Click the Edit Maps button for your instance to load it's map rotation page. You have a number of options here for setting up your game instance's map order.

The Map Rotation

Your current map rotation sits at the top of this page. After adding maps into the rotation you can move them up and down or delete them here. Servers with one map rotation per gametype like F.E.A.R. will only allow you to rotate maps within that gametype. Games that have multiple gametypes supported per map have an extra option to change gametype per map right in the rotation.

Once you have your map rotation set right click the Save icon at the top of this page to write your instance's map cycle files.

Adding Maps

The Add Map form is located below your current map rotation. Use this to add any map in your game's map pool to your current rotation. This form is different depending on the type of game you're useing due to how different games handle the map and gametype associations:

• Some game engines, such as the Half-Life and Source engines, don't have a gametype associated per map. In this case the add map form displays a dropdown list of maps with an add button. Simply select your map and click Add to add it into your rotation.
• Other engines allow you to run any gametype per map. These types of games have an add form with a gametype and map field. Select your gametype and map then click Add to add it into your rotation. Halo and Battlefield 1942 have add map forms like this.
• Some engines have gametypes that are restricted to run only on certain maps. Most Quake 3 based games act like this. In this case the add map form is a two part form. First select which gametype you wish to run and click Next. The page will reload with the add map form showing a dropdown list of maps that are compatible with that gametype. Select your map and click Add to place it into your rotation.
• Finally, some game servers, such as F.E.A.R, load one maplist per gametype. In this Add Map form you must select both a map and gametype and click the Add button. Cortex will add the map into the rotation for the gametype you selected.

Some games have configuration options per map. Noteable examples of this are the map size in Battlefield 2 and the random-generated-maps in Soldier of Fortune II. These kind of maps have an extra step in the Add Map form. After clicking the Add button the form will reload with the options available for that map. Select your options and click the Add button to add it into the rotation.

Uploading Your Own Maps

When your instance is created Cortex creates a map pool with all of the game's default maps. Cortex lets you add custom maps into the map pool as well. Use the Custom Maps form under the add map form on this page to get started.

You can either upload a map file directly from your home system or tell Cortex to download it from a remote website. Use either form in the Custom Maps section to to get the map into Cortex. Cortex will accept either the map file itself or a zip archive containing one or more maps. If you upload a zip file then cortex will display a form with all maps in the zip file on a multi-select form field. Choose which maps you want to add and click Next. If your game engine has gametype restrictions per map then Cortex will display a new form where you choose which gametypes your custom map supports. Remember that your server may not start if you load an incompatible map and gametype. Once you've chosen your gametypes click Add and Cortex will place the map files onto the system and add the map into your map pool. Now you can select that map from the Add Map form.

Managing Map Rotations

Cortex lets you save multiple map rotations for later use. Look for the Manage Map Rotations form at the bottom of this page to work with your rotations. When your instance was created a map rotation called "Default" was created along with it with a single map in the rotation. To create a new map rotation simply enter it's name in the Name: text field and click the Create button. Cortex will create a new map rotation and load a single default map into it. Adding and managing the maps in your rotation will automatically save to the map rotation.

If you want to switch back to the Default rotation or any other map rotation you've saved, select it in the Load Map Rotation drop down menu then click the Load Button.

To remove your current map rotation click the Delete icon at the bottom of the page. Cortex will delete the current loaded map rotation and load one of your other saved map rotations. The Delete icon is greyed out if you only have one saved map rotation.

Remember to click the Save icon at the top of the map edit page to write the instance's mapcycle after changing your map rotation!