How to debug Motion in PIE

Use this guide when inspection of Motion state is necessary during Play in Editor. You can inspect movement, Gameplay Ability System (GAS), camera, or networking state.

Use the Motion Gameplay Debugger category

During PIE, push the apostrophe (') key to open the Unreal Gameplay Debugger. If the Motion category is not visible, use the category key shown in the overlay.

Use this first to examine detected Motion components, movement state, and active camera curves. You can also examine GAS data that the selected debug actor exposes through standard Unreal ASC lookup.

For GAS state, run:

showdebug abilitysystem

Reproduce the movement state while the overlay is visible. A short walk, sprint, crouch, or jump is usually enough to see whether state is changing.

Open Visual Logger

Use the console command:

VisLog

Or open Tools > Debug > Visual Logger.

Record a session

1. Open Visual Logger.
2. Click the red Record button.
3. Play the test scenario.
4. Stop recording.
5. Select the character actor.
6. Scrub the timeline.

MotionCore declares the LogMotionVisual category but does not emit UE_VLOG entries in this release. Thus, Visual Logger shows only engine or project entries. Your project can add Visual Logger calls.

Use Rewind Debugger

1. Open Tools > Debug > Rewind Debugger.
2. Start a Rewind Debugger recording, or enable its PIE auto-record option.
3. Reproduce the issue.
4. Stop the recording.
5. Scrub through the timeline.
6. Inspect the captured character, movement component, and animation tracks.

Rewind Debugger recording is separate from the Visual Logger Record button.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Check
No Motion-specific Visual Logger rows appear	MotionCore does not emit UE_VLOG entries in this release. Use the Motion Gameplay Debugger category and Output Log.
No Motion Output Log entries appear	Build is not Shipping and the relevant LogMotion* category is enabled
Attribute values are missing	The character has an initialized Ability System Component (ASC) and AttributeSet
Camera effects are missing	The character has a MotionCameraComponent and camera effects are enabled

Next steps

Visual Logger is disabled in Shipping builds.

Networking commandsUse console commands for network and GAS debugging alongside Visual Logger.GAS quick referenceLook up Motion GAS tags, effects, and attributes.