1. A hardware storage media comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a computer-implemented method for using a force directed graph to visualize how messages are passed between computational components, and for using the force directed graph as an input to control a tracer in order to permit trace data to be prepared for display by applying predefined or user-defined transformations to elements of the force directed graph, the computer-implemented method comprising: executing an application and gathering message passing data derived from messages passed between compute elements, the message passing data comprising periodic updates transmitted at a predefined interval; collecting and storing the message passing data; analyzing at least some of the stored message passing data and preparing from the analyzed message passing data a force directed graph comprised of nodes which represent the compute elements, and edges between at least some of the nodes, with the edges representing the periodic updates for the messages as the messages are passed between the nodes at the predefined interval as the application is executed; displaying said force directed graph data to visualize how the periodic updates for the messages occur as the messages are passed between the compute elements at the predefined interval during execution of the application; inputting one or more transformation definitions for one or more elements of the force directed graph during one or more of the periodic updates visualized for the force directed graph, at least some of said transformation definitions comprising executable code that performs operations on said one or more elements of the force directed graph; and displaying said force directed graph as modified by executing said transformation definitions.
2. The computer storage media of claim 1 wherein the computer-implemented method further comprises performing a malware analysis of the executable code for said transformation definitions before executing the executable code for the transformation definitions.