Profiler

The Profiler tab is the third tab in the Developer UI menu. Its main purpose is dynamically debugging different aspects of the map and the engine, showing the exact budget and usage. Additionally, a .txt report can be generated, containing every event that happened in a specified period of time. The menus of this tab are useful for optimizing maps, game events and material usage.

It consists of 8 windows - Texture Budget Per-Frame, Texture Budget Global, Misc Graphics Stats, VProf Budget, VProf Report Generator, VProf Counters, VProf Tree and VProf UI.

Texture Budget Per-Frame

Texture Budget Per-Frame shows how much of the GPU memory is used by the textures right now in-game. There are many different graphs, each of which showing precise information about the buffer usage of various renderables. This menu is useful for searching for frame drops and various optimizations.

The graphs automatically update each frame, so it is easy to check for differences in various parts of the map, for frame holes as example.

Texture Budget Per-Frame when looking at a heavy map

Texture Budget Per-Frame when looking at a wall

There is a total of 27 graphs:

Total shows the total amount of GPU usage as a histogram
RenderTargets shows the memory usage taken by render targets.
DepthBuffer shows the memory usage taken by the depth buffer.
Constant Buffers shows the memory usage taken by updating constant buffers.
Constant Buffers GPU Upload shows the memory usage taken by sending and receiving constant buffers from GPU.
Other Verts shows the memory usage taken by any other verticles.
Other Textures shows the memory usage taken by any other textures textures.
CubeMap Textures shows the memory usage taken by cubemap textures.
Constant Buffer shows the memory usage taken by lightmaps.
Constant Buffer shows the memory amount taken by buffered textures.
VGUI textures shows the memory usage taken by VGUI elements.
Decal textures shows the memory usage taken by decals and overlays.
Unaccounted textures shows memory usage taken by missing textures.
World textures shows the memory usage taken by textures used on world geometry.
StatisProp textures shows the memory usage taken by textures used on static models.
Model Verts shows memory usage taken by model verticles.
Model textures shows the memory usage taken by textures used on dynamic and physics models.
Precached shows the memory amount taken by precached textures.
SkyBox textures shows the memory usage taken by skybox textures (applies to 3D skybox as well)
World Verts shows the memory usage taken by world verticles.
Particle textures shows the memory usage taken by particles.
Lighting Verts shows the memory usage taken by lighting verticles.
Structured Buffers GPU Upload shows how much space individual buffers take before being sent to the GPU.
Structured Buffers shows how much space buffers take overall.
RV Structured Buffers shows the memory usage taken by updating raw sctructured buffers.
Static Indices shows the memory usage taken by static indices.
ClientEffect textures shows the memory usage taken by screen effects (lens circle, hints, etc).

Texture Budget Global

Texture Budget Global shows how much of the GPU memory is precached overall when loading a map. There are many different graphs, and each shows precise information about the memory usage of various renderables. This menu is useful when optimizing texture usage, and when writing minimal requirements.

There is a total of 27 graphs. Their names, functionality and positions in the menu are identical to the Texture Budget Per-Frame menu.

Misc Graphics Tab

Misc Graphics Tab is a small menu that shows the amount of calls sent to the GPU every frame. Values in the menu update each frame.

There are 10 values in the menu:

Update Constant Buffer shows the amount of calls telling to update constant buffers.
vertex shader change shows the amount of calls telling to update model textures.
pixel shader change shows the amount of calls telling to update brush textures.
DrawIndexedPrimitive shows the amount of calls telling to draw primitives.
numPrimitives shows the total amount of primitives drawn.
DrawCalls shows the amount of calls telling GPU to draw something.
compute shader change shows the amount of calls telling to update shaders.
push build view shows the amount of calls telling to push the build view.
max build view shows the amount of build views.
Update Structured Buffer shows the amount of updates of the structured buffer. Should always be 4.

VProf Budget

VProf Budget shows how much time the GPU takes to render different parts of the game, in milliseconds. The engine freezes each time it needs to redraw something, so this menu basically tells what exactly causes the game to lag. If something takes longer than 5 milliseconds, consider optimizing that!

Caution:

When having Historgam enabled, do not oversize the window! Developer UI can only have a certain amount of graphs drawn at the same time, drawing too many of them overflows the buffer and crashes the game!

