Sometimes, after sending in a bug report ticket, our support teams might ask you to send an additional ui.log file after you have enabled a higher level of logging and then recreated the problem you reported.
There are two ways to achieve this, and it depends on what your issue is as to which paths are available to you. We will cover both below.
Note that it's very much worth you reviewing these extended logs yourself before you send them back to us, as the information they expose might allow you to immediate track down and fix an issue with antivirus, internet access, proxy servers, or OS account file permissions.
1) Via Preferences Inside GameMaker
Obviously, this route only works if GameMaker starts and the thing you want to log happens after the immediate startup sequence.
You will find in releases starting with 2023.4 there is a Preference to quickly enable/disable this logging. Open Preferences > General Settings and then scroll down a little bit, to find this:
You now need to close and reopen GameMaker to start capturing the extra information.
Once you have generated your log to send to us (or fix the issue yourself), you should disable the extended logging again, as GameMaker will generate a lot of large log files if this is left enabled.
2) Via Your um.json File
This route will always work and will capture everything GameMaker is able to log, including its early startup sequence.
If enabling this line still fails to create a ui.log file at all, then your issue is something external in Windows/Mac itself or an antivirus client is blocking GameMaker from being allowed to start, and you should see our permissions FAQ for how to investigate those types of issues.
Finding The File In Windows
Right-click the Start button and choose the Run command, type or copy/paste in the following and then hit Enter to jump straight to the folder:
%appdata%
Then open whichever of the "GameMakerStudio2", "GameMakerStudio2-LTS" or "GameMakerStudio2-Beta" folder you require.
Finding The File On A Mac
This is a little trickier, as different versions of macOS will put the files in different places, depending on when you installed GameMaker.
Usually, its located within ~/.config/
However, on a Mac the .config folder is hidden by default. Therefore, you need to open Finder and then press Shift + Cmd + . to toggle showing hidden files and folders OR you can use the Go To tool to type in the path and jump straight there:
Alternatively, you might find you don't even have a .config folder and instead yours is located in /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/, as shown here:
Again, be careful if "Library" is a hidden folder on your Mac, as you might not initially see it.
Editing the file
Regardless of Windows or Mac, once you have found the file the process is the same from here on:
- Close GameMaker (it's important it's not running while this change is made)
- Find the line containing "verboseLog": "0",
- Change 0 to 1 (ensure this is the only change you make)
- Save and close um.json
- Start GameMaker and try to replicate your prior issue.
Once you have generated your log to send to us (or fix the issue yourself), you should remove the line entirely or set it to 0 to disable the extended logging again, as GameMaker will generate a lot of large log files if this is left enabled.