Insights Track Order Plugin

A plugin for Unreal Insights that allows you to customize the order of tracks (lanes) in the Timing View based on a configuration file.

Overview

When profiling with Unreal Insights, the Timing View displays many tracks (threads, GPU activity, etc.) in a default order. This plugin lets you prioritize important tracks so they appear at the top of the view, making it easier to focus on the performance data that matters most to your workflow.

Before sorting:

After sorting:

Features

• Configurable Track Ordering: Specify which tracks should appear first (top-most) in the Timing View
• Dynamic Track Detection: Automatically handles tracks that are added after the profiling session starts (e.g., worker threads spawned during execution)
• Preserves Default Order: Non-prioritized tracks appear below priority tracks in their original order

Configuration

The plugin reads its configuration from:

Engine/Plugins/InsightsTrackOrder/Config/InsightsTrackOrder.ini

Configuration Format

Add tracks to the [InsightsTrackOrder] section using the +PriorityTracks array syntax:

[InsightsTrackOrder]
+PriorityTracks=GameThread
+PriorityTracks=RenderThread 0
+PriorityTracks=RHIThread
+PriorityTracks=RHISubmissionThread
+PriorityTracks=GPU
+PriorityTracks=GPU0-Graphics0
+PriorityTracks=GPU0-Copy0
+PriorityTracks=GPU0-Compute0
+PriorityTracks=RHIInterruptThread

Tracks will appear in the Timing View in the order listed, with prioritized tracks at the top.

Track Name Matching

Track names are matched using exact matches. A nice future feature would be to use regex strings, but I didn't need it 🤷‍♂️

How It Works

The plugin registers as a Timing View Extender and:

1. Loads the priority track list from the configuration file on startup
2. Periodically scans all scrollable tracks in the Timing View (~once per second)
3. Matches track names against the configured priority names
4. Reorders tracks so priority tracks appear first, followed by all other tracks
5. Maintains the relative order within each group (prioritized and non-prioritized)

Use Cases

• Rendering Performance: Put GPU, RenderThread, and RHIThread at the top in the order data flows through the engine's graphics pipeline
• Gameplay Focus: Prioritize GameThread and related gameplay threads
• Streaming Analysis: Bring streaming-related threads to the top
• Custom Workflows: Order tracks based on your specific profiling needs

Installation

Put the plugin in your Engine/Plugins directory and rebuild the UnrealInsights program. The plugin will automatically load when you launch Unreal Insights and apply the track ordering from the configuration file.

To customize the track order, edit Engine/Plugins/InsightsTrackOrder/Config/InsightsTrackOrder.ini and restart Unreal Insights.