Developer Console

In-game developer console with log filtering, command execution, and virtual scrolling.

Overview

ui_console provides a full-featured in-game console using ImGui. It displays game logs with level/origin filtering, supports GE Lua, TorqueScript, and CEF JS command execution, and includes virtual scrolling for performance.

Extension path: lua/ge/extensions/ui/console.lua
Dependencies: ui_imgui
Settings path: /settings/consoleNG.json

Exports (M)

Function	Signature	Description
`show`	`()`	Opens the console window.
`hide`	`()`	Closes the console window.
`toggle`	`()`	Toggles console visibility.
`onUpdate`	`(dtReal, dtSim, dtRaw)`	Main render loop - processes logs, draws ImGui.
`onSerialize`	`() → data`	Saves console state for hot-reload.
`onDeserialized`	`(data)`	Restores console state after hot-reload.
`onExtensionLoaded`	`()`	Hook - initializes console state on load.
`onFileChanged`	`(path)`	Hook - responds to file changes.
`onVehicleDestroyed`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.
`onVehicleSwitched`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.
`onVehicleSpawned`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.
`onVehicleActiveChanged`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.

Data Fields

Field	Description
`M.dependencies`	`{"ui_imgui"}` - required for ImGui rendering.
`M.onExtensionUnloaded`	Cleanup callback assigned on the module table.
`M.inputCallback`	Callback function for console input processing.

Internals

Log Management

Logs are stored in a circular buffer (logs[] with logsHead/logsTail pointers), limited to ~1000 entries with 10% GC headroom:

if (logsTail - logsHead) > (logsLimit * 1.1) then
  while logsHead < (logsTail - logsLimit) do
    logs[logsHead] = nil
    logsHead = logsHead + 1
  end
end

Each log entry: {timestamp, level, origin, message}.

Filtering

Two filter types:

Level filter - Toggle D/I/W/E/A (Debug, Info, Warning, Error, All) via toolbar buttons
Origin filter - Lua pattern matching against the origin field

Filters rerun on change, maintaining a logFiltered[] index array.

Command Execution

Three execution contexts via dropdown:

Context	Method
GE Lua	`executeLuaSandboxed(cmd)` or `Lua:queueLuaCommand(cmd)`
TorqueScript	`TorqueScript.eval(cmd)`
CEF/UI JS	`be:queueJS(cmd)`
Vehicle Lua	`vehicle:queueLuaCommand(cmd)`

Command history (20 entries) is persisted to /consoleHistory.json.

Virtual Scrolling

Uses ImGuiListClipper for efficient rendering of large log lists - only visible rows are drawn. Force auto-scroll keeps the view at the bottom for live log monitoring.

Settings

Persisted to /settings/consoleNG.json:

Font size, background alpha, fullscreen mode
Level filters, vehicle controls toggle
History looping, sandbox mode, focus-on-show

Keyboard

Backtick (`) - Closes console (via input callback character filter)
Scroll Lock - Pauses log ingestion
Up/Down arrows - Navigate command history

How It Works

toggle() or backtick key opens/closes the ImGui window
Game frame logs are ingested via Engine.getFrameLog() each update
Logs are filtered by level and origin pattern, indexed for virtual scroll
User types commands in the input field, executed in selected context
Settings and history persist across sessions via JSON files

Additional Exports

The following exports are available but not yet documented in detail:

M.hide
M.onConsoleLog
M.onDeserialized
M.onExtensionLoaded
M.onFileChanged
M.onSerialize
M.onUpdate
M.onVehicleActiveChanged
M.onVehicleDestroyed
M.onVehicleSpawned
M.onVehicleSwitched
M.show
M.toggle

Overview

Extension path: lua/ge/extensions/ui/console.lua
Dependencies: ui_imgui
Settings path: /settings/consoleNG.json

Exports (M)

Function	Signature	Description
`show`	`()`	Opens the console window.
`hide`	`()`	Closes the console window.
`toggle`	`()`	Toggles console visibility.
`onUpdate`	`(dtReal, dtSim, dtRaw)`	Main render loop - processes logs, draws ImGui.
`onSerialize`	`() → data`	Saves console state for hot-reload.
`onDeserialized`	`(data)`	Restores console state after hot-reload.
`onExtensionLoaded`	`()`	Hook - initializes console state on load.
`onFileChanged`	`(path)`	Hook - responds to file changes.
`onVehicleDestroyed`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.
`onVehicleSwitched`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.
`onVehicleSpawned`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.
`onVehicleActiveChanged`	`(...)`	Hook - refreshes vehicle combo list.

Data Fields

Field	Description
`M.dependencies`	`{"ui_imgui"}` - required for ImGui rendering.
`M.onExtensionUnloaded`	Cleanup callback assigned on the module table.
`M.inputCallback`	Callback function for console input processing.

Internals

Log Management

Logs are stored in a circular buffer (logs[] with logsHead/logsTail pointers), limited to ~1000 entries with 10% GC headroom:

if (logsTail - logsHead) > (logsLimit * 1.1) then
  while logsHead < (logsTail - logsLimit) do
    logs[logsHead] = nil
    logsHead = logsHead + 1
  end
end

Each log entry: {timestamp, level, origin, message}.

Filtering

Two filter types:

Level filter - Toggle D/I/W/E/A (Debug, Info, Warning, Error, All) via toolbar buttons
Origin filter - Lua pattern matching against the origin field

Filters rerun on change, maintaining a logFiltered[] index array.

Command Execution

Three execution contexts via dropdown:

Context	Method
GE Lua	`executeLuaSandboxed(cmd)` or `Lua:queueLuaCommand(cmd)`
TorqueScript	`TorqueScript.eval(cmd)`
CEF/UI JS	`be:queueJS(cmd)`
Vehicle Lua	`vehicle:queueLuaCommand(cmd)`

Command history (20 entries) is persisted to /consoleHistory.json.

Virtual Scrolling

Uses ImGuiListClipper for efficient rendering of large log lists - only visible rows are drawn. Force auto-scroll keeps the view at the bottom for live log monitoring.

Settings

Persisted to /settings/consoleNG.json:

Font size, background alpha, fullscreen mode
Level filters, vehicle controls toggle
History looping, sandbox mode, focus-on-show

Keyboard

Backtick (`) - Closes console (via input callback character filter)
Scroll Lock - Pauses log ingestion
Up/Down arrows - Navigate command history

How It Works

toggle() or backtick key opens/closes the ImGui window
Game frame logs are ingested via Engine.getFrameLog() each update
Logs are filtered by level and origin pattern, indexed for virtual scroll
User types commands in the input field, executed in selected context
Settings and history persist across sessions via JSON files

Additional Exports

The following exports are available but not yet documented in detail:

M.hide
M.onConsoleLog
M.onDeserialized
M.onExtensionLoaded
M.onFileChanged
M.onSerialize
M.onUpdate
M.onVehicleActiveChanged
M.onVehicleDestroyed
M.onVehicleSpawned
M.onVehicleSwitched
M.show
M.toggle

Developer Console

Overview

Exports (M)

Data Fields

Internals

Log Management

Filtering

Command Execution

Virtual Scrolling

Settings

Keyboard

How It Works

Additional Exports

See Also

On this page

Developer Console

Overview

Exports (M)

Data Fields

Internals

Log Management

Filtering

Command Execution

Virtual Scrolling

Settings

Keyboard

How It Works

Additional Exports

See Also

On this page