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Creating Maps

Now that you have decided to create a mod (or make one or two levels), it's time to create a map.

What You'll Need

  • A graphics editor (Paint.net, GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, just something that you can do well in.)
  • Nocturnal Owl De-vertice Editor, found here
  • Some form of text editor. Notepad can do, although you may want to use Notepad++ for clarity.

Creating your Path Concept

Luxor spheres are 32 x 32 pixels thick. You can either have a 32 px thick stroke, or thinner. It doesn't matter, as long as the player has a general idea of how the path goes. Here's an image of a simple map: rows, but it's not plain rows. luxor-path-example-1.png

Now, there are a few things to note when making paths. You should avoid going down 500px or lower, as this is where the shooter area is. Clipping between the shooter and the spheres is close here.

Now that that's out of the way...

Creating the Background

You don't need to be a god at art to create a background. Just make sure it's decent and all. There are plenty of tutorials on the internet if you aren't much of an art prodigy - but try experimenting with plugins and effects, and you'll probably have something going.

The path should be visible to the player, so that they have a general idea of how does the path go.

For demonstration purposes, we'll go with a dirt and rock background. luxor-path-example-1-decorated.png

Creating the Level Folder

  1. Navigate to data\maps of your game. You should see a bunch of folders with no spaces and full of level names.
  2. Create a new folder and name it to your level's name. For this tutorial, we'll name it RockyRoad.
  3. Export the background you just made as a JPG and name it background.jpg.

Creating the path in N.O.D.E

Now is the time to download and extract N.O.D.E if you haven't already. If you haven't already, get it here.

Before all of that, it's recommended to edit the background a little bit to guide you on what are you doing. Make the path lighter and add a 40px section (not including rounded tips) to the end of the path, as shown: luxor-path-example-1-decorated-nodeready.png Save this version of the background to the N.O.D.E folder, replacing background.jpg in the same folder as N.O.D.E.

This is where the tool comes in. Either open the exe file, the swf file or the html file.

  1. Click on Start, and if it is your first time booting, enter a username. Ignore all of the other buttons, you will want to click on New Path. NODE-tutorial-1.png

  2. Disable hotkeys, then name the level in the "Map Name" box. Enable the hotkeys again and focus on a text box that only requires numbers (such as the X/Y manual adding). You will want to remember 2 hotkeys: H for making the next node hidden / visible, and Del for deleting your last placed vertice. uQuNODE-tutorial-2.png

  3. Now trace the path. Use Magnifier and lower your mouse DPI if you need to do so. (For the 40px ending. N.O.D.E automatically hides your last two vertices on saving the path because of how the hidden nodes function work in Luxor. For demonstration purposes, here it is with the two vertices already placed in as hidden.) NODE-tutorial-3.png

  4. Click on Save and you should see what looks like an obj file. Copy the contents. NODE-tutorial-4.pngGet a plaintext editor, paste the contents there and save it as path.obj in your map folder, in this case data\maps\RockyRoad.

  5. Back to N.O.D.E, click on Toggle OBJ & UI/GVF. This changes the dialog box's layout. Click on the pyramid that suits the level's ending best. In this case, we'll go with the right-facing pyramid, because the danger zone (the ending area of a path) goes to the left. NODE-tutorial-5.pngHere's a handy protip: Virtually all Luxor 1/AR files are in plaintext - this includes UI, level settings, sprite file settings, et cetera.

  6. Copy the top text box's contents into a plaintext editor. You will want to remove this line. Save this file as map.ui in the level folder.

	GLSprite = 0 0 GameBackgroundSprites data\maps\RockyRoad\mask.spr
  1. Now, create a new file. Paste this in, replacing RockyRoad with your folder name. Save this in your level folder as background.spr.
data\maps\RockyRoad\background.jpg
none
800 600
1
1
0 0

Applying and Testing your Level File

  1. Head over to data\levels and open level_1_1 (Stage 1-1, or the first level). Replace "DIE KHUFU DIE" (or "URAEUS NEFERTARI") with your folder name in all capital letters with spaces. level-apply.png

  2. Now open up the game, choose a difficulty if you're in Amun Rising and click on Start. You should now see your new level. rocky-road.png

And that's it! You've created your first Luxor level. Congratulations!

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