How to control moving platforms without QuArK

It is a very long way of going about it, so it may not be totally finished when you read this.

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PHASE 1: Adding a moving platform

You can't really add one but you can use one from another level. When creating a .mis file, make it from a level containing a moving platform e.g. Survival of the Fittest, Natural Selection, etc etc etc... Make sure that you do not overwrite* the level you were making it from! I've done that with a coupe of levels already.

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PHASE 2: Manipulating** a moving platform

You will see the platform itself and a few markers:

MustChange
A large marker
Some more smaller markers dotted around the level

MustChange is the platform itself. DO NOT move this in any way. The large marker is the marker that makes the platform move when the marble touches it. You can scale and move this as much as you wish. The smaller markers are the path nodes.

Highlight*** the platform. You will see the field titled "ms to next". This will set how long the platform will take in milliseconds to reach the 1st marker. Change the value to your own number and click Apply. Dehighlight it. Next, move the large marker to the place you want the platform to be triggered. Look at all the other markers and find which one has "0" in the field "seqNumber"****. Drag it to where you want the platform to travel to first. Find the marker with "1" in the same field, and place it where you want the platform to move to after it has hit marker 0. And so on with 2, 3, 4, etc. The same with the platform, the "ms to next" field also applies to markers except the large one. Remember to click Apply after editing any of the fields.

Changes will only take effect when you re-enter the level.

Note that platforms nor markers can be created manually. You must use the ones that are already there.

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PHASE 3: More help

If you would like to see some of my examples, look at levels "Over and Under" and "A Level of Two Halves".

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APPENDIX

For the not-so technical people:

*To save an existing level as something different but with the same file name and extension
**To control
***To select, to display a yellow box around the object
****Short for sequence number

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NOTE: THIS GUIDE HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY TESTED BUT IS NOT GUARANTEED TO GIVE DESIRED RESULTS. I AM NOT LIABLE OR RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE TO ANY OF YOUR LEVELS. THIS GUIDE IS COPYRIGHT© OF KENNETH MAIR (MARBLEMAN) AND SHALL NOT BE REPRODUCED OR EDITED BY OTHER PEOPLE.

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I hope this guide helps and any questions will be taken into account.

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marbleman©