StarCraft 2 Map Launcher

Launch your StarCraft II map directly from VS Code — no alt-tabbing required.

Features

Status bar launch button

A $(run) SC2: Launch Map button sits in the status bar at all times. One click launches your map.

Run & Debug integration

The extension registers itself as a debug configuration provider. Open the Run and Debug panel and SC2: Launch Map appears in the dropdown — no launch.json needed.

Press F5 or click the green play button to launch.

Advanced launch options via launch.json

For full control, add an SC2 configuration to your .vscode/launch.json. The extension ships two ready-made templates — open the Run and Debug panel, click Add Configuration, choose SC2 Launcher, and both are written into your launch.json at once.

SC2: Launch Map

Launches a map directly. Suitable for map development.

{
  "name": "SC2: Launch Map",
  "type": "sc2",
  "request": "launch",
  "triggerDebug": true,
  "speed": 4,
  "showErrors": true,
  "testConfig": "SwarmTest.SC2TestConfig"
}

SC2: Launch Mod

Loads a .SC2Mod (or .SC2Components folder) against a test map. Suitable for mod development — edit your data files while SC2 is running, then restart the map in-game without relaunching.

{
  "name": "SC2: Launch Mod",
  "type": "sc2",
  "request": "launch",
  "map": "C:\\path\\to\\MyTestMap.SC2Map",
  "testMod": "Mods\\MyMod.SC2Mod;ComponentList.SC2Components",
  "triggerDebug": false,
  "showErrors": false
}

• map — the .SC2Map used as the host for your mod. Keep a barebones test map with a start location and some resources. Leave empty to fall back to sc2.mapPath or workspace auto-detection.
• testMod — path to your .SC2Mod or unpacked .SC2Components folder, passed as -testmod. Relative paths are resolved from the SC2 installation root (e.g. Mods\MyMod.SC2Mod). For unpacked component folders append ;ComponentList.SC2Components (e.g. Mods\MyMod.SC2Mod;ComponentList.SC2Components).

Tip: With component folders you can edit data files while the game is running, save, then restart the map in-game (F10 → d → r on English clients) for a much faster iteration loop.

Running SC2 behavior

If StarCraft II is already running when you trigger a launch, the extension kills the existing process and relaunches the map.

By default, sc2.warnIfRunning is enabled, so the extension shows a confirmation dialog before killing a running SC2 instance. Disable this setting if you want launches to skip the prompt and relaunch immediately.

Auto-detects map path

The extension scans your workspace for the first folder ending in .SC2Map and uses it as the map path. No configuration needed for standard project layouts.

Setup

1. Open Settings (Ctrl+,) and search for SC2.
2. Set SC2: Install Dir to your StarCraft II root folder.

Requirements

• Windows
• StarCraft II installed
• VS Code >= 1.80