[Released] TouchConsole Pro

TouchConsole Pro is a debug console designed to work really well on all the platforms Unity supports, as well as the Unity editor. It's based on a console that's been used behind the scenes for a number of very successful mobile games, so hopefully it'll make your lives easier too!

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At a high level it lets you do two things: See what's going on in your game, on device, by viewing exceptions and console output and control your game using commands that you define in your code. There's a number of other extensions out there that aim to do this, but my goal with this extension is to make the console as user-friendly and enjoyable to use as possible - for developers and their QA team.

You can find a demo, documentation and more information here, and view it (and download it!) on the asset store here.

I've been professionally developing with Unity for about 5 years, but this is my first released asset, so I'd love to get your feedback.

 

I've recently released version 1.1.1 with some fixes - thanks to Ben at HandCircus for his feedback that lead to most of these.

• Added a new method for opening the console - holding down three fingers for about half a second. This can be enabled in the settings.
• Added hook to allow you to customise the email that is sent - extra attachments can be added and the message modified or replaced. This is useful for adding your save file or screenshots etc.
• Added method for triggering the log email to be sent, if you want to provide another method for sending it.
• Fixed the log being blank on Unity 5.
• Fixed WebGL builds on Unity 5.
• Fixed an error when the console was used in a game with stripping enabled (added a link.xml file).
• Fix for builds failing when the console was used in a game with the Facebook SDK included.

 

Hello, I've tried emailing you on 'contact@opencoding.net' but it fails to connect.

I’ve been looking around for a decent unity console for a while and this looks like what I’ve been searching for.

There’s one thing I’d like added as a feature which is to add a “username / password” system which prevents others from executing the commands. Of course this would be an optional setting and would allow users to see and email me logs without being able to touch the console commands. If your system had this then it would be exactly what I’m looking for.

Here's another console with some good features but it's far too expensive for what it is
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3621

 

Hey guitarninja,

My support email is support@opencoding.net - where did you see contact@opencoding.net listed - I may have made a typo?

It's interesting you ask for that feature, as that's something we've used for our projects before - so that we can release internal builds with a console, but without allowing people to cheat.

I'll add this to the next release - I think just a simple password (rather than a full username and password) would probably be sufficient - what do you think? If you've purchased the console and you'd like access to a beta of this, drop me an email with your invoice number and I'll send it over within the next week (after Christmas!)

I'm aware there's lots of other consoles out there, but they're generally much simpler or more complex. I'm trying to strike a balance, and make it work well on small screens with big fingers!

 

There's an email link on your profile (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/publisher/10006) and I thought it was the wrong email on your support site but that isn't the case.

Ah the topic of IT security, this might just be a side effect of me working in the industry but I'd want to be 100% positive that no one else is able to execute admin commands. A system that is secure and not inconvenient to the developer.
Multiple Accounts:

• Admin: Full access.
• Alpha: Access to selected cheats / tools.
• Beta: Access to a different set of selected cheats / tools.
• Release: Approved cheats available to all users.

All accounts can be renamed to prevent hacking.

Developer Convenience:
Maybe allow the devs to copy an .ini file to their mobile devices / systems which contains the username/password and when the game is loaded the console will read this and know who is using it. This would prevent you from having to constantly fill out the fields. If the .ini file isn't found or the credentials are incorrect it will default the user to the "Release" or default account which may or may not have cheats / tools associated with it.

Of course what I've said above would probably take a bit of work and I'm sure that for many devs a simple password would suffice and I don't blame you if you do only implement a simple password system. However because .dll files are in use I would want to make sure that I can extend your framework and implement the rest myself before purchasing this asset.

Most of the other consoles are very basic and the only one I was really interested in was KGFConsole however this hasn't been updated since Mar 05, 2013 / has no security system / doesn't work well with touchscreen devices / requires 1 license per seat and isn't cheap to start with, although you do have the source code.

 

That's useful, thanks! I haven't personally come across a use-case for such a complicated system, but I can see a use for large-scale public betas - is this your use case? I'll have a proper think about it over Christmas, but at the very least, I'll implement the basic system and an extension point that would support the kind of system you describe.

 

This plugin looks awesome, but I'm not sure that it's working right in your web player. After I right-click, the "copy" and "clear all" buttons show up, but they don't do anything when clicked...

I would very much love a plugin like this, but I don't want to buy when it doesn't appear to work. Please advise.

