Building the Scenery with the Mapper

Copying Blocks

The most basic way to add scenery to your level is to copy groups of blocks with scenery pre-drawn from another map, called a "source map". You can copy scenery from the Template Map, one of the five Example Maps, an Original Map that you downloaded, or an older User Map. You will need to have both your new map and the source map open in the Mapper program. To open a map in the Mapper, simply double click on its name in the list of maps pop-up window.

Switch to the Mapper window with the source map and place the cursor above and to the left of the blocks you want to copy. Click the left mouse button, hold and drag the cursor until the group of blocks you want to copy is framed by the pink selection rectangle.

Switch to the Mapper window with your new map. You may do this either from the "Window" pull-down from the Mapper menu bar or by pressing the CTRL-TAB keys. The copied blocks appear at the cursor location. Move the blocks to the desired location in your new map and press CTRL-V to paste them into place. Be careful not to click with the mouse inside the new map before you complete the paste because this will cancel the copy operation. 

Transparent Paste

When you are editing a map, one of the choices in the Mapper's "Edit" pull-down menu is "Transparent Paste". Normally when you paste a group of copied blocks, the scenery on the destination blocks is overwritten. When you do a transparent paste, any of the new blocks which contain only the background color will not overwrite the destination blocks. This comes in handy when you are trying position scenery elements close together.

Erasing Blocks

Simply copy an empty background block or group of empty blocks over the blocks you wish to erase.

Saving the Map

To save the map, use the Mapper's "File" pull-down menu, then select "Save". You can also save the map at any time by pressing the 'S' key.

When you are testing your map and running both the Rayman game and the Mapper, your map changes will not appear in the Rayman game until you have saved the map in the Mapper, exited the level in the Rayman game, and reopened the level in the game.

Short-Cut Keys in the Mapper