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Performance Monitoring Examples

This section demonstrates practical usage of Firebase Performance Monitoring in Unreal Engine projects.

Performance Monitoring is used to measure the duration and behavior of real operations in production builds, such as loading content, initializing systems, or performing network-related tasks. It is not intended to replace logging or frame-level profiling.

All examples below are shown using Blueprint nodes. Firebase is assumed to be already initialized.

Measuring Operation Duration with Traces

The core concept of Performance Monitoring is a custom trace. A trace measures how long a specific operation takes to complete.

A trace always has:

  • a name
  • a start point
  • a stop point

The same trace name must be used when starting and stopping the trace.

This pattern is commonly used to measure:

  • level loading time
  • save game loading
  • online service initialization
  • resource preparation

Important notes:

  • a trace measures real execution time on user devices
  • traces should wrap meaningful operations, not individual frames
  • traces must always be stopped after they are started

Adding Metrics to a Trace

Metrics allow you to attach numeric values to a running trace. Metrics are useful for measuring how much work was done during the traced operation.

Typical examples include:

  • number of loaded assets
  • number of processed items
  • number of network requests

Metrics are only valid while a trace is running.

Important notes:

  • metrics are numeric values
  • Increment Metric is typically used to accumulate values
  • metrics are associated with the trace they are recorded on

Adding Context with Attributes

Attributes provide additional context for a trace. They are used to describe under which conditions the operation was executed.

Common attribute examples:

  • platform (android)
  • build_type (debug or release)
  • level_name

Important notes:

  • attributes are key-value string pairs
  • attributes should be limited and stable
  • attributes are attached to a running trace

Attributes help filter and analyze performance data inside the Firebase Console.

Summary

Firebase Performance Monitoring provides a lightweight way to measure real-world performance of important operations in your game.

By combining traces for timing, metrics for workload, and attributes for context, you can identify performance issues and analyze how your game behaves across different devices and conditions.