The application settings can be accessed from the main menu using the Tools drop down menu. Select "Settings" to open the settings dialog.
The settings window contains tabs for specific areas of GPU PerfStudio - General, Frame Debugger, and Profiler. These settings will persist between different uses of the client, but can be restored to their defaults by clicking "Restore All Default Values".
- Connection timeout (seconds): - The maximum time allowed, in seconds, before a connection attempt fails.
- Message timeout (seconds): - The maximum time allowed, in seconds, before a message attempt fails. You may need to increase this if your server is remote and your net connection is slow.
- Local host port: - Port number for connecting to server running on localhost.
- Time Override Mode - Controls how GPU PerfStudio overrides the time returned by QueryPerformanceCounter.
- Freeze tells PerfStudio to return the same value over and over while the application is paused.
- Slow motion tells GPU PerfStudio to return small incremental changes (a few milliseconds).
- None tells PerfStudio to return the actual value. See Pausing your Application for more info.
- Restore state on disconnect - Disables the Frame Debugger and puts the app in play mode when the disconnecting from the server.
- Frame capture on pause - When the application is paused, the API calls will be captured to ensure repeatable playback. Only available for DirectX applications. See Using Frame Capture for more info.
- Flatten CommandLists - This will expand the draw calls in command lists into one main list of draw calls. This allows the use of the frame debugger with a multithreaded DX11 application.
- Copy mapped buffers using CPU - Some applications may run out of GPU memory during frame capture if mapped buffers are used extensively. Checking this option will cause the copies to be done using CPU side memory. This option may cause slow playback of the frame after Frame Capture is complete.
- Pause delay (milliseconds): - The number of milliseconds to wait after clicking pause prior to updating the Frame Debugger. This allows the application to recognize the pause and settle to a consistent number of draw calls.
- Synch draw calls between tools - If enabled selecting a draw call in any of the main tool windows will cause the other tool windows to synch to the same draw call. If disabled each tool can select different draw calls.
- Enable client data cache - When checked, the majority of draw call data will be cached on the client. When a draw call is re-selected by the user the client has no need to request it from the server giving a performance boost. When unchecked, the data will always be requested from the server. This option can be used to refresh data that is suspected to be stale.
a) Shader Debugger Message timeout (seconds) - The maximum time, in seconds, that the Shader Debugger Run, Step, Back, or Run Back command is allowed to take.
b) Update draw call list on each update - Informs the client to retrieve an updated list of draw calls each time the windows are updated in the Frame Debugger. This is useful for applications which perform a dynamic number of passes based on the results of an earlier draw call.
c) GPUTime bar scale - The time bar along the bottom of the frame debugger provides a visual indication of the duration of each draw call. The range is calculated automatically from the available values. The GPUTimeBar Scale adds an additional scaling factor to this control to enable better visualization in cases where a single slow call causes the differences between other calls to be hidden.
d) Visualization settings enabled by default - Forces the Picture Visualization controls to be displayed by default on all new Picture Windows.
e) Show picture in picture by default - Forces the Picture in picture checkbox to be checked by default on all new Picture Windows.
f) Fit image to window by default - Forces the Fit to window checkbox to be checked by default on all new Picture Windows.
a) Profiler timeout (seconds) - The maximum time allowed, in seconds, before the Profile commands time out.
b) Show counter description in tooltip - Select to display the counter description in the tool tips.
c) Perform analysis when opened - Runs the GPU Analysis function automatically when the window is opened.
d) Display profiler update dialog - Displays a dialog that reports progress of the profiler.