Note to would be artists, although the present Air Warrior does no checking on
views probably the next release will check that the art outlines match the
computer generated outline to within 10-20% so don't get too crazy.  You
can add extra embelishments but if the computer generated image is not mostly
covered by the artwork it will probably not load.  The one exception to this
is the downward view on large bombers which will most likely not be checked.

The technical aspects of creating an artwork file are quite easy its generating
the art that's hard.  Basically you need to generate artwork files of the
proper size, placement, and colors.  The sizes are basically full screen
width with 128 lines in low or med res 256 lines in high.  All except the
special 7 color mode in low res should use a four color image, 7 color mode
should use an 8 color image.  The first color in the palet will show as
transparent when loaded by Air Warrior.  I don't know a good way to count
the 128 or 256 lines required other than marking them in fat bits mode (yuck).
Someone more knowledgable in dpaint might be able to provide more info in this
regard.  Note that the 128 or 256 lines include those normally obscured by
the title bar.  A possible alternative (which I haven't tried) is the use
of some screen grabbing program to get the computer generated view and then
painting the artwork on top.  In this fashion you will be less likely to
generate a view which AirWarrior will kick out when the next version goes
up.

Once you have a view or some views you wish to make into an artwork file it
is time to use 'makedat'.  Basically 'makedat' takes the individual artwork
files and glomms them into a single file.  Each file is identified by a
unique 4 character id so that AirWarrior can find it.  'makedat' is invoked
with the name of the artwork file and a list of 4 character id's and paint
file names.  Specifically, if I wanted to create an low-res artwork file for
the fw190, the artwork file name is fw190L, the forward view is identified by
'FORW', and my input paint file was named 'fw190forward' then I would type.

makedat fw190L FORW fw190forward

The various view arounds each has a unique 4 letter ID.  They are:
  Id          View
 FORW      Forward View
 RGHT      Right View
 BACK      Back View
 LEFT      Left View
 DOWN      Down View
 UPWD      Up View
 BLNR      Back Lean Right
 BLNL      Back Lean Left
 BOMB      Bombsight view
 URGT      Up and right
 ULFT      Up and left
 UBCK      Up and back
 UBLR      Up back and lean right
 UBLL      Up back and lean left
 UUWD      Up and front
 DRGT      Down and right
 DLFT      Down and left
 DBCK      Down and back
 DBLR      Down back and lean right
 DBLL      Down back and lean left
 DDWN      Down and front
 DASH      Dashboard (not currently implemented).
Note that this is an exhaustive list and most people would probably be
interested in artwork for a limited number of these views.  Any that aren't
supplied will be substituted by the computer generated views.

Artwork views have names linking them to the corresponding aircraft.
Specifically, the artwork file names which are recognized are:
    p51
    zero
    me262
    spitfire
    me109
    fw190
    hurrican
    b17
    b25
    a26
    dr1
    camel
    spad
    drvii
Either an 'L', an 'E', an 'M', or an 'H' is tacked onto the end of the
artwork file indicating whether it is usable in Low, Med, or High resolution.
'E' is Low resolution with a 7 color front bit plane.  Thus a Focke-Wulf 190
artwork file which is meant to be used in Low Resolution Default mode should
be named 'fw190L'.

David Albrecht
