Recording to File

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to record visualizations in Chaos Visual Debugger (CVD) and save them as a .utrace file for later debugging. Recording to file is useful if you don't want the performance overhead of live playback.

For information on recording visualizations in real time, see Recording a Live Session.

Start a Recording Using the UI

In this section you’ll learn how to record a PIE session using the Local Editor target preset, and the process to record all other target types.

Local Editor

To record and play back a local PIE session, follow these steps:

1. In CVD, in the Data Channels menu, toggle the data channels you want to record.

   

2. In Unreal Editor, click the Play button in the main toolbar to begin a PIE session. You can choose to begin the PIE session before or after beginning a recording in CVD.

   

3. Since the target Local Editor is already selected by default, you can begin the recording by clicking Record to File. While recording, this button turns into a red recording icon.

   

4. To stop recording, hover over the recording icon and click the red square icon.

   

5. This process outputs a single .utrace file that you can load immediately after recording by clicking Yes in the dialog box.

   

All Other Targets

To record all other target types, follow these steps:

1. Verify that your target application or applications are running.

2. In CVD, toggle the data channels you want to record.

   

3. To select a target to record, click the Session Target dropdown menu in CVD’s main toolbar and choose a preset or custom target(s).

   

4. To begin a recording, in CVD’s main toolbar, click the Record to File. While recording, this button turns into a red recording icon.

   

5. To stop recording, highlight the recording icon and click the red square icon.

   

Depending on whether you record a single or multiple targets, this process outputs one or more .utrace files. If you record multiple targets, the dialog that prompts you to load the recording does not appear.

(Legacy) Record to File Using the Command Line Interface

We recommend using CVD’s UI to start and end recordings, however, you can use the command line to record PIE sessions, game clients and servers, and packaged builds.

Enable a Data Channel

1. To modify data channels, open the command line in the target application. In a packaged build, press Backtick (`).

2. Enter the following console command, replacing [newstate] with true or false and [channelname] with the desired data channel:

   p.Chaos.VD.SetCVDDataChannelEnabled [newstate] [channelname]

   For example:

   

3.  Press Enter to execute the command.

Enable Multiple Data Channels

To enable or disable multiple channels by listing them, separated by commas. The following example enables the PostIntegrate and Scene Queries channels:

p.Chaos.VD.SetCVDDataChannelEnabled true SceneQueries,PostIntegrate

Enable Predefined Data Channels

To launch a game client or server with a predefined set of enabled channels, add the following command line argument:

CVDDataChannelsOverride=[ChannelName1,ChannelName2]

The following example enables the Integrate and Scene Queries channels:

CVDDataChannelsOverride=SceneQueries,PostIntegrate

Start a Recording Using the Command Line

1. To start a recording, open the command line in the target application. If you’re running a packaged build, you can press Backtick (`).

2. Type the following command and press Enter to execute it:

   p.Chaos.StartVDRecording

   

   

   When the recording begins, the string Chaos Visual Debugger recording in progress… displays on screen.

   

3. To stop a recording, open the command line, type the following command, and press Enter to execute it.

   p.Chaos.StopVDRecording

   

Next Up

In the next tutorial, you’ll learn how to locate your .utrace files and play back your recordings.

Recording a Live Session

Record a live session with Chaos Visual Debugger

Playback in Chaos Visual Debugger

Play back recordings in Chaos Visual Debugger.