[Release] Anvil Mission Editor and Framework

[mecharius 2]

By |TG| Will (a.k.a. mecharius)

WARNING: This software is in BETA so there may be some undiscovered bugs. Please help make the software better by reporting any bugs you come across!

---

Announcing the first supported public latest release of the Anvil Editor and Framework, version 6.5.2 BETA. Users of version 6.5.0 are strongly advised to upgrade to this release. The Anvil Editor is a windows application (requiring .NET 4.5) which lets you very rapidly generate small or large scale multi-objective COOP missions for ArmA 3 when used alongside the official ArmA 3 editor. It creates missions that use the light weight Anvil Framework which is bundled with the editor. Anvil provides the following features:

Features

- Point and click to create objectives, ambient occupation zones and the initial spawn point

- Five selectable objective types (Assassinate, Capture, Destroy AA, Destroy Tower, Gather Intel)

- Shift-click in the editor to link objectives (so that completing one unlocks the other)

- Create end mission triggers on any objective or when all are completed

- Select the type of objective, what is shown in the player tasks, the level of enemy occupation and capture rewards

- One-click inclusion of SQF scripts, including setting up the description.ext and init.sqf

- The editor can pull in changes to markers made in the official ArmA 3 editor and works alongside changes made in the official editor

The Framework and Editor have already been used to create several missions (including Sunday Event missions) for the www.tacticalgamer.com community where I spend most of my playing time. I'm grateful to the guys there for the time they took to give feedback and test things out. Also thanks to 10T for his maps and Bangabob for his EOS system.

You can report all bugs on this thread or over on the official Tactical Gamer release thread, it will probably help a lot if you can grab the latest log file and attach it to the post. Feel free to make some feature requests as well and I'll think about adding them to my list :)

Media

Quick start guide (a 5 objective mission running in 6 minutes)

Timelapse of placing 192 objectives for the second showcase mission being developed

More information and download links:

- Home page - http://www.anvilproject.com/

- Downloads and release notes - http://www.anvilproject.com/downloads/index.html

- Help page - http://www.anvilproject.com/help

To learn how to install the editor please visit http://anvilproject.com/help/installation.html

To learn how to install maps please visit http://anvilproject.com/help/editor.html

Support me on Make ArmA Not War!

The Editor source code is on github and released under an MIT license. The Framework is APL-SA licensed.

Edited December 22, 2014 by mecharius
Source code link

[katipo66 94]

This is why I love this game :)

[Guest]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Anvil Mission Editor and Framework v4.3 alpha



Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

================================================

You are not registered on Armaholic, or at least not that we are aware of. In the future we offer the possibility to authors to maintain their own pages.

If you wish to be able to do this as well please register on Armaholic and let me know about it.

This is not mandatory at all! Only if you wish to control your own content you are welcome to join, otherwise we will continue to follow your work like we have always done ;)

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

[mecharius 2]

Thanks Foxhound and Katipo66...

Foxhound I am on Armaholic, what is the easiest way to link this to my profile? The installation section as it is currently written is not correct - there is no installer, the application is bundled in a zip file and maps need to be downloaded and installed separately. Thanks for providing a mirror :)

[katipo66 94]

Hi mecharius,

Finally got my hands on it, im not sure if ive setup wrong but my screen doesn't look like yours in the video, screen shot here

The map appears different and im not getting the tool bar in top right area?

Editor Log:

2014-07-13 09:46:41.6709 MainWindow DEBUG -------------------------------------------------

2014-07-13 09:46:41.6849 MainWindow DEBUG Launching Anvil Editor

2014-07-13 09:46:41.6849 MainWindow DEBUG Application Version: 4.3.0.0

2014-07-13 09:46:41.8979 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 09:46:41.8979 MainWindow DEBUG - Loading Altis for first session

2014-07-13 09:46:42.0439 MainWindow WARN Unable to locate the map image - C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 09:46:45.2231 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 09:46:45.2231 MainWindow DEBUG Initialised recent items list

