Debugging ECS

In addition to "traditional" debugging using breakpoints, Unity provides the following tools for debugging DOTS code:

  • Entity Debugger window
  • Burst Inspector
  • DOTS Decompiler
  • Entity Inspectors
  • Livelink
  • Profiler

Entity Debugger

The Entity Debugger allows you to visualize your entities, systems, and components

Open the entity Debugger window using the menu: Window > Analysis > Entity Debugger.

Systems list

The Systems list shows the systems in your project and how much time a system takes to run each frame. You can turn systems on and off from the list using the checkbox provided for each system.

Use the System Display control drop down at the top of the list to control what to display in the System list. The System Display control contains:

  • Worlds — Choose the World containing the entities and systems to display. By default, an Editor World exists when not in play mode and a Default World exists in play mode.
  • Show Full Player Loop option — Choose to display the systems of all Worlds and show all of the Unity execution phases (not just those containing systems).
  • Show Inactive Systems option — Choose to show systems that are not currently running in addition to the running systems.

Select a system to view its details.

Note: If you select the EntityManager entry in the System list, then you have different options on the System details section.

System details

The System details section shows the groups of components that a System operates on and the list of entities associated with those component groups.

Each component group shows the components in the group along with the number of entities associated with it. Select a component group to view information about the Chunks containing the data for the components in the group.

When you select the EntityManager entry in the system list, the details section shows all of the entities in the displayed World. When you display a World (rather than the full player loop), you can also filter the list of entities by component

To filter the Entity list:

  1. Select a World in the System Display control.
  2. Select the EntityManager for that World.
  3. At the top of the System details section, click Edit.
  4. In the Choose Component window, check the components whose entities you want to view.

Chunk information

The Chunk information section shows the Chunks containing data for the components and entities selected in the details section.

Inspecting an Entity

Select an entity in the Entity Debugger to view its data in the Unity Inspector window.