📝 About the project

This project was born from the frustration when creating maps with map.ini changes. The SAGE engine is very selective and will crash if files contain unknown fields or values, being a software developer I wished language features such as diagnostics and completions was a part of the development flow. Thus ZeroSyntax was born.

⚡ Quick start

The easiest way to get started is to use the VSCode extension inside VSCode. This will install the server and automatically recognize INI files

1. Open VSCode
2. Go to the Extensions tab
3. Search ZeroSyntaxV2
4. Install the extension

Opening a map folder or ini file will now be parsed and checked for syntax errors.

Warning

The server will recognize all .ini files as Generals Zero Hour ini files, disable the extension if you need to edit normal files.

To expand on features go to the settings page in VSCode and find the ZeroSyntax extension. One of the settings will say baseIniRoots, here you can add the path to your desired game folder for ZeroSyntax to parse and read your game files. This will provide completions for models, bones, textures, audio and more specific to that game install.

💡 Examples

1. ❌ Diagnostics

When incorrect values are parsed to fields the extension will create an error for this

Similar objects or types which hasn't been defined yet will also give warnings

2. ✅ Completions

When the baseIniRoots setting is pointing to the game install certain completions will be available, like model references

3. ✏️ Snippets

Common boilerplate code and long field/value pairs will be suggested and fill out all required text and allow the user to select only the customizable values

⚙️ Commands & Settings

Open Settings in VSCode and search for ZeroSyntax to configure the extension. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and search for ZeroSyntax to run its commands.

Recommended settings

Setting	Default	Description
zerosyntax.baseIniRoots	[]	Add every game/mod folder or .big archive loaded before your project. This enables accurate references and asset completions for models, bones, textures, and audio.
zerosyntax.server.path	Empty (uses bundled server)	Leave empty for normal use. Set an absolute path only when using a separately installed or locally built zerosyntax-lsp binary.
zerosyntax.analysis.allowPercentagesWithoutSign	false	Allow engine-compatible percentage values without a trailing %.
zerosyntax.preview.enable	true	Show W3D model thumbnails in completion details. Disable this on slower hardware.
zerosyntax.format.enable	false	Enable indentation formatting and format-on-save support. It is off by default to preserve existing formatting.
zerosyntax.schema.path	""	Add path to a different schema file for custom diagnostics.

Commands

Command	Description
ZeroSyntax: Rebuild Index Cache	Clear and rebuild the index after game, mod, or asset files change outside VSCode.
ZeroSyntax: Clear Index Cache	Remove cached index data. It will be recreated during the next scan.
ZeroSyntax: Open Index Cache Location	Reveal the persistent cache on disk for inspection or troubleshooting.
ZeroSyntax: Select Custom Schema	Choose a custom schema JSON for development or advanced mod support. Most users should keep the built-in schema.

When using the server without the VSCode extension, configure your LSP client to run zerosyntax-lsp over stdio for Zero Hour .ini files and set the workspace root to the map or mod folder. See the language server guide for all initialization options.

Suppressing diagnostics with a pragma

Add a file-scope comment to disable selected diagnostics for the entire file:

; zerosyntax-disable: unknown-field, unresolved-reference

Place the pragma outside any block, usually at the top of the file. Codes may be separated by commas or spaces, and multiple pragma lines are combined. VSCode also offers Suppress <code> in this file as a quick fix. A misspelled code produces an unknown-suppression hint.

Available codes are:

• Structure and definitions: syntax, stray-field, unknown-block, overrides, duplicate-definition, unknown-field.
• Values: missing-condition, missing-value, bad-bool, non-positive, bad-percent, bad-color, bad-coord, bad-number, bad-enum, bad-flag, bad-prefixed.
• References and assets: unresolved-reference, unknown-model, unknown-model-member, unknown-audio-file, unknown-texture.
• Modules: missing-module-tag, unknown-module, unknown-module-tag, module-wrong-slot, duplicate-module-tag, editor-default-module, default-modules-not-removed.
• Map checks: map-forward-reference, map-projectile-object, unreachable-set.
• Pragmas: unknown-suppression.

⚠️ License & Notice

ZeroSyntaxV2 is available under the MIT License

ZeroSyntaxV2 is an unofficial community project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Electronic Arts. Command & Conquer and related names are trademarks of their respective owners.