2014-07-13 09:46:45.2621 MainWindow DEBUG Showing first visit prompt

2014-07-13 09:46:47.5432 MainWindow DEBUG Application Loaded

2014-07-13 10:02:58.6777 MainWindow DEBUG -------------------------------------------------

2014-07-13 10:02:58.6777 MainWindow DEBUG Launching Anvil Editor

2014-07-13 10:02:58.6877 MainWindow DEBUG Application Version: 4.3.0.0

2014-07-13 10:02:58.8097 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 10:02:58.8097 MainWindow DEBUG - Loading Altis for first session

2014-07-13 10:02:58.9117 MainWindow WARN Unable to locate the map image - C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 10:03:08.5543 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 10:03:08.5543 MainWindow DEBUG Application Loaded

2014-07-13 10:17:22.9682 MainWindow DEBUG -------------------------------------------------

2014-07-13 10:17:22.9682 MainWindow DEBUG Launching Anvil Editor

2014-07-13 10:17:22.9682 MainWindow DEBUG Application Version: 4.3.0.0

2014-07-13 10:17:23.0872 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 10:17:23.0872 MainWindow DEBUG - Loading Altis for first session

2014-07-13 10:17:23.1882 MainWindow DEBUG Loaded map from C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 10:17:23.2202 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 10:17:23.2202 MainWindow DEBUG Application Loaded

2014-07-13 10:17:43.5213 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 10:17:44.5654 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 10:17:51.1808 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 10:17:57.2671 MainWindow DEBUG - User selected Altis

2014-07-13 10:17:57.2671 MainWindow DEBUG Loaded map from C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 10:17:57.2821 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 10:18:05.6356 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 10:18:07.3957 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 10:18:26.4168 OutputGenerator DEBUG Starting OutputGenerator

2014-07-13 10:18:26.4168 OutputGenerator DEBUG Creating objective list

2014-07-13 10:18:26.4168 OutputGenerator DEBUG - Created 0 objectives

2014-07-13 10:18:26.4168 OutputGenerator DEBUG Building Mission Data

2014-07-13 10:18:26.4168 OutputGenerator DEBUG Building ambient spawn scripts

2014-07-13 10:18:26.4168 OutputGenerator DEBUG Done building ambient spawn scripts

2014-07-13 11:54:12.1496 MainWindow DEBUG -------------------------------------------------

2014-07-13 11:54:12.1496 MainWindow DEBUG Launching Anvil Editor

2014-07-13 11:54:12.1496 MainWindow DEBUG Application Version: 4.3.0.0

2014-07-13 11:54:12.2706 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 11:54:12.2706 MainWindow DEBUG - Loading Altis for first session

2014-07-13 11:54:12.3726 MainWindow DEBUG Loaded map from C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 11:54:12.4027 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 11:54:12.4027 MainWindow DEBUG Application Loaded

2014-07-13 11:54:20.2641 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 11:54:23.1913 MainWindow DEBUG - User selected Altis

2014-07-13 11:54:23.1913 MainWindow DEBUG Loaded map from C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 11:54:23.2073 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 11:54:26.4385 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 11:54:28.7856 MainWindow DEBUG - User selected Altis

2014-07-13 11:54:28.7856 MainWindow DEBUG Loaded map from C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 11:54:28.7976 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 11:56:05.8231 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new objective at 201.5,202

2014-07-13 11:56:05.8441 MainWindow DEBUG - Objective ID 0 assigned

2014-07-13 11:56:18.2098 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new objective at 202.5,203

2014-07-13 11:56:18.2288 MainWindow DEBUG - Objective ID 1 assigned

2014-07-13 11:56:19.1399 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new objective at 205.5,202

2014-07-13 11:56:19.1579 MainWindow DEBUG - Objective ID 2 assigned

2014-07-13 11:56:20.3270 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new objective at 208.5,205

2014-07-13 11:56:20.3460 MainWindow DEBUG - Objective ID 3 assigned

2014-07-13 11:56:26.3273 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new map

