walk it. So in honor of those rare few who dare to break away from the default-aircraft shrink-wrapped masses I dedicate this page. I tip my hat to this special breed of men
who choose day after day, night after night to lay it on the line, gambling all they have! These brave men live lives of chance and risk. And what do they risk? They risk bone numbing back ache from hours at the keyboard and head splitting eyestrain from staring sentinel like into that 19" Trinitron no-man's land. They risk losing full use of their right hand from crippling chronic mouse disorder. And they risk the ridicule and derision of those more timid souls who lacking the wherewithal to make their own bad nose art
mask their shame by hurling abuse at those who dare to try! And above all they risk
getting caught by the wife red handed for the third time in one day wasting, yet more
time on the computer with that "dammed airplane game"! So, I salute you, who against
all odds tread that narrow pixilated road to simulated graphical immortality and as a
woefully inadequate gesture, I humbly offer this paltry bit of assistance.
note: This should be read while humming The Battle Hymn of the Republic if you were born south
of the Mason Dixon line or suffer from poor hearing you may feel free to substitute Garth Brook's,
I've Got Friends In Low Places
Mike's 9 steps to virtual
aviation stardom:
To work with the images in Mig Alley the files have to be converted...
Mig Alley uses it's own format *.x8 images. These are
unreadable in the graphic programs use by "normal" people so
they have to be changed. You need the following files to convert the images: Dos4gw.exe, tt2.exe, and
gpal.pal. Most of these are on your MA cd or you can download them
using the links below.
1. Create a new folder on your hard drive, I named mine mods so the path is
C:\mods
2. Place the three files: Dos4gw.exe,
gpal.pal and tt2.exe in this newly created folder.
3. Copy a file, say... F84FUSEL.X8, from your MA game
folder which probably lives at:: C:\rowan\mig\IMGMAP16. This is the fuselage file for the F-84 "Lead Sled" After copying it into the C:\mods folder you
stand on the precipice of creative genius.
4. Open a dos window make it small enough so it only takes up a little space on your windows desktop.
(This is done using the drop down box in the dos window upper left hand
corner. ) At the command line you will most likely see C:\WINDOWS> or something like that.
Type cd\mods and hit enter. It should look like this: C:\WINDOWS>cd\mods ...after you hit enter you will be in the mods directory,
C:\mods ...now you are ready to
convert!
5. Type: tt2 -r f84fusel.x8 -r gpal.pal -w f84fusel.bmp *type it exactly like this
with the spaces or it will wack out, that's graphic art talk for
won't work. It should look like this:
C:\mods tt2 -r f84fusel.x8 -r gpal.pal -w f84fusel.bmp ...now hit enter and
WHAMO! You have just converted the .x8 to a workable f84fusel.bmp. This is a normal bit map file that you can now modify at will. I use Paint Shop Pro sometimes
I use Photo Shop although
it's a pain and PSP does everything I need only easier. Remember you can only use 256 colors and they must be
from the same palette MA uses. If you use only those colors you can't go
wrong, well you can but that's another story. If you try to use
different colors your modifications will look ok in your graphics program but in the game they will resemble the product of a night of heavy
eating, drinking and subsequent hurling.
Also be forewarned these files are set up to run in 3D and appear very distorted when not running in the game.
You will have to compensate for the "stretching" when the image is converted back to a .x8 file. This is most
noticeable when dealing with the fuselage, the wings and tail are less
effected. Without thinking I decided to do reproduce Lt James L. Thompson's "THE HUFF" http://ma-skins.frugalsworld.com/sabre6.htm
After creating the Dragon .bmp it had to be smushed, (is that a word?).
Before I could put it on the fuselage the monster had to be
compressed by about a 6 to 1 ratio. I did this by resizing it in Paint
Shop Pro while changing the relative dimensions or aspect ration which is
fancy terminology for I made it fat. This is what it looks like:
 What the f86fusel.x8 looks like after conversion to .bmp format. |
 After being reconverted, the program "stretches the image and everything looks just about right. |
7. Now the fun part. Sit down and crank out a new Mig camouflage scheme or reproduce Capt.
Harold Fischer's F-86 "Paper Tiger", shouldn't take more than, oh 3 days working
straight through. Do most of your work between 2 and 5 am. Turn the
sound off on your PC. Close the door to your computer room and slip
about half dozen Tylenol PM extra strength gel caps in your wife's glass
at supper so she doesn't wake up and catch you, we don't need another KIA. *Note
if your wife weighs more than 200lbs. add two additional gel caps.
Seriously
it is an incredibly time consuming process, a lot of trial and error
and every time you need to check your progress you have to actually re-start
Mig Alley to see what things look like. In spite of all that it is fun. Now, the .bmp file(s)
you have created need to be converted back into the format .X8 All you do is reverse the process:
8. Back in the dos window at the command line type: tt2 -r f84fusel.bmp -r gpal.pal -w f84fusel.x8
It will look like this: C:\alley tt2 -r f84fusel.bmp -r gpal.pal -w f84fusel.x8
9. Copy the new f84fusel.x8 back into your rowan\mig\IMGMAP16
folder. *Make sure you put it back where it came from, that is the IMGMAP16
folder. If you put it in the plain ol' IMAGAMAP folder it will goof things up. Also you may want to copy / rename the original
f84fusel.x8 just in case you ever want to revert back to the default aircraft. Just name it f84fuselorig.x8 and you will know it's the original.
Now, we still have the issue of the ever present *&/#@-..@3)#% Jolly Roger to
spoil things. There is a way to change the default nose art and KILL
once and for all the dread skull and cross bones. This
process was discovered by another Mig Alley pilot and will be the subject
of my next project... Stay tuned, use a light touch at altitude and
"choose wisely".
For Internet Explorer
users right mouse click and choose: Save Target As...
For Netscape
users right mouse click and choose: Save Link As...
You should down load and unzip gpal.zip into the same folder as the other
files, it will unzip as: gpal.pal
The other files do not need unzipping.
Dos4gw.exe
gpal.zip
tt2.exe
