Official [Legacy Analytics] Data Processing Limits

We’ve heard your feedback and we are getting rid of Analysis Points!

TL;DR
Our old system limited you to only the first 1,000 combinations of event / parameters / values.
Our new system will show you the 5,000 most frequent combinations of events / parameters / values.

What are Analysis Points?

Analysis Points were the old way we imposed limits on Custom Events. Some events are more costly to process, so they cost more Analysis Points. But this resulted in developers doing overly complicated calculations and bending over backwards to fit into our data limits. Analysis Points also limited users to only the first 1,000 event / parameter / value combinations that we received. From now on, you don’t have to worry about doing any messy calculations based on the data types of your custom event parameters.

What is changing?

We are moving to a system that prioritizes the most frequently seen events in your game. So you will now see the top (most frequent) 5,000 event / parameter / value combinations in your dashboard. The top 5,000 combinations will be reevaluated daily, so we will always be showing you the most relevant data. We chose that number specifically because it will have the least impact on our existing dashboard users. Currently, 98% of users fall well below this limit.

One additional benefit of this change is how we calculate numbers. Right now when you send us a number, we aggregate it to give you the count, sum and average of the values you send. However, if you are sending us a level number, then that aggregation isn’t as useful to you.

For example, if you send us the following event:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. Analytics.CustomEvent(“LevelStart”, new Dictionary<string, object>{
3.     {“level_num”, 5}
4. });
5.  

Rather than just giving you the average of level_num, we will now also display a count for each value for level_num. This is what developers expect to see when they send us these values, so this is what we will be showing them. (We do have to impose a limit on this, since there are a lot of numbers. So we will only do this for the top 500 numbers received.) And to enhance the readability of the dashboard UI, we will show you the top 10 parameter values plus an “others” bucket for the rest, in any parameter view (e.g. pie chart).

How will this affect you?

For the vast majority of people (97.862% according to our engineering team), this change will have no effect on your existing dashboard. The biggest benefit is that you can spend less time worrying about Analysis Points. Now developers can focus on tracking the data they want without jumping through extra hoops.

For a small percentage of users, their dashboards will only show the top 5,000 event / parameter / value combinations, even if they have sent more than that. However, unlike with the Analysis Points system where any events exceeding the limit were discarded, these events are still counted. And every day, the top events will be re-evaluated to make sure your dashboard will always show you the most relevant data.

What do you need to do?

This change is in our back end processing, so you don’t have to do anything to get these benefits.

FAQ:

*What about the 100 per user per hour limit?

The client-side limits (100 per user per hour and 10 parameter limit) are unaffected by this change.

*What is going to happen to the Event Manager?

The Event Manager will still show you the events and parameters we’ve received from your game. And you will continue to be able to disable them, so they do not appear in the Data Explorer and so they are not counted in the top 5000 values.

*How will this affect events in Raw Data Export?

Raw Data Export will not be affected by this change. Raw Data Export will always include every event sent from your app.

*Is this limit for Personal, Plus or Pro users?

The same data processing limit applies to all users equally.

 

@NicoL3AS

That is correct; events don't appear in the Event Manager after they have been disabled. We are evaluating how this change impacts developers and we always welcome suggestions about how we can improve the usability of our service.

@trdinich

That is a good question and something I didn't specifically touch on in the post.

First, not that you asked specifically, but I wanted to make sure it's clear. Numbers are tracked separately from string values. So we are tracking the top 500 numbers from your app, which will be kept on a different list than any string values that we are tracking. This is because numeric parameters could take on many more possible values than most string parameters.

Second, we are tracking numbers in the same way as strings now, so if you send "level_num", you will see a count of each value you send. This previously required you to send the numbers attached with strings (as suggested by NicoL3AS).

So when you send numbers, such as your "level_num" and "seconds_to_finish" parameters, they will basically be counted as strings and numbers. So in the Data Explorer, you will still see the traditional count, sum, and average (which will be useful for "seconds_to_finish". But you will also see the count for each value of "level_num".

