Using GridHub

GridHub is in preview release and is subject to change.

Open 3D Engine (O3DE), the successor to Lumberyard, is now available in Developer Preview. Download O3DE or visit the AWS Game Tech blog to learn more.

GridHub is Lumberyard's connection hub for debugging. GridHub acts as a central hub through which specified local clients connect with each other and exchange information. When you run the Lumberyard diagnostic and debugging tools Profiler.exe or LuaIDE.exe (located in the \dev\Bin64 directory), GridHub launches as a background process in Windows and enables their functionality. For more information about Profiler, see Profiler.

Note

Because GridHub listens for connections on the loopback address (127.0.0.1), you must run GridHub on the same computer as the target application.

Registering an Application in GridHub

To register an application in GridHub so that Profiler can capture information from the application, add AzFramework::TargetManagementComponent to the application’s SystemComponent.

Note

Lumberyard's built-in applications already have this component added by default.

Viewing and Configuring GridHub

When you launch Profiler.exe or LuaIDE.exe, GridHub starts automatically and is represented by a globe icon in the Windows taskbar.

To view and configure GridHub

1. In the Windows taskbar, right-click the globe icon and choose Show:

   

   The GridHub window has a configuration bar, a connections pane, and pane for viewing log messages:

   

2. You can use the configuration toolbar to view or change GridHub configuration:

   

   The toolbar options are as follows:

   Session port – Specifies the port on which GridHub listens for discovery requests.

   Connection slots – Specifies the maximum number of applications that can be connected concurrently to GridHub.

   Hub name – The name of your hub. By default, this is the name of the local computer.

   Note

   The name of the hub must be the neighborhood name to which the TargetManagementComponent connects.

   Enable Disconnection Detection – Specifies whether the connection to GridHub is terminated when the source fails to respond.

   Add to Windows startup folder – Specifies whether GridHub starts automatically when Windows starts.

   Log activity – Starts or stops logging.

   Start/Stop – Starts or stops GridHub. When GridHub is off, no connections are discovered or maintained.

3. When GridHub and your target application are active, your target application appears in the GridHub Connections list:

   

   The columns in the Connections list provide the following information:

   ID – The identifier of the connected application.

   Name – The name of the connected application.

   Connection ID – The identifier of the connection between GridHub and the application.

   IsHost – Whether or not the connection is the connection host

   IsLocal – Whether or not the connection is local.

   IsReady – Whether or not the application is ready to handle further connections.

4. Use the Output window to see the log messages that GridHub generates as it manages connections:

   

When GridHub is terminated, the connections it established are also terminated.

Troubleshooting GridHub

If you experience difficulty using GridHub, check the following:

• Make sure that the neighborhood name in TargetManagerComponent is the same as the one in GridHub.

• Make sure that the port that GridHub is listening on is the same port as the one specified for TargetManagementComponent.

• Make sure that all applications are running on the same computer. The GridHub socket is bound to the loopback address 127.0.0.1.