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RA3 Mod XML is an unofficial player-made tool. It requires a separately installed RA3 Mod SDK.

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RA3 Mod XML

AI-generated project

This extension was generated almost entirely by AI. As a result, there may be unexpected bugs or edge cases. Bug reports, corrections, and feedback are very welcome.

A VS Code extension that brings IntelliSense, navigation, reference tracking, and diagnostics to XML-based mods for Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3.

It understands the RA3 Mod SDK's XML schema, asset types, references, includes, and vanilla game data — so editing a large mod feels much more like working with a real programming language.

Source code: GitHub mirror · Gitea

Intelligent Completion

Go to Definition

Reference-aware completion

Features

Intelligent Completion

Get context-aware completion based on the RA3 XML schema and project data.

• Elements and attributes based on the RA3 XSD
• Required attributes, types, documentation, and default values
• Asset references such as Weapon, CommandSet, and inheritFrom
• Enum values and flag lists such as KindOf and Surfaces
• Asset IDs in text-content elements such as <CreateObject> and <RequiredUpgrade>
• DATA:, ART:, and AUDIO: paths
• Automatic continuation when editing flag lists

Reference completion is type-aware, so an asset ID is only suggested where its asset type is valid.

Syntax Highlighting

RA3-specific constructs are highlighted on top of the built-in XML grammar.

Navigation & References

Navigate through a mod's asset graph directly from the editor.

• Go to Definition (Ctrl+Click) for asset references
• Find All References using semantic reference information
• Reference CodeLens showing how many times an asset is referenced
• Hover information for elements, attributes, references, and $DEFINEs
• Ctrl+Click navigation for Include and xi:include
• Document outline for top-level assets and $DEFINEs

Diagnostics

Catch common modding mistakes while you edit.

• XML syntax errors
• Unknown elements and attributes
• Missing or duplicate asset IDs
• Unresolved asset references
• References to the wrong asset type
• Undefined $DEFINEs

Project Analysis

The extension can analyze the entire workspace rather than only the file currently open.

Find unreferenced assets lists project assets that are not referenced anywhere in the workspace, helping identify obsolete or accidentally unused definitions.

Run:

RA3 Mod XML: Find unreferenced assets…

You can also use the editor context menu to find unreferenced assets of the current asset type.

Vanilla SDK Integration

The extension can use asset definitions from the RA3 Mod SDK, allowing vanilla game assets to participate in completion, hover information, navigation, and diagnostics.

<Include type="reference"> manifests such as static.manifest, global.manifest, and audio.manifest (from the SDK's builtmods directory) are supported when the corresponding SDK data is available.

Large Mod Support

Workspace indexing runs in the background and uses persistent caches to avoid rebuilding everything on every VS Code launch.

The extension has been tested on Corona Mod, a large size RA3 mod:

• 32000+ assets
• 8000+ XML files
• 3000+ W3X files
• Full index: ~3 minutes
• Cached startup: ~40 seconds to validate cached data and rebuild the in-memory index

Measurements were taken on a mechanical hard drive. Actual performance depends on hardware and project structure.

Getting Started

1. Install the extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. Open your RA3 Mod project folder in VS Code.
3. Make sure the workspace contains Data/Mod.xml, Data/additionalmaps/mapmetadata_*.xml, or a *.babproj file.
4. Set the RA3 Mod SDK path if necessary — the extension can auto-detect an installed SDK from the Windows registry, or you can pick the folder manually. Leaving it empty runs the extension in project-only mode.
5. Open any *.xml file and start editing.

The extension automatically detects RA3 Mod workspaces and starts indexing in the background. When the SDK is missing it shows a status-bar hint and offers to configure the path (once per session).

Configuration

If the SDK is installed, the extension detects it from the registry and offers it with one click; otherwise you can set ra3modxml.sdkPath manually or use the RA3 Mod XML: Configure SDK path… command.

An empty ra3modxml.sdkPath is also the default value. Leaving the setting untouched does not suppress the SDK setup hint; only explicitly setting it to an empty string opts out of SDK features permanently.

Commands

• RA3 Mod XML: Re-index workspace
• RA3 Mod XML: Show index report
• RA3 Mod XML: Clear caches and rebuild
• RA3 Mod XML: Configure SDK path…
• RA3 Mod XML: Show cache report
• RA3 Mod XML: Find unreferenced assets…
• RA3 Mod XML: Find unreferenced assets of this type

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code
• A Red Alert 3 Mod SDK installation for full schema and vanilla asset support
• A RA3 Mod project containing Data/Mod.xml, Data/additionalmaps/mapmetadata_*.xml, or a *.babproj file

Development

npm install

npm run generate-model   # Generate the runtime schema model from the SDK XSD
npm test                 # Run unit tests
npm run build            # Build the extension
npm run package          # Create a .vsix package

Test fixtures are located in test/fixtures/minimod and cover scenarios including includes, duplicate IDs, same-name/different-type IDs, and manifest fallback.

Architecture

The extension is organized around a VS Code-independent parsing and indexing core:

src/
  extension.ts
  projectRoot.ts
  workspace.ts
  settings.ts

  language/
    xmlParser.ts
    context.ts
    typeContext.ts
    semanticTokens.ts

  model/
    schemaModel.ts
    schema-model.json   # Generated XSD model, bundled with the extension
    asset-types.json    # Generated AssetType hash table, bundled with the extension

  indexer/
    includeResolver.ts
    existence.ts
    manifestParser.ts
    fileScanner.ts
    refs.ts
    referenceIndex.ts
    xpointer.ts
    logicalTree.ts
    localScope.ts
    shallowScan.ts
    records.ts
    caches.ts
    diskCache.ts
    indexer.ts
    types.ts

  features/
    completion.ts
    hover.ts
    navigation.ts
    references.ts
    codeLens.ts
    unreferenced.ts
    diagnostics.ts
    semanticTokens.ts

syntaxes/
  ra3modxml.tmLanguage.json   # Injected domain grammar (keeps the built-in XML grammar)

tools/
  xsd-to-model.mjs            # Generates schema-model.json from the SDK XSD
  extract-asset-types.mjs     # Extracts AssetType hashes from OpenSAGE

References

• OpenSAGE ManifestFile.cs — manifest format reference