Monitoring and troubleshooting with the Performance Monitor

Since Wwise is so tightly integrated with the sound engine, you can monitor a wide range of key performance indicators in real time as the game is being played. The game profiler also works with the Soundcaster, Game Simulator, and other WAAPI applications so that you can monitor the performance of your ideas or prototypes even before they have been integrated into the game.

As Wwise captures information related to the activities of the sound engine, performance graphs are created in real time in the Performance Monitor. The actual numbers and percentages related to the graphs are also displayed in the Performance Data list, which is located to the right of the graph view.

The different graphs will help you quickly locate areas in your game where the audio is surpassing certain constraints, such as platform limitations. Using a combination of the Performance Monitor, Advanced Profiler, and Capture Log, you can troubleshoot any issues that may arise.

The Performance Monitor is customizable, which means that you can decide which performance indicators or counters are displayed in the Performance Monitor. For more information on customizing the Performance Monitor, refer to Customizing the Performance Monitor.

	Tip
	You can monitor the performance as the data is being captured, or you can perform a capture session and then scroll through the graph to investigate the issues afterward. If you plan to monitor the performance while the data is being captured, you must click the Show Live Data button, , to keep the Capture Log and Performance Monitor in sync with the capture time.

To monitor performance:

Connect to a remote device.
Note
If you are profiling a certain model or prototype using the Soundcaster, the information is captured as you play back the different modules.
Do one of the following:
- From the menu bar, click Layouts > Profiler.
- Press F6
The Profiler layout is displayed.

On the toolbar, click the Start Capture button.

Wwise begins to graph the performance of the particular platform in relation to the information captured from the sound engine.

	Note
	Solid blocks indicate places where the captured information exceeds a minimum or maximum value. Blocks at the top of a graph indicate values higher than the maximum, and blocks at the bottom indicate values lower than the minimum.

Drag the Performance Monitor time cursor to a location on the graph where there is a performance issue.
Note
As you scroll through the graph view, the position of the Capture Log and the information in the Performance Data pane and the Advanced Profiler are automatically updated.
Use the time cursor indicators (white circles) in the Capture Log to locate the Event, Action, or other activities performed by the sound engine that are creating the issue. Alternatively, shift-click an entry in the Capture Log to synchronize all the profiling views on this timestamp.
To edit the contents and/or properties of an object or Event, double-click the entry in the Capture Log. The corresponding Event or object will open in the Event Editor or Property Editor where you can make any necessary modifications.
Review the information in the various tabs of the Advanced Profiler to get more information about the performance of the particular activity.
To save a text file version of the Performance Monitor graph, right-click the graph and select Save All Counters to File. This will allow you to save the counters to a tab delimited text file that includes all counters from the beginning of the capture to the current moment, recorded at 200 ms intervals.

Customizing the Performance Monitor

In some cases, you may want to monitor several key indicators at the same time and in other cases, you may want to focus on one particular area. To meet the needs of each monitoring session, you can add and remove counters from the Performance Monitor.

To modify the Performance Monitor display:

In the Performance Monitor title bar, click the View Settings icon.
The Performance Monitor Settings dialog opens.
In the Show In Graph column, select the counters that you want to display in the Performance Monitor graph view.
Note
For a description of each counter, click the Help icon in the Performance Monitor Settings dialog.
In the Show In List column, select the counters that you want to display in the Performance Data list.
Set a minimum and maximum value for the counters you selected. The min and max values define the vertical range of the graph band for each counter.
Click OK.
The Performance Monitor is updated to display only the counters that you selected.

	Note
	If you select a type of data that has been disabled in the Profiler Settings, the Performance Monitor will not display a graph for that heading. For more information on changing Profiler settings, refer to Specifying the type of information that will be captured.

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