We’re pleased to announce the release of GameDriver 2025.01 for Unity and Unreal Engine. This update includes the all-new GameDriver Test Assistant (TA), a standalone application for quality-focused testers and developers.

For Unity, we added the UIToolkit Explorer for apps and games developed using the UIToolkit. There is also an OpenH264 integration that will allow you to capture images and videos of your application during test execution. We also improved HierarchyPath search performance for boolean operators and updated our support for the Meta XR SDK and MRTK packages.

On the Unreal Engine side, we have rearchitected GameDriver to allow teams building from the Unreal Engine Source to integrate GameDriver into their development workflow easily. On top of these important new features, we have enhanced the Slate Explorer, improved communications when using the WebSockets protocol, and improved the API and logging.

Below are additional details about some of this release's highlighted features. For more information, visit the new Knowledge Base.

GameDriver Test Assistant (TA)

The GameDriver TA is a standalone tool for automated testing in Gaming and XR. It lets testers create and maintain tests without needing access to the game engine editor or source code. This is especially useful for troubleshooting builds on Mobile, Consoles, or XR headsets, where accessing logs can be challenging. With TA, testers can connect directly to a device, inspect objects, properties, methods, and logs, and gather the data needed for building and maintaining automated tests.

The initial TA release supports Unity, and support for Unreal Engine will be released soon after. The application includes the following key capabilities and features:

• Code Editor: Write and modify test code, including code completion and inline API documentation.

• HierarchyPath Debugger: Run, test, and validate HPath queries against any object, component, property, or method at runtime.

• Object Explorer: Traverse object trees at runtime, explore components, properties, and values, and capture HPath information.

• Inspector: View object, component, and method values and details.

• Recorder: Easily capture test steps and automatically generate test code (Replay coming soon).

• Log Explorer: View test or game logs directly.

• Connection Manager: Search for nearby running agents, or connect directly to a known IP/host.

Several additional features are in development, intended to lower the barrier to entry for new and experienced testers and expand into new use cases. For more information on what’s to come, please contact us to book a meeting.

UIToolkit Explorer

In the 2023.06 release, we added support for the UI Toolkit in Unity. This new UI framework offers developers the ability to build flexible and dynamic user interfaces similar to those found in responsive web pages and mobile applications. The challenge with supporting these UI elements from a testing perspective is that they do not follow the standard object model in Unity. While our added support allowed for querying and manipulating UI elements and properties using HPath queries, there was no easy way to navigate through those elements to capture the required HPaths. The UIToolkit Explorer resolves this by adding a new interface for exploring UI Elements and easily capturing HierarchyPaths with a simple right-click.

OpenH264 Integration

This release includes the ability to record video clips from the application or game under test. Additional APIs have been added to control the start and stop of the recording, specify the size and magnification of the recording, and even track an object based on a specified HierarchyPath. This flexible capture will allow testers to provide immediate visual feedback to developers without having to replay the entire test, and to focus on what matters most.

Unreal Engine Source Integration

For teams building the Unreal Engine from source, we now provide a drop-in solution that enables GameDriver to be built alongside the engine. This reduces the complexity of the integration and the risk of conflicts with custom engine code. Our team refactored large parts of our solution and significantly reduced our footprint to achieve this objective.

Miscellaneous Updates

There are a lot of quality-of-life improvements and fixes included in this release as well, including:

• New ReconfigurePort command for changing the agent communication port after connecting

• New SetXRDeviceMode command for changing between controller and hand gesture inputs when working with XR Devices.

• New CreateObjectRef for storing object references and reducing the amount of agent-side requests required to repeatedly reference an object during test execution.

• Added methods for capturing all available properties or methods for a given object.

• Improved HPath performance for boolean (AND) operators.

• Updated Meta XR SDK and MRTK support.

• Fixed IL2CPP compilation flags.

• Fixed Nintendo Switch linking errors.

• Changed some errors to warnings.

• Reduced event publishing for disconnected agents.

• Fixed an issue where AutoPlay would connect to other machines unintentionally.

• Fixed several Slate Explorer bugs.

• Fixed Unreal Mouse2d simulated input replay.

• Fixed WebSockets use of UnityLoggedMessage callbacks.

• Fixed WebSockets communications in multiplayer environments.

• and more…

This is one of the most significant GameDriver releases to date. The Test Assistant is just the first of many advancements planned to enable more people to get involved, and more importantly to improve the workflows for those individuals involved in delivering higher-quality games and XR applications. To access the latest release, visit our Downloads page.

We welcome your feedback on this and any other areas of our testing solutions. Be sure to reach out via email at feedback@gamedriver.io or by joining our Slack workspace.

To get started with your quality journey, start your free trial or book a meeting with us today.