 

Thanks for noticing that copying was broken in the web player. I've just fixed this and you can try it out on the demo page. I'll submit a new version with this fix shortly, but it'll take about a week to go through Unity's approval process (quite likely longer given that it's Christmas!)

In the meantime, if you purchase the plugin and want to get the fixed version, please drop me an email at support@opencoding.net.

 

Excellent, looks good now. Purchasing!

By the way, you should put a link to your Asset Store purchase page in the OP.

 

I've just submitted a version that adds the hook required to implement this system, and it includes a basic example of how to implement a single hardcoded password. It should be pretty easy to extend this to support multiple users if you desire.

You can see a Web Player demo of this here. Press ~ to open the console, then press the ? mark button at the end of the input line to see the two commands you can use.

The full code for the password system is included in the 1.2.0 release, so you can modify it to your hearts content. You can see the main class for this here (this doesn't include the UI for the popup).

If you purchase before 1.2.0 is approved in a week or so, let me know and I'll send you an advanced copy.

 

1.2.0 has just been approved by Unity. Here's the changelog:

IMPORTANT: If upgrading to this version and building for iOS, make sure you rebuild your Xcode project from scratch or you will get compile errors.

New Features

• Added CommandHandlers.BeforeCommandExecutedHook that allows you to prevent a command from being executed.
• Added a demo scene and code that shows how you can use this to ask the user for a password before certain commands are executed - useful for public betas.

Changes

• Switched to a different method for modifying the Xcode project. This should be more compatible with other Unity plugins, most notably the Facebook SDK. On upgrade, the old code for this will be automatically deleted to avoid the unnecessary code hanging around - you may notice this in your version control system.
• The filter bar is now automatically closed when the console is.
• On Mobile: Opening the filter bar with the console maximized now temporarily minimizes the console so the keyboard doesn’t overlay the console.

Bug Fixes

• Worked around a bug in Unity 4.6.1 that caused a crash on iOS and Android (thanks to the multiple users who noticed this!)
• Fixed copying text not working in the web player (thanks jerotas!)
• Fixed an exception that occurred when the filter bar was closed using the Done/Return button on the Touch Screen Keyboard.

 

@ eAi2k
Thanks for the updates, I managed to pick up a copy before you released the update, I'll email over my ref number for your records later.

Great news with implementing my recommendation and I should now be able to extend it to my hearts content.

I'll let you know if I come up with any other ideas and can't wait to see what other tools you bring out.

 

This looks great, very handy. I am going to keep an eye on this, it might come in handy for a lot of our projects.

One issue I noticed, is that when inside the console and I press the "Clear History" button in the little settings menu (cog button) it does not clear the numbers indicating the various logs. It does clear the messages, but states I still have "6" errors for example.

 

mimminito: Thanks for that minor bug report - I'll fix that in the next update!

 

I've just submitted version 1.3.0 to the asset store, I expect it'll be live in a week or so. This version has no major new features, but some pretty important bug fixes for Unity 5, Android and iOS.

If anyone has purchased it and would like the update sooner, please email your invoice number to support@opencoding.net. Please also let me know what Unity version you are using, as there are minor differences between the Unity 4.x and 5.0 version.

New features

• Added Run button to the end of the input line on mobile devices. This is makes the console at least partly useable in landscape on Nexus and Xperia devices (where a Unity bug causes the touch screen keyboard to be non-interactive).
• Made the keys that open/close the console configurable. By default this is one of ~, \, `, |, § or ±.

Changes

• Suggestion buttons now automatically execute the command if it takes no parameters.

Bug fixes

• Fixed Android log emails not including the attachment sometimes.
• Fixed a very infrequent issue where an exception would sometimes be thrown when log messages were emitted from a non-main thread.
• Fixed error that sometimes occurred when running the Demo scene.
• Fixed an issue on Windows where the console would flash up for a single frame when opened.
• Fixed compilation errors with Unity 5 on iOS.

 

1.3.0 has been released!

 

No source?

 

I'd be happy to provide the source if you contact me with your order number once you've purchased at support@opencoding.net.

I'll include it in the package in the future.

 

There's a bug in Unity 5.2 that breaks keyboard input on OS X (editor and standalone). This affects TouchConsole Pro too.

I've just submitted version 1.5.0 which contains these changes, many of which have been requested/found by my wonderful users:

New features

• By default the console is now automatically added to any scene in the project when you press play. This doesn’t affect builds, and can be turned off via the Unity Preferences window.
• Added support for setting the default email address that logs should be emailed to.
• Added support for changing the scale of the console, with independent settings for the editor, mobile and standalone.
• Added ability to change the log history size limit (default 3000 items) using LogHistory.Instance.ItemLimit.
• Made it easier to modify the install location: you’ll need to edit the _opencodingDirectoryLocation field in DebugConsoleEditorSettings.cs.

