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zSpy

zSpy is a debugging tool that displays most of the operations performed by the engine during the Gothic or Spacer running.

Example image of running zSpy

zSpy

Warning

zSpy must be started before Gothic or the Spacer is started so that the program can find it. Sometimes in Gothic I this has to be done manually, in Gothic II This is done by the GothicStarter_mod.

In order to be able to follow the messages in zSpy, Gothic should be started in the window. The corresponding startup option can be found in GothicStarter (mod). Within Gothic, when Marvin mode is activated, you can switch between window and full-screen mode at any time with the F3 key.

Log Level

With the -zlog# command in GothicStarter, you can specify how many messages zSpy will output. # can be a number between -1 and 9. Used for:

  • -1 - Disable every message (expect fatal errors)

  • 0 - Shows only warnings, faults and fatal errors

  • 1 - 9 - Display more information. Every Information has their priority. If you select 1, the program displays only messages with priority =< 1, with 5 only priority =< 5, and with 9, almost everything that Gothic can produce.

For general debugging, recommended value is 5.

Output

The zSpy issues its reports in the following form: 

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Time  Type  Priority  User   Message              ...      <filename,       #line>
00:21 Info:  3        B:     GOTHIC: Exiting game ... .... <oGameManager.cpp,#617>

Time

Time elapsed since the start of Gothic.exe

Type

Type of message. The following message types are distinguished:

  • Fatal: - Critical error causing application to close.

  • Fault: - A simple bug that will not cause the application to stop, but display or performance issues may occur.

  • Warn: - A warning of possible consequences. An error that follows soon afterwards could have something to do with it.

  • Info: - General information about the progress of the program.

Priority

Priority level of the message. Messages with lower priority (higher number) can be disabled. See log level.

User

User ID - a letter defined by every engine developer to highlight its logs

  • D - Dieter
  • U - Ulf
  • B - Bert
  • C - Carsten
  • A - Andre
  • X - Kurt

Message

The most important part. A message that contains:

  • Symbol representing a program module. The names are mostly self-explanatory, so there is no need to type them all (MDL = 3D models, PAR = Parser etc.).

  • The message for the user.

Configuration

In zSpy, you can customize the font and its color depending on the type of message.

In addition, you can configure the logging options:

  • Filtering various messages (Info, Warn, Fault, Fatal).
  • Auto show/hide zSpy when starting/stopping Gothic.
  • Saving the log file to a separate file.

Console commands

List of console commands related with zSpy.

Note

The list is work in progress. Console commands needs a separate article or section.

zerr level

Sets a level of logging. 

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zerr level <#>

zerr searchspy

Links zSpy with Gothic. Useful when you run zSpy when the game is already running. 

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zerr searchspy

zerr authors

Sets a filter to display only messages of one author. 

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zerr authors <letter>
  • <letter> - One of the letters listed here.

zerr rem

Includes a remark into the log. 

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zerr rem
Looks like that: 
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00:46 Info:  3 B:       OPT: Blood-Details: Value=2 .... <oGameManager.cpp,#1302>
00:57 ---------------
00:57 ---------------
01:01 Info:  3 B:     GMAN: Leaving Menu-Section .... <oGameManager.cpp,#1537>

zerr status

Displays a current status of zSpy in the console. 

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zerr status