CrimsonCombatText · Lesson 8 of 8
Test with the Dev Tools
Before you start
- Completed: Replicate & Broadcast
Chapters
Open the tools
During PIE, open Tools → Crimson Combat Text → Combat Text Dev Tools, or run the console command `Crimson.CombatText.DevTools` (editor-only — it never ships). The Net Context picker chooses which PIE world you're inspecting: spawn candidates always come from the server world, while Filters and Status read the selected context, so you can compare what each client sees.
The tabs
- Spawn — pick any pawn or pop-target actor as Target and Instigator, set value, tags, prefix/custom text and a burst count, then send via Broadcast (server path) or Request direct (local path)
- Filters — the selected context's player settings, live-editable, including which team hook is active
- Resolver — how a tag set walked the hierarchy to a style, and which modifiers applied on top
- Status — project settings, whether the Game State has the replication component, subsystem readiness, and live active/pooled/queued counts
The direct path skips filters
Request direct queues on the selected context's subsystem only and bypasses the player-settings filter — use Broadcast when you're testing filter or culling behavior. Broadcast is disabled until the server Game State actually has the replication component.
Try the burst recipe
Set the burst count to 100+ and send. Active pops never exceed
MaxActiveTexts — the oldest are recycled early instead of the widget count growing. The Status tab shows the live counts while it happens.What's next
The docs continue with authoring your own motion presets, accumulating damage over a stagger window, the batched Niagara renderer for ARPG densities, server-side culling, and exposing pop options as CrimsonSettings user settings.