Bug fixes

• OS X Editor/Standalone: Temporary work around for broken keyboard input on OS X (introduced in Unity 5.2). There’s now a menu item that allows you to show/hide the console in the editor (or Command+G).
• Fixed an error related to an undocumented property (TextEditor.pos) that was renamed in Unity 5.2.
• iOS: Fixed console appearing too large when the “Target Resolution” player setting is set to something other than Native.
• Fixed exception that occurred when Unity 'hot reloaded' the project due to the console not being able to completely serialize its state. A better fix for this will come in the future.
• Fixes exporting the console log on Windows where invalid characters in the filename caused it to fail.
• Fixed exporting the console log failing on standalone builds.
• Fixed exception occurring when using Debug.Assert.

If anyone who has purchased the plugin would like this in advance of it being approved, send your invoice number to support@opencoding.net.

 

1.5.0 has been released!

Apparently the issue with keyboard input being broken will be fixed in Unity 5.2.1 (see here).

 

I've recently released 2.0.0. As the version number would indicate, this is quite a big one!

New features

• Massively improved log emails (see example here):
  • Quickly jump between errors/warnings etc.
  • Filter the log
  • See hardware data about the device that sent the log
  • See game data such as the camera position, direction etc (if you provide it see example in DemoController.cs)
  • See a screenshot of the game (optionally, this can be disabled in the settings)
  • See the save file (if you provide it see example in BallGameController.cs)
  • See the ‘real’ device time that each log message occurred at
• Added buttons for toggling Exceptions and Asserts, rather than grouping them with Errors as Unity does. This can be disabled in the settings if you prefer the old behavior.
• Added icons for Exceptions and Asserts. Exceptions are magenta squares, asserts are blue circles (obviously!)
• You can now press and hold one of the log message type buttons (errors, warnings etc.) at the top of the screen to only show that type. Press and hold again to show all log message types.
• Added option in the settings to automatically pause the game (setting Time.timeScale) when the console is opened. This defaults to being disabled.
• Game version is now shown at the bottom of the in-console settings popup (the cog in the top right corner)

Changes

• Settings are now in their own ScriptableObject asset. This will mean you need to re-set your settings if you’ve made any changes to the defaults, but it should mean that this won’t need to happen again in the future.

Bug fixes

• Workaround for Unity 5.2.x bug (http://tinyurl.com/qje3nd7) where the console couldn’t be opened on the OS X editor or OS X standalone builds. This means that on these platforms and versions you can only open the console with the tilde/back quote key. This should be fixed in a Unity patch release very soon.
• Fixed parameter suggestions not being shown for properties with the CommandHandler attribute added.
• Fixed console command lines in the log being counted as errors
• Fixed console opening animation being affected by Time.timeScale, causing it to fail to open if the game was paused.
• Fixed parameter suggestion buttons being left showing once one of them had been used to execute a command.
• Fixed the bottom of 'y' and 'g' characters on auto-complete buttons being cut off in the editor.
• Minor fixes to the layout of the search/filter bar.

 

Great plugin! Works really well so far, just one question. I put in a Debug.Log into one of the CommandHandler functions and when i trigger it from the console the Debug messages show up in the Unity Editor console but not in the Touch Console pro window in the game view. Is this a bug or do I need to add anything into the function?

Also, the debug.log messages don't show up in my builds. I have built development builds for both Mac/windows and the console shows up, my commands all work but the log only shows 4 lines (from the creation of Singletons) but none of the other debugs.

 

Hi @capitalJmedia - sorry I've not answered this sooner.

What you're doing certainly should work. Have you tried the demo scene that comes with the console? The SpawnBalls command outputs "Spawned {x} balls" using Debug.Log, which is similar to what you're doing.

Code (CSharp):

1. [CommandHandler(Description = "Spawn the specified number of balls")]
2. private void SpawnBalls(int ballsToSpawn)
3. {
4.      Debug.Log(string.Format("Spawning {0} balls", ballsToSpawn));

Can you confirm what version of Unity and TouchConsole Pro you're using?

 

@eAi2k I am using Unity 4.6.9 and TouchConsole 2.0.0.