There are 54 graphs total:

Unaccounted shows the amount of time it takes to draw unaccounted textures.
Sleep shows the amount of time the engine intentionally slept.
World Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to draw world geometry.
Displacement Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to draw displacements.
Game shows the amount of time it takes to draw the game.
Player shows the amount of time it takes to draw the playermodel and/or the visibility rays.
NPCs shows the amount of time it takes to draw NPCs.
Server Animation shows the amount of time it takes to draw server-side model animations.
Client Animation shows the amount of time it takes to draw client-side model animations.
Physics shows the amount of time it takes to draw vphysics interactions.
Static Prop Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to draw static props.
Other Model Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to draw non-static props.
Fast Path Model Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the fastest path for rending each dynamic model.
Light Cache shows the amount of time it takes to cache lights.
Brush Model Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to render brush entities.
Shadow Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to render cheap dynamic shadows.
Detail Prop Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to draw detail props.
Particle/Effect Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to draw particles and other particle-like effects (sparks, bullet shots, etc).
Ropes shows the amount of time it takes to draw ropes.
Dynamic Light Rendering is obsolete, supposed to draw render-to-texture shadows, but those were removed.
Networking shows the amount of time it takes to connect to the network.
Sound shows the amount of time it takes to get information about the sounds playing.
VGUI shows the amount of time it takes to draw VGUI elements.
FileSystem shows the amount of time it takes to draw the filesystem, if any is on-screen.
Prediction shows the amount of time it takes to draw physics prediction, if the debug tool is enabled.
Interpolation shows the amount of time it takes to interpolate.
Swap Bullets shows the amount of time it takes to swap the bullets.
Occlusion shows the amount of time it takes to draw basic occlusion. Not to be confused with the new dynamic AO.
Overlays shows the amount of time it takes to draw decals and overlays.
Tools shows the amount of time it takes to draw the engine tools (-tools launch option)
Texture Cache shows the amount of time it takes to cache textures (always shows 0 ms)
Replay shows the amount of time it takes to draw the replay of CS:GO demos. What a leftover!
Script System shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the AS rendering script system.
VGUI Simulate shows the amount of time it takes to simulate VGUI elements on-screen (for hints).
Client Simulation shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the client-side rendering calculations.
Particle Simulation shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the particles.
CViewRender::Render shows the amount of time it takes to render the player view.
World Render Setup shows the amount of time it takes to set up the player view.
SetupRenderablesList shows the amount of time it takes to set up renderables.
DrawPortalsUsingStencils shows the amount of time it takes to render portals using stencils.
Flashlight Shadows shows the amount of time it takes to render player's flashlight (impulse 103).
Fast Path Brush Rendering shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the fastest path for rending each dynamic brush.
DrawEarlyZPortals shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the relative view position between the player and the portal.
PortalGhosts shows the amount of time it takes to draw the portal ghosts.
DrawSimplePortalMesh shows the amount of time it takes to draw the simple mesh in the portal view.
XeGTAO shows the amount of time it takes to draw the new XeGT Ambient Occlusion.
DrawTranslucentEntities shows the amount of time it takes to draw translucent entities.
Cvar Find shows the amount of time it takes to find a cvar.
ChromeHTML shows the amount of time it takes to draw the HTML web-page, if any is visible.
Paintblob shows the amount of time it takes to draw a paint blob.
GameInstructor shows the amount of time it takes to draw on-screen hints.
Input shows the amount of time it takes to calculate inputs received.
Steam shows the amount of time it takes to render the Steam overlay.
paint shows the amount of time it takes to draw paint.
CBaseEntity::EmitSound shows the amount of time it takes to calculate the visual ambiance of the sound.

VProf Report Generator

VProf Report Generator allows players to record all the events from above and save them as a text file. It has filters to list the result by specific criterias.

The menu has the following functionality:

Start Recording starts the recording. All the events are stored in RAM until the recording stops.
Stop Recording stops the recording.
Generate Report writes all the values from RAM to the text file and opens the VProf Generated Report window.
Save To File saves the text file.
Output Path is the output path of the text file.

The menu has the following filters:

Budget Group is a dropdown filter, allows to select a specific budget filter from the VProf Budget list.
Summary lists the events as a summary of all the data.
Hierarchy lists the events taking into account the hierarchy.
List by Time lists the events by their date
List By Time (< Children) lists the events by their date excluding children in hierarchy
List by Avg Time lists the events by the average time they took.
List by Avg Time (< Children) lists the events by the average time they took excluding children in hierarchy
List by Peak Time lists the events from the longest to the shortest.
List by Avg Time (< Children) lists the events from the longest to the shortest excluding children in hierarchy
List by Peak Over Avg lists the events from the longest to the shortest, ignoring average time if events have the same execution time
List Top Items Only lists only the top items, ignoring minor events

VProf Generated Report

Generate Report button opens an after-report window called VProf Generated Report that contains the reported file. The menu contains the generated report, a text entry to change the name of the text file, the Copy and the Save File buttons.

VProf Counters

VProf Counters window contains values that represent various details about rendering and GPU usage. Average Developer UI user shouldn't need this information, it is more for internal usage of the engine and how it handles various stuff.

VProf Tree

VProf Tree allows developers to record specific engine events for a specified period of time, allowing them to see... what? what will they find there? more numbers? for what?

Bug:

Pressing Stop Recording button without pressing Start Recording beforehand starts recording with no way to stop it!

This window contains the list of all the events that exist in the engine, and the following buttons:

Start Recording begins recording engine events.
Stop Recording stops recording engine events.

VProf UI

VProf UI is an ultimate window containing VProf Tree, VProf Counters, VProf Budget and VProf Generated Report in a single window, allowing developers to quickly switch between them using the top menu.