Atom

Atom is a completely free, open-source, highly-extensible text editor based on Chromium and Node.js. It was created and is being actively developed by the GitHub team. It can be downloaded from the official Atom site. Atom's interface and functionality is very similar to Sublime Text, so it's a fairly painless transition if you have experience with it. Atom has an extremely flexible package system that allows customization of virtually everything about the editor.

See Wikipedia's page for more information.

Installation

Install Atom

1. Go to the Atom website, download the setup file, and run it.

Install packages

• Fallout 4 language-papyrus
• F4SE language-papyrus

Syntax highlighting and snippets are provided by the one of the language packages. Compilation is provided by the build and build-papyrus packages.

1. In Atom, open the settings tab (File -> Settings, or Ctrl+,)
2. Select the Install tab on the side
3. Search for language-papyrus, then click install on the package when the results appear
4. Repeat the previous step for build and build-papyrus
5. To see compiler errors inline with your code, also install the linter package

If your Papyrus Compiler isn't in the default location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Papyrus Compiler\PapyrusCompiler.exe), then you must set it in the build-papyrus package settings:

1. In Atom, open the settings tab (File -> Settings, or Ctrl+,)
2. Select the Packages tab on the side
3. Search for build-papyrus or find it in the list, and click on Settings
4. Change the compiler path setting to your appropriate path

Usage

Snippets

The available snippets are nearly identical to the Sublime Text plugin's snippets. To use a snippet, just begin typing the name of a function/event/other snippet, and a list of matched snippets will appear. You can choose which one to use with the arrow keys or mouse, and complete it by pressing Tab ↹ or clicking on it. Immediately after autocompletion, you may be able to cycle through pieces of it by pressing Tab ↹ again, depending on the snippet.

Compilation

There are two methods to configure compilation of your scripts; using a Papyrus project file, or manually configuring the build-papyrus settings. Using a project file is highly recommended, as it can handle compiling entire folders at the same time, and will always compile all of your scripts when building. Manual configuration will only compile the file you currently have open. In either case, you can use Ctrl+Alt+B or F9 to trigger the build.

You can choose if you want to compile for default, release (strip out debugOnly), or final release (strip out debugOnly and betaOnly) by selecting the build target. To select the active build target, press Ctrl+Alt+T or F7.

If you are keeping your scripts inside the game folder, the project/configuration file should be placed in Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\Source. Otherwise, the file should be placed in your mod's folder. These are also the folders you should have open in Atom. You should only have one project/configuration file in any folder, as build-papyrus only uses the first one it locates. Upon adding or removing a project/configuration file, make sure you run the Build: Refresh Targets command in the palette (Ctrl+⇧ Shift+P).

More information is available in the build-papyrus readme file.

Project file

Make sure your Papyrus project file is in the base folder that you have open in Atom. No additional configuration is necessary.

Manual configuration

Place the below text into a file called .build-papyrus.yml in the base folder you have open in Atom:

game: fallout4
output: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\
imports:
    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\Source\User
    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\Source\DLC03
    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\Source\DLC02
    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\Source\DLC01
    - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Scripts\Source\Base

If your mod's scripts are outside of the game's scripts directory, make sure you add it to the imports setting, and change the output directory. If you do not have the DLC, simply remove them from the imports setting.

Tips and tricks

• The command palette (Ctrl+⇧ Shift+P) lists every single command available in Atom, with a fuzzy finder. If you ever forget a hotkey, you can search for the command with its full/partial name or whatever shorthand you come up with. Searching brt will find Build: Refresh Targets, for example.
• Pressing Ctrl+P will open a fuzzy finder for all files in the folder you have open. It will list files that match your search in real-time. You can type file names in just about any shorthand you can think of, and it will find them correctly. "comph" will match a file named "CompanionsHousekeepingScript.psc", for example.
• After compiling, if there are any errors, you can cycle through them with Ctrl+Alt+G or F4. You can also jump straight to the first error with Ctrl+Alt+H or ⇧ Shift+F4. Additionally, you can click on the errors at the bottom of the window to jump to them. The linter package will also list the errors in a much prettier, more usable way.
• Holding Ctrl allows you to move lines up and down with the arrow keys.
• Ctrl+⇧ Shift+D duplicates a line.
• Highlight a word, then press Ctrl+D repeatedly to highlight each occurrence of it in succession. This makes renaming variables and functions quite simple!
• All Events that the compiler supports have been added as snippets, so if you type the name of the event and hit Tab ↹, it will autocomplete to the full event (with parameters) so you don't have to check the wiki for syntax.
  • For remote-registered events, use the name of the event followed by -rem to have the correct syntax filled out.
  • For reference collection aliases, use the name of the event followed by -rc to have the sender parameter auto-added
  • Both of the above are combined into -rem-rc if you happen to need a remote event from a ref collection alias.
• All the functions on the wiki have been added as snippets. You can type part of the function name and hit Tab ↹ to fill out the function with all the parameters. Hit Tab ↹ to switch between each parameter.

Recommended packages

To further enhance your experience with Atom, there are thousands of packages for Atom available. You can browse them within the editor itself, or on the official packages site. Here are a few worth taking a look at:

• minimap - Adds a minimap preview of your source code like Sublime Text does
• minimap-find-and-replace - Highlights all found text on the minimap when finding/replacing code
• minimap-selection - Highlights your text selection on the minimap
• highlight-selected - Highlights all occurrences of your text selection
• minimap-highlight-selected - Highlights all occurrences of your text selection on the minimap
• project-manager - Lets you save your Atom workspace as a project, and easily reopen them
• clipboard-plus - Keeps your clipboard history

See Also

• Other Text Editors