It seems that the debug.log works sometimes in the editor, but I can't get it to work in a build. I haven't tried building the demo scene. My debug.logs are not in the CommandHandler functions, they are just regular Debug.log lines throughout my code, do they only work if they are in a function with the Commandhandler attribute?

 

This might be a regression in Unity 4.6.9, I haven't tested that version. I'll give it a go today and get back to you.

You should see Debug.Log messages wherever you output them (the demo project has various examples of this).

 

Are you posting in the wrong thread? It looks like you're using another editor plugin (or maybe I'm misunderstanding?)

 

oh sorry, it's is so alike

 

It seems very random what works in my builds and what doesn't. Sometimes only a few debug messages print then no more for the rest of the build, sometimes the save file tab is empty, sometimes they work. Perhaps this has something to do with some sort of compile or Start/Awake ordering? it's as if something is not initialized at the right time and so the console no longer prints anything.

 

Hi,

So, I've tested the console on Unity 4.6.9 on Mac with a standalone build and it seems to work fine with the demo project. Have you tried the demo project yourself?

The easiest way to ensure that the console is loaded before anything else happens is to put the console into a scene on its own, add another script that loads your current first scene, then make that new scene your first scene.

The "Save File" log tab is populated via a static callback, so initialisation order shouldn't be relevant here.

If you can send me (via email) your project, or an extract from your project, I'm happy to have a look at it, but without that it's hard for me to know what's wrong!

 

There's an issue with TouchConsole Pro on Unity 5.3. I'm about to submit a fixed version, but in the meantime if anyone is encountering this issue, please email support@opencoding.net with your invoice number and I'll send you a fixed version.

 

TouchConsole Pro 2.1.0 has just been released with these changes:

New features

• Added support for params array arguments on methods. These can be of any type that the console supports.
• Added CommandHandlers.RegisterCommandHandler. This has a number of overrides that will allow you to register a single method or property as a command handler. It'll also allow you to specify your own types for param arrays - see the documentation and the file AdvancedCommandHandlerDemo.cs for a full explanation.
• Added CommandHandlers.UnregisterCommandHandler, for unregistering command handlers registered with the above method.
• Added CommandHandlers.CurrentExecutingCommand method that will tell you the name of the currently executing command as you can now register multiple commands to a single method.
• Added CommandHandlers.DefaultCommandHandler which will allow you to register a method to be called if the command hasn't been handled by any registered command. Avoid using this too much!
• Added detection of missing or incorrect link.xml file. If the file is missing, a default version will be generated, if it's present but invalid, an exception will be thrown during the build.
• You can now disable the recent command list in the settings.

Changes

• To fix the Android email issue (below) the Android integration code is now provided as an Android Library Project rather than a .jar file. The first time you update to this version, the old Android .jar file will be deleted.
• Related to this the android support library (android-support-v4) is now included with the console. This isn't ideal, but it's now required. If you already have a copy of this library in your project you may want to remove this, or if you have a different SDK version you may want to replace it with the one from your SDK.
• Removed the Unity 5.2 workaround code that added the Toggle TouchConsole Pro menu item to the Window menu. If you found this really useful, let me know!

Bug fixes

• Fixes for two issues that occurred when using Unity 5.3.
• Fixed being unable to send emails on Android using the Gmail 5.x app.
• When using the up/down keys to go through the console history, the suggestions and command parameter information wasn't updated correctly.
• Fixed optional string parameters not showing the default value.

 

Thanks for the great plugin! Are you aware of any issues when it's used with Adventure Creator? I'm trying to get the console appear on an Android tablet, but none of the two built-in gestures work in my scene. When I tried the ConsoleDemoScene, it worked perfectly. Any suggestions?

 

Hi, I'm not aware of this. Are you able to email a test project that reproduces the problem to support@opencoding.net so I can reproduce it? I've never heard of TouchConsole Pro being incompatible with any other plugin yet, so I suspect there's something else going on.

 

Sorry, can't send a test project at this time. I tried using another console plugin and it worked with the same project. It uses the "circle" gesture to activate. Perhaps this gesture could be added to TouchConsole Pro? BTW, I used TouchConsole Pro on another project and it was a huge time-saver. Would recommend it to anyone regardless of this minor issue.

Also, is it possible to activate TouchConsole Pro by default so that no gestures are required?

