Debug CVARs

O3DE provides the following built-in debugging and profiling tools that you can use to locate and fix performance issues.

• Cinematics debugging - Debug cinematics issues.

Crash logging

Logging and reporting for crashes that occur in the O3DE Editor or your O3DE game can be turned on by modifying the sys_dump_type console variable. The type of crash log information generated depends on the value:

• 0 - Disable crash reporting.
• 1 - Generate a stack trace on crash
• 2 - Generate a stack trace and limited variable information.
• 3 - Full crash dump of the stack trace, variable information, and all memory.

Crash logs are written to the Cache\project_name\platform\user\log\error.log file.

By default, only the call stack for the main thread is in a crash dump. In order to get the stack trace of auxiliary threads, set the sys_dump_aux_threads console variable to 1.

Using Console Debug Views

The viewport window displays debugging information by default when you are in gameplay mode (Ctrl+G). You can toggle this information on or off by pressing the tilde (~) key. Use the following console variables and values to generate viewing modes in the viewport that are useful for debugging.

• e_Camerafreeze 1 - Freezes the camera to see what is rendered from the camera’s point of view and what is occluded. Also useful for debugging object culling and LOD.
• e_DefaultMaterial 1 - Applies a uniform, flat, gray material to every surface in the level.
• e_memoryProfiling 1 - Prints onscreen statistics for the amount of GPU memory that textures and buffers use.

• e_TerrainBBoxes - Displays terrain bounding boxes.
• p_debug_joints 1 - Shows the mass of objects in kilograms and the joint that is linked to the object. To display joints, you must first enable p_draw_helpers 1.
• p_draw_helpers 1 - Shows physics proxy meshes in addition to the render geometry.
• r_DisplayInfo 0 - Disables the debugging text.
• r_DisplayInfo 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 - Enables various levels of debugging text. Displays memory consumption, frame rate, triangle count, visible light sources, and drawcall count. Use a value of 2 to display more detailed information. Use a value of 3 to display only frames per second (FPS) and frame time in milliseconds.
• r_wireframe 1 | 2 - Use a value of 1 to draw the level in wireframe mode. Use a value of 2 to draw the level in vertex mode. Both include the objects that are hidden from view.
• r_ShowLines 2 - Overlays the wireframe only on the front-facing geometry. Anything behind this geometry isn’t rendered.
• r_TexBindMode 6 - Applies a uniform, flat, gray material with normal map information to every surface in the level.

Using DebugDraw Console Variables

Use the following console variables and values to display information about your level.

• e_DebugDrawLodMinTriangles 1000 - Do not draw debug text for objects with less than 1000 triangles.
• e_DebugDraw 1 - Displays the name of the .cgf used, polycount, and LOD.
• e_DebugDraw 2 - Displays a color-coded polygon count.
• e_DebugDraw 3 - Displays a color-coded LOD count. Flashing color indicates a single LOD.
• e_DebugDraw 4 - Displays object texture memory usage.
• e_DebugDraw 5 - Displays a color-coded number of render materials.
• e_DebugDraw 6 - Displays ambient color.
• e_DebugDraw 7 - Display triangle count, number of render materials, and texture memory.
• e_DebugDraw 8 - Displays RenderWorld statistics (with view cones).
• e_DebugDraw 9 - Displays RenderWorld statistics (with view cones without lights).
• e_DebugDraw 10 - Displays render geometry with simple lines and triangles.
• e_DebugDraw 11 - Displays render occlusion geometry.
• e_DebugDraw 12 - Displays render occlusion geometry without render geometry.
• e_DebugDraw 13 - Displays occlusion amount (used during AO computations).
• e_DebugDraw 15 - Displays helpers.
• e_DebugDraw 16 - Displays debug gun.
• e_DebugDraw 17 - Displays streaming information (buffer sizes).
• e_DebugDraw 18 - Displays streaming information (required streaming speed).
• e_DebugDraw 19 - Displays physics proxy triangle count.
• e_DebugDraw 20 - Displays object instant texture memory usage.
• e_DebugDraw 21 - Displays animated object distance to camera.
• e_DebugDraw 22 - Display object’s current LOD vertex count.
• e_DebugDraw 23 - Display object in red if it is casting a shadow.
• e_DebugDraw 24 - Display objects with 0 LOD with red text.
• e_DebugDraw 25 - Display objects with 0 LOD with red text and objects with 1 LOD with blue text.

Using GBuffer Console Variables

Use the following console variables and values to display materials, colors, shadows, albedo, and other characteristics in your level.

• r_DebugGBuffer 1 - Shows normals of all assets in the level.
• r_DebugGBuffer 2 - Shows the roughness or glossiness of the surfaces.
• r_DebugGBuffer 3 - Shows the specular color of materials.
• r_DebugGBuffer 4 - Shows the albedo of all surfaces in the level.
• r_DebugGBuffer 5 - Shows the lighting model in the level. Gray = standard | Yellow = transmittance | Blue = POM self-shadowing.
• r_DebugGBuffer 6 - Shows the translucency values that are set on assets in the level. Black = none.
• r_DebugGBuffer 7 - Shows self-shadowing of materials that use Offset Bump mapping or Parallax Occlusion Mapping.
• r_DebugGBuffer 8 - Shows in red and yellow any asset that uses SSS. The brighter the color, the higher the SSS index.
• r_DebugGBuffer 9 - Shows whether specular colors are in a reasonable range as follows:
  • Blue - The specular color is too low.
  • Orange - The specular color is too high for dielectric materials.
  • Pink - The specular color is valid only for rusted or oxidized metals.