2014-07-13 11:56:29.2655 MainWindow DEBUG - User selected Altis

2014-07-13 11:56:29.2655 MainWindow DEBUG Loaded map from C:\Users\Albie\Desktop\ANVIL\data\maps\Altis.png

2014-07-13 11:56:29.2815 MainWindow DEBUG - Finished creating new mission

2014-07-13 11:56:34.0278 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:35.6048 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:36.8319 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:37.9470 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:39.1420 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:41.5562 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:43.5083 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:48.6616 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:50.9787 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:56:53.3139 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:57:00.4663 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:57:04.2185 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:57:06.0266 MainWindow DEBUG Deselected objective

2014-07-13 11:57:17.2272 MainWindow DEBUG Creating new objective at 552.890834682655,100.460093398129

2014-07-13 11:57:17.2442 MainWindow DEBUG - Objective ID 0 assigned

2014-07-13 12:03:22.2771 MainWindow DEBUG Launching SQM Editor

2014-07-13 12:03:39.4971 MainWindow DEBUG Saving mission

2014-07-13 12:04:05.9226 MainWindow DEBUG - Saved mission

2014-07-13 12:04:09.1628 MainWindow INFO Zoomed to level 10

Actually looking over everything it looks like i have your 3.2 version although i downloaded from 4.3?

Cheers man.

[mecharius 2]

Hi katipo,

I can't see any (major) issues with the screenshot - the title bar says you are on version 4.3 and you have debug logging which 3.2 didn't have. The top right little blue menu bar just let's you search for properties, its not required to use the editor.

To be honest this may be a silly suggestion but it looks like you are just zoomed all the way in on the NE of the island! You can use the scroll wheel to zoom in/out and click and drag on the map to pan around. Does that help or there are other things not working properly?

As and aside your app title bar says (Framework v2) what happens if you "Apply manual framework update" from the file menu? Does it change to v3? I may have forgotten to update that before the last build but it shouldn't be causing issues.

[katipo66 94]

Hmm ok, i'm not on my system at the moment, will check next time, from memory the demo video had tabs on the top right and the map had town names and grids and what looked like an inset of Stratis bottom right, the map looks like the screen shot wether I'm zoomed in or zoomed right out.

yes I did get how to zoom and pan etc but even that seem to make the map kind off jump around a bit, I think I'll just re-download and try again... I cant remember if there was an option for an update from the file menu, I did hunt around, anyway I'll have a look later and let you know.

Cheers.

[mecharius 2]

Ah, ok - yeah that map was from an older version and unfortunately I don't have the license to release it publicly. I'll consider adding the config data for it in the next version so that people who have the map legally can use it. The current Altis map is not ideal due to the resolution (see the last FAQ question for the editor) although I haven't had an issue with the other maps. I'm hoping to improve the maps over time.

As far as my workflow goes, I tend to run the official and Anvil editor side by side so I can block out a mission in Anvil then "micro-position" the markers in the A3 editor. The process runs as follows:

1) Place markers and link them together in Anvil

2) CTRL+S, CTRL+E (Save and export)

3) Open the mission in ArmA editor

4) Enter marker mode

5) Move OBJ_* markers exactly where I want them

6) Save in ArmA editor

7) Alt+Tab back to Anvil

8) CTRL+U (or EDIT >> Update from SQM)

9) CTRL+S, CTRL+E (Save and export)

10) Repeat from step 1 until you are happy

Its a bit of a fiddle but you can see it working fine in the timelapse video linked in the first post where I pretty quickly positioned a couple of hundred markers.

The two linked videos above show the same UI as your version has. I think in version 2 of the editor the old UI buttons were a lot larger, but now they are on a "toolbar" on the top left or in the menus as you can see in the videos on the first post above ^^. Good luck and let me know if you have any more feedback :)

[katipo66 94]

Oh ok, so we can buy that map somewhere? I'll check that out, If you Would add the config data I'd definitely get it, Rodger that on the tool bar! And that work flow makes perfect sense thanks man I'll give it another crack later.

