, showing the gameplay view.

# Analyse Audio

The left meter shows Audio Cost on performance, and any warnings.

The right meter shows Sound Instances: how many sound gadgets are being processed. Next to the meter is shown:

• Voices: How many notes or slice playthroughs are being processed.
• Grain Cost: How many audio grains are being processed.

# Analysis Overview

Displays the recorded data from the last analysis that was run.

Displays a graph of various statistics recorded during analysis.

Below the graph may be horizontal red lines during portions of the playthrough where warnings appeared. If multiple warnings appeared during the same time, the lines will stack so each warning duration can still be seen. (Tg)

At the top of this view are tabs to view the Game performance statistics and Audio performance statistics that have been recorded.

Gameplay View: The graph displays the graphics and gameplay cost on performance over time.

The graph has horizontal a “snail” line across it, indicating when graphics rendering or gameplay/logic processing will start to slow down if the performance costs exceed that amount.

Scrub through the recording: Drag Cross button over the graph to scrub through the recording, updating the video capture and view in edit mode to match. Below the graph are shown warnings, explanations, and tips for that part of the recording. (Tg)

Close the Analysis Overview: Use the Circle button to exit the overview.