Eden manual conversion

  • Offline AgentRev
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Eden manual conversion

« posted: Mar 07, 2016, 12:24 AM »
NOTE: This guide is no longer relevant, it was only for mission files made before 2016

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As requested, here is a full guide to Eden conversion. Every person crazy enough to attempt this is strongly recommended to read it in its entirety, even if you managed to convert it before. The A3W dev branch has already been converted, so you don't need to follow this guide if you are using it.

  • Before importing the old mission.sqm in Eden, first you need to open it in a text editor and do the following:
    • For each store NPC, change side="LOGIC"; to side="CIV"; - there should be 2 of those per NPC. But be careful, do NOT change the side of HeadlessClients.
    • For the very first player slot (Item0), change player="PLAY CDG"; to player="PLAYER COMMANDER";
    • (Optional) If you wish for player spawns to retain their original positions, you will need to do some text replacing with regular expressions. I will explain how to do it in Notepad++ as this is what I use.
      • Open up the "Replace" box (Ctrl+H)
      • Find what: ^((\s+)player=".+?";)
      • Replace with: \1\r\n\2special="NONE";
      • Tick "Wrap around"
      • Select "Regular expression"
      • Here's how it should look like at this point: http://i.imgur.com/rq4Q5k9.png
      • Click "Replace All"

  • Regarding the above, if you fail to change store NPCs to civilians before the conversion, they will be turned into static objects that are unable to change stance. The only side effect of this is that they will permanently appear to be holding a gun, even if they don't have one, and that cannot be fixed after the conversion without some super-fancy regex magic.
  • Now save the file, and import it into Eden
  • After importing the mission in Eden, first you want to open the "Save As" dialog, untick "Binarize the Scenario File", then save the mission. This will ensure that the mission.sqm is saved in text format.
  • If you have not done the optional step above for player spawns, you should first notice that slots on spawn island are messed up. If you don't care, that's fine, you can leave them as-is. But if you're OCD like me, you will want to fix them. You can either delete all your player slots and copypaste those from the vanilla mission (if you do, don't forget to set first unit as "Player"), or place them manually:
    • Enable "Toggle Translation Grid" in the Eden toolbar (icon looks like a Rubik's cube)
    • Set the translation grid to like 0.5m via the dropdown arrow on the right of the button
    • Place your units however you want, ideally in the same order as they appear on the role selection menu; in vanilla A3W, the leader is a medic, 2nd is a diver or sniper, 3rd is the other medic, and 4th is an engineer. Eden places converted units in an inverted "V" shape by default; the 3rd slot should be on the leader's left, and the 2nd & 4th on the right, so reordering them the correct way is advised.
    • I recommend placing groups in a diagonal way, so that the new group icons do not overlap with unit icons, kinda like this: http://i.imgur.com/DplpEov.png


  • Now, the buildings; If you look around in the editor, most custom buildings will appear tilted to the slope of the ground even thought they were leveled correctly before (especially on Stratis). There are 2 reasons for this:
    • The first one is that the tilt of many buildings is actually adjusted using init commands on mission startup, as it was not possible to tilt them manually in the old editor. In that case, they will look tilted in Eden, but will spawn in leveled on mission startup. If you want, you can go over those buildings individually to adjust them like I did, by right-clicking them and selecting "Transform" > "Orient to Sea Normal", but this is not necessary. Vanilla A3W Stratis has many buildings affected by this, but Altis only has a few.
    • The second one is due to an oversight by BIS with the Eden conversion process. Certain buildings and objects are normally supposed to always spawn in leveled without special commands, however BIS ignored this, and thus those buildings are incorrectly ported with ground slope tilt. ATMs and cargo buildings are affected in particular, so you need to go over each one of those manually, by right-clicking them and selecting "Transform" > "Orient to Sea Normal". Otherwise, they will be titled in awkward manner, for instance one of the ATMs on Altis is given a 45° angle by the conversion. There are not that many fixes needed for this in the vanilla mission:
      • on both maps you need to go over the 6 custom ATMs
      • on Altis you need to go over the cargo patrol posts in the "Dump" town
      • on Stratis you need to go over the cargo buildings at LZ Connor (south of Camp Maxwell)


If you followed this process correctly, normally the mission should play like before.
Don't hesitate if you have questions, but please read the full text beforehand.

Also, I have made a Python script for Notepad++ which recalculates all Item numbers and IDs from the start of the SQM file, as to allow reordering of items without a massive headache: https://gist.github.com/AgentRev/c0ff379c54a9c7ab6c8d - however be advised that I will not help you if you don't already know how to run Python scripts in NP++ beforehand.

Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #1 posted: Mar 07, 2016, 12:42 AM »
thanks a lot that you took the time to describe the process in such detail. as always much to learn. i really apreciate that you invest your valuable time to write it down. i try to find the time next week to make our Mission file  ready for eden/apex.
  • Offline Magic
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #2 posted: Mar 07, 2016, 08:56 PM »
Nice one thanks a lot! I'd like the python script please it bugs me muchly having all the item numbers all over the place.
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #3 posted: Mar 08, 2016, 01:54 AM »
Here is the Python script: https://gist.github.com/AgentRev/c0ff379c54a9c7ab6c8d

A few details are mentioned atop the file to ensure correct usage.

Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #4 posted: Mar 08, 2016, 07:00 PM »
Thank you for all your hard work Agent.  :)
  • Offline Matt76
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #5 posted: Mar 29, 2016, 04:42 PM »
Great guide Rev thank you !!!

Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #6 posted: Apr 08, 2016, 03:05 AM »
So if I add mission markers to my mission file, I can then run this and it will update all the numbers so that I dont have to manually do it?
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #7 posted: Apr 08, 2016, 03:56 AM »
No, the python script is if you want to reorganize the SQM by moving Items around.

You don't need to give numbers to Mission markers, as long as it starts with "Mission_" then it will be used. I mean, I'm not stupid like whoever at Bohemia thought it was a good idea to rely on ordered numbering instead of prefixes. Their approach is called "bad coding".
  • Offline dekela
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #8 posted: Apr 27, 2016, 06:51 AM »
If you want, you can go over those buildings individually to adjust them like I did, by right-clicking them and selecting "Transform" > "Orient to Sea Normal", but this is not necessary.

you can also select all the buildings by dragging a box over them, then right click one select "Transform" > "Orient to Sea Normal"
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #9 posted: Apr 27, 2016, 03:36 PM »
you can also select all the buildings by dragging a box over them, then right click one select "Transform" > "Orient to Sea Normal"

Don't do this, it's not the right way to do it. You need a visual confirmation that one particular building needs to be adjusted to sea normal, if you do it for all buildings then some will look really weird or even be inaccessible outright, e.g. fences or sheds on a hillside
  • Offline PAR4NA
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #10 posted: May 13, 2016, 07:24 AM »
AgentRev, can you help me?

http://pastebin.com/QyEmarwh

http://i.imgur.com/9KSkReb.png
Eden manual conversion


  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #11 posted: May 13, 2016, 07:35 AM »
I don't know what that is.
  • Offline PAR4NA
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #12 posted: May 13, 2016, 08:23 PM »
I don't know what that is.

You can do a tutorial on how to use Notepad ++ with the plugin?
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #13 posted: May 13, 2016, 09:52 PM »
I will not help you if you don't already know how to run Python scripts in NP++ beforehand
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Eden manual conversion

« Reply #14 posted: Jul 10, 2016, 04:07 AM »
I updated the reorder script to work with nested items, like units inside groups and objects inside layers.