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INI IntelliSense for Red Alert 2

INI IntelliSense is a powerful, feature-rich Visual Studio Code extension tailor-made for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 mod development. It aims to revolutionize your workflow on .ini configuration files by providing a modern coding experience, including dynamic syntax highlighting, deep language intelligence, advanced diagnostics, and intuitive inheritance visualization.

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Key Features

1. Dynamic Syntax Highlighting

Going beyond traditional static syntax files, this extension provides more accurate and richer coloring through dynamic code analysis.

• Multi-level Keys: Applies different colors to different parts of Key.Part1.Part2.
• Complex Section Syntax: Accurately highlights the [Section]:[Inherits] structure.
• Semantic Colors Enabled by Default: The extension ships with semantic token defaults for RA2 INI files and dedicated token colors for .llf resources.

2. Schema-Driven IntelliSense

The core capabilities of this extension are driven by a configurable rule file (INICodingCheck.ini), providing unparalleled contextual awareness.

• Auto-Completion:
  • Keys: Intelligently suggests all available keys based on the current section's type (including inheritance).
  • Values: Provides completion for boolean values (yes/no), colors, and all IDs registered in [Registries] (e.g., unit, building, weapon names).
• Hover Information:
  • Type & Source: Displays the key's type (e.g., TechLevel: int) and its source (e.g., Ares, Phobos, or Original Game), helping you distinguish between vanilla and extension features.
  • CSF Preview: If a value refers to a CSF string (e.g., UIName=Name:Apoc), hovering will show the actual localized text (e.g., "Apocalypse Tank").
  • Override Details: When a key overrides a value from a parent section, the hover information clearly shows the overridden parent section's name, file, line number, and the old value, with a one-click link to jump to it.
• Go to Definition:
  • Hold Ctrl and click on a value (like a unit ID) to jump across files to that unit's [Section] definition.

3. Advanced Diagnostics

• Built-in Real-time Checks:
  • Code Style: Checks for extra spaces around the equals sign, leading whitespace; ensures proper spacing before/after comments.
  • Type Validation: Validates value types in real-time against the schema (e.g., int, float, numeric ranges, enum values).
• External Validator Integration:
  • Seamlessly integrates with INIValidator.exe for deeper, cross-file logical validation. Easily manage and run it via a status bar icon or command.

4. Inheritance & Reference Visualization

• Override Indicator: Displays a clear up-arrow (↑) next to the line number, intuitively showing that the key on this line overrides a definition from a parent class.
• CodeLens: Above each [Section], it shows how many times that section is referenced as a "value" and "inherited from" across the entire workspace.
• Find All References: Right-click a section name to find all places that reference or inherit from it.

5. More Handy Features

• MIX Archive Explorer: Browse .mix archives from a dedicated explorer view, open them as workspaces, or open them in a new window.
• MIX Resource Operations: Import, export, rename, delete, and organize archive contents without leaving VS Code.
• Resource Previews: Open pcx, pal, map, mpr, yrm, shp, vxl, and hva files in a built-in preview editor.
• Voxel Preview Workflow: Inspect voxel assets in slice mode or a gameplay-style 3D preview with orbit, pan, zoom, limb switching, and camera reset controls.
• Resource Comparison: Compare folders and MIX archives recursively, filter the result set, and jump straight into diffs or direct file opens.
• CSF File Support: Native support for parsing binary .csf string files in your workspace, powering hover previews and a dedicated CSF outline view.
• LLF File Support: Dedicated grammar support for .llf files with readable highlighting for labels, comments, and multiline values.
• Color Picker: Provides a visual color picker and preview for R,G,B formatted color values.
• INI Project Explorer: A dedicated view in the activity bar that clearly displays all indexed INI files and their internal structure (sections, keys) in a tree, for quick navigation.
• Code Folding: Supports folding code blocks by [Section].
• Performance Optimized: With configurable file indexing rules, the extension only scans the *.ini files you specify (by default, only core game files in the root), ensuring swift response even in large workspaces.

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Installation & Configuration

Installation

1. Install from the Visual Studio Marketplace, or download the latest .vsix file from the release page.
2. In VS Code, open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X).
3. Click the three-dots menu (...) in the top-right corner and select "Install from VSIX...".
4. Choose the .vsix file you downloaded and install it.
5. Reload VS Code.

Initial Setup

To get full IntelliSense and diagnostics, you need to configure the dictionary file (INICodingCheck.ini) and your Mod root directory.

1. The extension will prompt you with a Setup Wizard upon first activation.
2. You can also click the $(rocket) INI: Show Setup Guide command or use the status bar menu to reopen the wizard.
3. The wizard helps you download the official dictionary (with latest Ares/Phobos support) and set up your workspace paths automatically.

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Diagnostic Error Codes

You can use these codes in ra2-ini-intellisense.diagnostics.severity to customize the error level (Error, Warning, Information, Hint, None) for each rule.

Code	Category	Description
STYLE-101	Style	Unnecessary leading whitespace at the beginning of the line.
STYLE-102	Style	Extra spaces before the = sign.
STYLE-103	Style	Extra spaces after the = sign.
STYLE-104	Style	Incorrect number of spaces before a comment (;).
STYLE-105	Style	Missing space after a comment (;).
TYPE-201	Type	Invalid integer value.
TYPE-202	Type	Invalid floating-point value.
TYPE-203	Type	Number out of range (min/max).
TYPE-204	Type	Value not in allowed list (Enumeration).
TYPE-205	Type	Value does not match required prefix.
TYPE-206	Type	Value does not match required suffix.
TYPE-207	Type	List has invalid length (too short/long).
LOGIC-301	Logic	Reference to an undefined section.
LOGIC-303	Logic	Key has an empty value.
LOGIC-304	Logic	Duplicate key in a registry list (e.g., 0=A, 0=B).

Settings

You can configure this extension in detail in your VS Code settings.json file (Ctrl+,).

Setting	Description	Default
ra2-ini-intellisense.schemaFilePath	Absolute path to the INI rule definition file (INICodingCheck.ini). This is the core of the IntelliSense.	null
ra2-ini-intellisense.validationFolderPath	Root directory for INIValidator.exe and file indexing (usually your Mod's root directory).	null
ra2-ini-intellisense.indexing.fileCategories	Defines file categories (e.g., Rules, Art) and their corresponding Glob patterns. Used for context-aware IntelliSense.	{ "rules": ["rules*.ini"], ... }
ra2-ini-intellisense.indexing.excludePatterns	An array of Glob patterns to exclude files from the included set.	[]
ra2-ini-intellisense.decorations.overrideIndicator.enabled	Enables the inheritance override indicator (arrow icon next to the line number).	true
ra2-ini-intellisense.codeLens.enabled	Shows CodeLens (reference counts) above sections.	true
ra2-ini-intellisense.diagnostics.enabled	Enables all built-in diagnostic checks.	true
ra2-ini-intellisense.diagnostics.severity	Customize severity for specific error codes (e.g. {"STYLE-101": "Information"}).	{}
ra2-ini-intellisense.diagnostics.spacesBeforeComment	The number of spaces required before a ; comment symbol. Set to null to disable.	1
ra2-ini-intellisense.exePath	Absolute path to INIValidator.exe.	null
ra2-ini-intellisense.validationFiles	List of files for INIValidator.exe to check.	{...}

Semantic colors for RA2 INI tokens and the default TextMate colors for .llf can also be overridden through VS Code's standard editor.semanticTokenColorCustomizations and editor.tokenColorCustomizations settings.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.