 

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear you can't send a test project, as that makes it hard to diagnose. I'm certain the reason the console isn't opening has nothing to do with the gesture used though and almost certainly nothing to do with the other plugins you're using (unless they're deleting random game objects). To test this, you can try open the console from code using:

DebugConsole.IsVisible = true;

I suspect you'll find that in your case, this causes an error to occur. This could be because either:
- The DebugConsole prefab hasn't been placed in a scene yet
- You're not building a development build and the console is set to remove itself in release builds (you can change this in the settings on the prefab)
- You're getting an error in the device log - check either the Xcode console output (if you're testing on iOS) or LogCat (if you're testing on Android).
- Because it has been destroyed by something else.

If you can try placing this line somewhere (maybe a Start method), let me know what happens.

Of course, if this does work, you can write your own gesture recogniser to recognise any gesture you like to open the console.

 

Sorry for the delay. I tried

DebugConsole.IsVisible = true;

That worked only in the Editor. Looked at logcat on the device and found (as you predicted)

InvalidOperationException: DebugConsole has not been loaded yet

Added DebugConsole prefab to the scene. Problem solved. I wrongly assumed that the prefab would be added automatically on a device the same way it was added in the Editor during run-time.

Thanks again for your help!

 

@eAi2k just started getting an error;

AndroidJavaException: java.lang.illegalArgumentException: Failed to find configured root that contains /data/data/com.whatever.whatever/cache/Email/Attachments/log_2016-04-04 21.58.37.htm

Happens when I try to email the log. Any ideas?

 

Figured it out, under android player settings, "Write Access" has to be set to External (SDCard)

 

Hi,

I recently got TouchConsole Pro and I already love it. Buuuut, I have a problem when building for Android. At the end of the build I get this error, related to OpenCoding:

Help! Any idea?

EDIT: Uhmmm it seems it might be related to my Unity version, which is a patch (5.3.5p7). I'll investigate more and get back to you.

 

Ok my bad, I can confirm it's the latest Unity patch that requires a JDK version it forgets to install. I upgraded JDK and now everything works perfectly. Sorry for the bother

 

not support il2cpp and not source code？can you please support il2cpp or allow us to get source code?

 

I am sorry, it support il2cpp，could not start app is my script error

 

Hi.
Need Linux support. Shortcuts do not work.
An error occurs when I call method ShowConsoleInstantly().

My player.log in attachments

 

Hi kirillrybin, drop me an email at support@opencoding.net and I'll send you a beta release that may fix this issue.

 

Hello,I have the same problem when I use version 2.2.0 in my ios build(Unity5.6). Besides, It's fine in android and windows build.

 

Hi

Unity 2017 error:

Assets/Opencoding/Console/Editor/BuildPostProcessor.cs(47,21): error CS0103: The name `EditorSceneManager' does not exist in the current context

Thanks

 

Hi Chris! As you presumably know I've answered your email on this - but to anyone else having this issue - a build is in submission that resolves this. It should be out in a few days. If you can't wait that long, drop an email to support@opencoding.net and I'll email you the build!

 

This version (2.4.0) has now been released!

Before upgrading to this version, delete your Plugins/Opencoding folder - the folder has been moved to be inside the main Opencoding folder in this release.

Here's the changelog:

New features

• Added DebugConsole.Instance.ConsoleWidth property which allows you to change the width of the console. If set to 0 (the default) it'll fill the screen width.
• Added support for Linux.
• Changed layout of folders, everything is now in one folder rather than split between Plugins and the Opencoding folder.
• Now captures log messages from threads that aren't the main thread using the Unity logMessageReceivedThreaded callback rather than via the AppDomain.
• Added support for UWP platforms - they're recongised as desktop platforms so require a keyboard.

Bug fixes

• Fixes to support Unity 2017
• Fixed stacktraces not being escaped in the exported/emailed log files. This caused some characters (such as < and >) to cause the log file to be corrupted.
• Fixed compilation error on Unity 2017.
• Changed behaviour of keyboard on Android, this makes it usable (but not quite ideal) on recent Android versions where the keyboard covers more of the screen and behaves slightly differently. Many thanks to Heiko Schmitt at Big Point for his help with this.

 

Is there any way to increase the max length of a console message before TouchConsolePro truncates it for display in the main log?

(Ideally, this message truncation would be aware of formatting tags, particularly <color></color> - as truncating the close tags causes the color tags not to work at all - looks like any mismatch causes none of the formatting tags in the string to work?)

 

Hi @bluescrn - I'm afraid there's no way currently to increase this limit. It's currently hardcoded at 150 characters. If you drop me an email at support@opencoding.net I can send you a build that increases that limit. Making it close color tags for you would be a bit more time consuming, but certainly doable - but I can make the limit configurable in the settings.