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Shader Diagnostics Suite

Shader Diagnostics Suite

Section titled “Shader Diagnostics Suite”

Module: Tech · Category: Debugging · Tool ID: ShaderDiagnosticsSuite

Three-tab shader debugging suite. Keywords inspects parameters and static switches per material. Compilation monitors instruction counts and complexity flags. Permutations analyzes shader permutation bloat — the number of compiled variants per material.

Screenshot 01 — Hero shot — Suite open on Compilation tab, instruction counts visible per material with severity coloring.

When to use it

Section titled “When to use it”
  • Shader compile time exploding — find the materials with thousands of permutations
  • Material complexity audit — instruction count per material
  • Static-switch debugging — finding which switches are actually doing work

When not to use it

Section titled “When not to use it”
  • Don’t expect this to auto-fix permutation bloat — surfaces the problem; fixes are per-material

Opening the tool

Section titled “Opening the tool”
  1. Open the EQLabs Hub and search for Shader (or browse to Tech → Debugging)
  2. Click the tool card
  3. Use the tab bar: Keywords / Compilation / Permutations

Tab 1 — Shader Keyword Debugger

Section titled “Tab 1 — Shader Keyword Debugger”

Inspects per-material parameters and static switches.

Tab 2 — Shader Compilation Monitor

Section titled “Tab 2 — Shader Compilation Monitor”

Per-material instruction counts, complexity flags, sampler counts.

Tab 3 — Shader Permutation Analyzer

Section titled “Tab 3 — Shader Permutation Analyzer”

Permutation bloat detection — how many variants of a shader exist due to static switches × feature flags × platform variants.

Settings reference

Section titled “Settings reference”

Persists via standard tool framework.

Output

Section titled “Output”
  • In-panel results per tab
  • No edits — read-only

Tips & gotchas

Section titled “Tips & gotchas”
  • Permutation bloat is a known UE5 pain point — materials with many static switches generate exponential variants
  • Single-click pings; double-click opens the Material editor
Section titled “Related tools”
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