FA Hud Editing

If you use any other indexes for your cockpit image other than #0 through 39 you will experience the 'darkening' and 'lightening' effect in the game flying at night and flying in fog. You know how FA darkens the outside colors at night and how it turns everything white in fog? Well all the color indexes on the cockpit palette will darken and lighten, except for indexes 0 to 39. So as long as your cockpit is using only those indexes on the palette, your cockpit will remain the same at night and will not turn white in the fog. (NOTE: You may also use indexes #41 to 47 for additional cockpit image colors. These are used for pop-up window display information colors, and will not lighten or darken.)

EXTRACTING COCKPIT ART WITH THE TOOLKIT
Now, with the 256 color palette being understood, let me show you a step by step procedure for extracting an existing hud from FA with the correct color palette.

(1) Using the DUOSOFT FA Toolkit, go to "GRAPHICS" and then click on "HUDS".

(2) Select "~F22S.PIC" "F-22A Raptor Main Hud (HI)" (NOTE: You can actually select ANY HUD and follow this procedure. I'm just using the F-22 for an example. Also note that when the toolkit says "LO" res for the main huds, it really for 800 x 600 res. Huds that say "HI" is for 640 x 480).

(3) Next, go to the "CHANGE PALLETTE" icon and change pallette to "DEFAULT".

(4) Once changed to "DEFAULT", press the "CANCEL" button and get out, returning to MAIN MENU.

(5) Once back at MAIN MENU, click on "GRAPHICS", "HUDS" , and "~F22H.PIC" again.

(6) Click on the "CHANGE PALLETTE" again. Now select "INTERNAL" for the palette setting.

(7) Once changed to "INTERNAL", press the "CANCEL" button and get out, returning to MAIN MENU again.

(8) Once back at MAIN MENU, click on "GRAPHICS", "HUDS", and "~F22H.PIC" again. THIS TIME, CLICK ON THE "IMAGE INFO" ICON and then click on the "VIEW PALLETTE" icon.

(9) If the colors on the palette MATCH THE FOLLOWING PALLETTE PICTURE, you now have the correct palette for FA HUDS (*NOTE: The IN-FLIGHT MAP uses the same palette. All colors are now included if you followed these steps!)

(10) Click on the "PAINT" (The Microsoft PAINT PROGRAM) icon and then press "SAVE AS". Now you have a FA HUD (COCKPIT) saved as a bitmap image WITH THE CORRECT COLOR PALLETE! You can now take that image and transfer any cockpit you want onto it, and then add it to FA. Keep in mind, of course, that you can only use indexes 0-39 for you image. You can change those indexes to any colors you wish.

INSTALLING A NEW HUD BITMAP WITH THE TOOLKIT
Alright, got your new cockpit image ready? Its only using color indexes 0-39? And the last index, #255, is white #252,252,252? Ok, now lets add it to the game!

(1) Using the Duosoft Toolkit, click on "GRAPHICS" at the main menu, and then click on "HUDS".

(2) Select the HUD you want to modify.

(3) Click the "PAINT" ICON (for the Microsoft Paint Program).

(4) Once the Paint program opens up the HUD (COCKPIT) picture, press FILE and then OPEN to open up your NEW HUD PICTURE.

(5) Once your NEW HUD picture is open and you see it on the screen, go to file and press SAVE as. Go to the following Directory: JANES/FIGHTERS ANTHOLOGY/TOOLKIT/TMP. You now want to SAVE your picture in the TMP folder! Save as the ORIGANAL NAME OF HUD (Ex: If you opened up the HUD for the F-16 Falcon, you would save as "~f16h"). NOTE: You can create other HUD names and ADD them to the list of HUDS by going to IMPORT on the graphics menu and importing a NEW HUD.

(6) Once the NEW HUD picture is SAVED in the TMP folder, click the 'x' and close the PAINT PROGRAM.

(7) Now, press the REFRESH ICON (its right next the PAINT program Icon). After you hit REFRESH your W HUD will appear in the box at your right. Click on NORMAL IMAGE VIEW to see it (it will show the top half but its all there! Press FULL IMAGE VIEW and then VIEW ACTUAL SIZE if you want to view the entire picture).

(8) After hitting REFRESH, click the OK BUTTON (or press ACCEPT) and your NEW HUD will be saved and added to your project.

(9) Once at MAIN MENU of the Toolkit, hit FILE and BUILD CUSTOM LIBRARY FILE. Install it and play the game. Select the plane or planes that use the HUD you changed and enjoy!

Iron Eagle