[abshire 2]

Wow...simply amazing.

Will this work with addons too?

[mecharius 2]

Thanks Abshire... I haven't tried it with any mods but in theory it should be possible. Once Anvil has created a mission it tries to only touch the sections of the mission.sqm it needs. If you try any let me know! (and don't forget to keep lots of backups of the whole mission folder)

[mecharius 2]

Oh ok, so we can buy that map somewhere?

Its included in the A3 Digital Deluxe version. I've just upgraded to it through Steam so I can use the map and I'll be providing the coordinates but not the files for the map in the next update.

[mecharius 2]

Version 5.4 has been released! The official release thread is here http://www.tacticalgamer.com/arma-mission-development/198467-anvil-editor-release-thread.html#post1846791, or you can view the change log.

The main features of this release are:

• Completely new Win 8 "Metro" look and feel
  
• SEVEN new objective types
  
• Option to randomly place objective (e.g. demo/intel missions) in the objective radius
  
• Unlock objectives in a random order (see Angle Fire mission on Stratis)
  
• A mission briefing editor
  
• Pre-defined cfgLoadouts
  

[Guest]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Anvil Mission Editor and Framework v5.4 alpha



Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

================================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

[LCpride 10]

.Net 3.5 installed

change (dot) to . =)

clip2net(dot)com/s/j76lb6

[mecharius 2]

Hey, . Net 4.5 is a requirement, check you have that installed.

Also that error message is displayed for any error, it's a "catch all" last resort error message. As per the message if you find and post the log file I can try to trouble shoot a bit more :)

[-r-Santa 10]

Hellow,

Need copy files in arma 3 directory?

I have this error: This aplication has experienced an error and will probably have to close, check log.

[mecharius 2]

Santa, you don't need to put it in the A3 directory, however it looks like a bug slipped into the released version. Can you post up your log file from the Anvil application folder to check we are seeing the same issue?

If we are then I'll have a fixed version up shortly for download.

[-r-Santa 10]

Hellow,

I upload file to mega, i cant copy here text.

https://mega.co.nz/#!ZZUhSDoD!vSS348nUmqDbpmjGyIA5KpM1ZI6n_1RRFMRy7ATuEBc

[mecharius 2]

Cool, thanks - yes that is the same bug. It only happens if

(a) you don't have any maps in the data folder, and

(b) it is the first time you loaded the software.

When testing I tried both of these separately but not at the same time so missed it :) I'm just deploying a new version now, will post up links when its ready.

[-r-Santa 10]

Oki, thanks for you.

[mecharius 2]

Ok, "5.4 fix 1" has been uploaded to the downloads page. If you don't mind an 80MB download I've also put up a link near the top with the Altis and Stratis maps pre-bundled which should make setup a bit easier.

Thanks to Santa and LCPride for the bug reports, hopefully this should sort them out :)

[-r-Santa 10]

Hellow,

Version 5.4 Fix 1 is work for me!!!,

Ty for all.

[Guest]

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

Anvil Mission Editor and Framework v5.4 alpha fix 1



Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5

** A link to the Altis and Stratis maps bundled is also availble from our downloadpage!

================================================

We have also "connected" these pages to your account on Armaholic.

This means in the future you will be able to maintain these pages yourself if you wish to do so. Once this new feature is ready we will contact you about it and explain how things work and what options you have.

When you have any questions already feel free to PM or email me!

[ptpau 10]

Thank you I have been waiting eagerly for this version with random AO spawning, A couple of questions:

I have found, which I can not track down is randomly I have 2 AO's spawn first up when mission starts, this does not happen all times but is quite frequent, I did actually fire your test mission and it did the same thing.

If I use a destroy an object as mission objective and someone sneaks in and destroys it the AO is still active with all enemy but the mission is complete, my question do these enemy delete at any stage or are they going to be adding up populating the map.

Again thank you for getting this together it is awesome, primarily I will be using this for quick TAC mission building but I will put together a large PUB mission first to test and integrate my own scripts into it, which you have made so super easy to do, great work guys.