Debug Questions

Just a couple questions regarding the debug.

I'm making a pretty large game, with a lot of data stored in variables. I'm starting to notice some concerning issues.

In order to keep my project tidy, I'm setting up a group for objects of certain levels. This means I can find them easily. However, when I load up the debugger, I'm noticing that everything is just displayed in a long list. Sure it's alphabetical, but wouldn't it be quicker if the groups followed over to the debugger, meaning we wouldn't have to scroll through hundreds of items just to find the one we're looking for? Even if the debugger only showed objects that were on screen, or related to said layout.

In addition, I see that local variables are displayed at all times as well when viewing the system screen. Again, wouldn't this be better if they were only displayed on the level associated with them, seeing as they serve no purpose outside of these levels?

It's a great tool, but at the moment when I load up the debugger I lose 20 fps, and the bigger my game gets the more of a time consuming challenge it is to use it. It's a great tool though!

Finally, I would like to request a pause on start button. Sometimes I want to see what my game is doing frame by frame, and have resorted to pressing play and then trying to remember where the pause button is, and hit it as soon as it appears. Rarely if at all works!

Nobody else using the debugger on large games?

I agree the debugger organisation could be nicer

However I do not see exactly how local variables could be displayed (you can have them just presents in some parts of the same level, or multiple times during the same tick when using groups), I think it should be improved.

As for the fps drop, not sure a lot can be done about this.

The FPS drop only appears to be because I have so many variables on screen. I have say 10 levels, and each of those levels have 5 local variables. When I load up level 10, I expect to only see those 5 local variables. Instead, I see all other local variables, so I see 50 in total! This is what appears to be slowing things down, the fact that I can see everything at once. I know I can click on the eyes and hide and show certain things, but doing this on a regular basis for so many things is just tedious.

Better organisation should help FPS and ease finding things.

Ashley - Just to follow up on this, another benefit to only having the relevant Local Variables appear is that if you use the same Variable name twice, on occasion it does not display the correct number.

For example, everything in my game was working fine, but when loading up the debug to check out a "CurrentTurn" var, I noticed it was 0, when it should have been higher. I continued the game, and it didn't change. Eventually, I renamed the Local Var to "CurrentTurn2" and it appeared in my list, working perfectly. I just couldn't see the correct numbers.

Is it possible to only show the local variables that exist on a given level, rather than all of them?

Yeah I agree with this in a big way. If the objects could be sorted into the same folders and families as they are in the project it would be great (especially when using spriter objects!). And I brought up the local variable issue before with no response. It will work as intended, but it only displays the value of one of the variables if they have the same names, which can lead to a lot of confusion.

You're telling me! I spent half an hour wondering why my game was working. First time I've noticed it.

+1, it'd be cool if we could see which groups are active (or not).