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.

Suite open on Compilation tab, instruction counts visible per material with severity coloring.

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

What it isn’t for

• Don’t expect this to auto-fix permutation bloat. Surfaces the problem; fixes are per-material.

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

Inspects per-material parameters and static switches.

Tab 2: Shader Compilation Monitor

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

Tab 3: Shader Permutation Analyzer

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

Output

• In-panel results per tab.
• No edits. Read-only.

Tips and 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.

Related tools

• Material Profiler — complementary material complexity / QA analysis
• Rendering Systems Auditor — runtime rendering performance side