As for the data limits, I don't think it will affect you very much. An example might clarify things:

Let's say you send us the following events over the course of a day:

Code (CSharp):

1. Analytics.CustomEvent("LevelFinished", new Dictionary<string, object> {  { "level_num", 1}, { "seconds_to_finish", 100} });
2. Analytics.CustomEvent("LevelFinished", new Dictionary<string, object> {  { "level_num", 1}, { "seconds_to_finish", 115} });
3. Analytics.CustomEvent("LevelFinished", new Dictionary<string, object> {  { "level_num", 2}, { "seconds_to_finish", 100} });
4. Analytics.CustomEvent("LevelFinished", new Dictionary<string, object> {  { "level_num", 1}, { "seconds_to_finish", 80} });
5. Analytics.CustomEvent("LevelFinished", new Dictionary<string, object> {  { "level_num", 2}, { "seconds_to_finish", 95} });

The combinations that we would track would be:

Code (CSharp):

1. (LevelFinished.level_num, 1) - Count: 3
2. (LevelFinished.level_num, 2) - Count 2
3. (LevelFinished.seconds_to_finish, 100) - Count 2
4. (LevelFinished.seconds_to_finish, 115) - Count 1
5. (LevelFinished.seconds_to_finish, 80) - Count 1
6. (LevelFinished.seconds_to_finish, 95) - Count 1

Since we are tracking the most frequent events, I would expect your level numbers to occur more often than any particular completion time, so you should always be able to see your level data.

It may be the case that you might not see every individual time that has been sent in the Data Explorer, but that is data that is best aggregated, which will still be available.

 

@alleballe90,

The front-end team has just released a fix for this bug. Please try to enable / disable your events again.

If you still encounter this problem, please submit a support ticket:
https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/support/

 

@alisjak We recently made some changes to our back end architecture to allow more flexibility when sending custom events. This led to a potential issue in our front-end where data sent would overwhelm our dashboard. As a short-term solution, we limited the dashboard to only displaying 10 parameters but rest assured that we are working on a fix for this.

To answer your question, Raw Data Export would be your best option for now to get all the custom events. We've never tested the script you linked but I looked it over and it looks like it will get you the results you want (at least in theory).

Let me know if it ends up working for you!

 

@rikkir Making some assumptions, I suspect you have something like Analytics.CustomEvent("MyEvent", 3) and Analytics.CustomEvent("MyEvent", 4) etc ? And you want to know the number of 3's and the number of 4's? Otherwise, can you clarify?

 

@yuliyF

Once you integrate Analytics into your project and visit your dashboard, it takes between 4-6 hours before data will appear in your dashboard.

If it has been longer than that, please send a support ticket with your project ID:
https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/support/

 

@Bionicl

It's additive per day, so on any given day we report the top 5000 combos of event name/param name/param value. Since Event1 has 100 possible combinations and Event2 has 100 possible combos, you will have counted 200 "points" against the daily limit.

 

@lifeisfunxyz

Yes, that is the default limit for custom events, so any attempts after hitting that limit will not be sent. You can confirm this by checking the result of the analytics method call.

Code (csharp):

1. Dictionary<string, object> data = new Dictionary<string, object>{{"level_index", level}};
2. AnalyticsResult result = Analytics.CustomEvent("level_complete", data);
3. Debug.Log(result);

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Analytics.AnalyticsResult.html

In your example, you would get the TooManyRequests result.

Our Custom Event limits are in place to ensure that we are able to process, in a timely manner, all of the data that we receive. So we have selected a limit that encompasses most uses of our service. Of course, we understand not every app will fit within these constraints. If you submit a support ticket, we can see what we can do:
https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/support/

 

@miracledojo

Unfortunately, there is no update about this issue. Currently, the only way to get this data is via Raw Data Export.

 

Sorry no updates at this time. The hope is to address this issue before end of year.

 

This will likely not be addressed at this time.