Slate Insights Overview

Overview of Slate Insights, an extension of Unreal Insights that helps users debug Slate and Unreal Motion Graphics (UMG).

Advanced

Choose your operating system:

Windows

macOS

Linux

Setup

To begin using Slate Insights in the editor, you can either enable the plugin from inside the editor or from the *.uproject file. To enable the Slate Insights plugin from the editor, locate it under Editor > Plugins > Built-In > Slate Insights .

Otherwise, enable the plugin from the project's *.uproject file.

{
    "FileVersion": 3,
    "EngineAssociation": "{2118FE05-4070-6D80-44FC-17A9E96EAE93}",
    "Category": "",
    "Description": "",
    "Plugins": [
        {
            "Name": "SlateInsights",
            "Enabled": true
        }
    ]
}

After enabling the required plugin, restart the editor.

If you built the editor from source, you will need to compile and run the editor for your project after enabling the required plugin.

Usage

After enabling the plugin, follow these steps to trace data for Slate Insights.

Open the game project in the editor, and open Editor Preferences .
Under Level Editor - Play > Play in Standalone Game , enter -trace=slate into the Additional Launch Parameters text box.

Unreal Insights Reference.
Set the project's Active Play Mode to Standalone Game .

Editor Viewport
If Unreal Insights hasn't been built, find the Unreal Insights project under Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealInsights , and build the application.
Run the UnrealInsights application. Find the application under Engine\Binaries[Platform] .
With Unreal Insights running, run the project to record the application's trace data.

Unreal Insights labels actively running projects as LIVE.
- Traces automatically write to the following project directory: <YourProject>/Saved/TraceSessions .
- Because trace sessions can grow in size over time, make sure to actively monitor and manage the *.utrace files.
After recording the project's trace data, close the standalone application.
To start the analysis in Unreal Insights, select the project's trace session (1) and click Open (2).

Click for full image.
To open the Slate Frame View tab, select Menu > Slate Frame View

Unreal Insights Oveview
Analyze the UI data with Slate Frame View .

Slate Frame View

After capturing the application's trace data with Unreal Insights, open the *.utrace file to begin analyzing the UI states with Slate Frame View .

Slate Frame View running in Unreal Insights.

Slate Frame View features two report areas, Invalidation and Update . Each area features its own collection of trace flags.

Invalidation Trace Flags

The Invalidation Trace Flags area reports Widget information, including a corresponding Amount and one or more Reason for the widget invalidation. When expanding widgets to review their invalidation reasons, Slate Frame View highlights one or more flags from the "LPUCRV" flag list, defined as follows.


Flag	Definition
L	Layout flag. True means the widget's desired size changed.
P	Paint flag. True means the widget needs repainting but nothing affects its size.
U	Volatile flag. True means the widget volatility changed.
C	Child order flag. True means a child was added or removed, implying a layout exists.
R	Render transform flag. True means the widget render transform changed.
V	Visibility flag. True means the widget visibility changed, implying a layout exists.

Update Trace Flags

The Update Trace Flags area reports Widget information, including a corresponding Amount and one or more Reason for the widget update. When expanding widgets to review their update reasons, Slate Frame View highlights one or more flags from the "UTPV" flag list, defined as follows.


Flag	Definition
U	Tick flag. True means the widget was updated.
T	Active timer update flag. True means the widget had an active timer.
P	Repaint flag. True means the widget was dirty and repainted.
V	Volatile flag. True means the widget was volatile and repainted.