Debug logs and console

Every run writes a timestamped log beside the executable, and the debug console can be opened to watch that output live.

Where the log is written

Every run writes a log to a Debug folder beside the executable, named for the moment the process started:

Debug/DEBUG_17-08-2026_06-00-35.LOG

Release and debug builds both write one. Each run gets its own file, so the log from a run that crashed is still there after the next launch. When two processes start within the same second, the second one adds its process id to the name.

What the log opens with

Every log begins with a banner naming the build that wrote it, so a log is worth reading on its own without having to ask which version produced it:

Version  : OpenTS 0.1.0 (release build)
Commit   : f6842d2c on main (modified)
Committed: 2026-08-17 06:30:39
Started  : 2026-08-17 06:56:51
System   : Windows 10.0.26200
Options  : -XC

modified means the build was made from a working copy with edits, so it is not exactly the named commit. Options lists the launch options the game was started with. If a bug report includes the log, it carries all of this already.

Reading the rest

Each line after the banner is stamped with the time it was written:

[06:00:35.412] Video: renderer is Direct3D 11

Some records are assembled as the engine works through a step, and are stamped once where the line starts rather than at each addition:

[06:19:45.401] Bootstrap..... PATCH.MIX EXPAND03.MIX CACHE.MIX ...OK

Logs last written more than fourteen days ago are deleted at startup. A single log stops growing at 64 MB, and records that it has done so on its last line.

The folder is created next to the executable, so the game needs write access to its own directory. If the folder or the file cannot be created, the game still runs and the output still reaches the console and an attached debugger; only the file is missing.

Opening the console

Debug builds always open the console. Release builds open it when -XC is passed, which is recognized early enough that even messages written during startup appear. The window holds about 4000 lines of scrollback.

Its close button is disabled, because closing a console window terminates the program that owns it. Close the game itself instead.

The console also carries ordinary program output that a windowed application otherwise has nowhere to display, such as the -? command line help. When the command line is rejected, the game waits for a keypress before exiting so that the message stays readable.

A log describes what the engine did, and in multiplayer that includes other people. Expect to find player names as typed in the lobby, and network addresses of the machines in the game. Read a log before attaching it to a public bug report.

Authoritative files

Linked at revision 59fae722af8c.