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Additional Bitmap Requirements for skinning World War I Planes

The World War I planes have a unique damage model system, which requires a damage texture/bitmap to be submitted with each skin. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is an example, using the Camel.

There are two basic textures to skin with in the Camel, and other WWI aircraft, as follows:

Aces High World War 1 plane skin texture CAMEL_1.bmp

Aces High World War 1 plane skin texture CAMEL_2.bmp

The name for the two textures are "CAMEL_1.bmp" and "CAMEL_2.bmp".

This brings us to the two complimentary damage textures.

Aces High World War 1 plane skin texture CAMEL1D.bmp

Aces High World War 1 plane skin texture CAMEL2D.bmp

You will notice the "CAMEL1D.bmp" is the same bitmap as "CAMEL_1.bmp", but has been given a damage mask overlay. Same goes for "CAMEL2D.bmp".

In order to produce a WW1 skin, you will need to take your two base skins/bitmaps and overlay them with the damage bitmaps provided here. It is important the base color of the damage mask stay at the RGB value of 255,0,255.

Once you have completed the overlay and conversion to an 8 bit indexed bitmap, you will need to get the index value where the color of the damage mask is stored in the bitmap. How this is accomplished will vary depending on your paint tool of choice. Typically it is shown in the color palette of the bitmap.

Please note, the "Damage Bitmap Layer" is a PNG file. This preserves the alpha channel so you can overlay the base texture without having to do any more work.

Plane	Overlay this file	with this Damage Layer	to create this bitmap	Set the index value of the mask color from the bitmap in this file
Camel	CAMEL_1.bmp	CAMEL1D.png	CAMEL1D.bmp	CAMEL1D_a.txt
	CAMEL_2.bmp	CAMEL2D.png	CAMEL2D.bmp	CAMEL2D_a.txt
DR.I	DR1_1.bmp	DR1_1D.png	DR1_1D.bmp	DR1_1D_a.txt
	DR1_2.bmp	DR1_2D.png	DR1_2D.bmp	DR1_2D_a.txt
D.VII	D71.bmp	D71D.png	D71D.bmp	D71D_a.txt
	D72.bmp	D72D.png	D72D.bmp	D72D_a.txt
F2B	BRISTOL2.bmp	BRISTOL4.png	BRISTOL4.bmp	BRISTOL4_a.txt
	BRISTOL3.bmp	BRISTOL5.png	BRISTOL5.bmp	BRISTOL5_a.txt

Right-click on the appropriate PNG files and save them to your hard drive for use as the damage overlay mask for skinning any of the WW1 planes.

Failure to include the above damage textures with a skin submission will cause the skin to be rejected.

Aces High has several online arenas available for multi-player gaming. To go online, you must have an active subscription with HiTech Creations or be in a two week free trial period.

The arena list includes the Arena name, the Players/Max, and the Ping time to the arena.

The first number in the Players/Max count represents the current number of players in the arena and the second number is the total number of players allowed in the arena.

The Aces High arenas use a dynamic or floating limit for the arenas where there are two, or more, of the same type. For instance, the two Late War arenas will show a limit that changes as the amount of players in these two arenas change.

The arena limits are governed as follows: As an example, if the Orange arena reaches a certain percentage of its maximum capacity, the server will adjust the Blue arena limit to a higher number. When the Blue arena reaches a certain percentage of its limit, then the Orange arena limit is raised. Conversely, the arena limits are also reduced in the same manner.

This gives the possibility of an arena limit being lower than the actual current number of players in that arena.

Highlighting an arena in the list and clicking Ping Details shows additional information about the connection to that arena.

The Early, Mid, and Late War Main Arenas are where you'll find the majority of players. These arenas differ in the plane sets offered. The Early War Main arena has early World War II planes or planes which best compete in that era. The Mid War Main Arena contains planes specific to the middle of World War II as well as the planes from the Early War Main arena.
The Late War Main Arena has all aircraft enabled from all time periods of World War II.

The Axis versus Allies arena is set up for historical gameplay. There is a two sided war, a limited plane set, and reduced radar.

The Dueling Arena contains a special terrain with separate areas for all types of game play including furballing, tanking, and canyon fighting.

The Special Events Arena is available to all players and events are scheduled by the Aces High Campaign Managers. For a schedule of events, please visit events.hitechcreations.com.

The Training Arena is available for players to practice online without affecting their scores. In this arena, players are requested to ask permission before engaging other players, and to not interrupt training sessions in progress.

The Open Lobby button opens a lobby area where you enter a chat room to hang around and talk to other players. It is handy when you wish to schedule meeting other players online.

The role of level bombing, in Aces High, is designed to be enjoyable, practical, and captivating while still being representative of the real thing. Bombers best destroy by brute force, sweeping broad paths of destruction rather than bombing single objects with pinpoint accuracy. A successful bomb run requires a great deal of skill and planning.

Formations
Certain bombers in Aces High have the option of taking off in a formation from the hangar, so a single pilot has control of a box of three or more planes, instead of just one. When taking off, the pilot is in the lead plane and the planes take off in trail formation and then assume combat formation on climb out. It's important to understand that these are not really AI planes. They don't do anything on their own except maintain formation. In essence, the pilot is flying a box rather than a single plane. The other planes cannot operate on their own - they simply do what the pilot does. If the pilot drops a salvo of four bombs, they drop a salvo of four bombs. The planes cannot drop bombs independently of each other. If they become separated, they won't rendezvous at target or head home or anything like that, they will simply be lost/destroyed. That invisible silver cord is rather short, probably 1000 yards or less, so doing wild maneuvers will cause stragglers that will eventually be lost.

When a formation is taken up, all planes in that formation count for kills and deaths. As the planes in the formation get killed, they count as a death for the pilot and as a kill for the attacker. If the lead plane is destroyed or the pilot bails out, the pilot is automatically put in control of the next plane which will then become the lead plane. This process will continue until there is only one plane left from the original formation.

Gunning

Gunning works similarly to gunning in a single bomber, but with more guns involved and convergence between the different gun positions being more of a factor. The pilot can man guns while a gunner is on board. Control of the guns is split between the pilot and gunner, therefore making them better able to handle multiple attackers. Gunners are able to join or exit from a plane at any time. This makes it easier to recruit a gunner for a short while when he's needed because he won't be trapped for the duration of the sortie.

Pilots jump to the gun positions in the lead plane by using the default keys 2-7, depending on how many gun positions there are in that particular bomber. To move to a gun position, in another plane, in the formation, first jump to the desired position in the lead plane, then use the keys ctrl-1, ctrl-2, ctrl-3 or ctrl-4 to jump to that same position in a different plane. For example, to move to the third gun position of the second plane, first press 3 on the keyboard to move to the third position in the lead plane, then press ctrl-2 to jump to the second plane. The view will be changed to the third position of the second plane. The cockpit position (position 1) can only be jumped to in the lead plane.

All gun positions have interrupter gear that prevents them from firing through any parts of their own plane. For example, the top turret of the B-17 will not fire directly backwards because the tail is in the way.

Bombing

Bomb runs have to be carefully planned and executed or they will be totally inaccurate drops. To execute a bomb run, the first step is to position the plane on the correct heading, flat and level, and with no acceleration or deceleration, and the second step is to calibrate the bombsite for the correct drop parameters. This system simulates the type of process a bombardier had to go through to set up a bomb run but handles the minutia automatically.

There are four basic step to calibrating the bombsite:

Enter calibration mode
Set the target altitude
Exit calibration mode

To calibrate the bombsite, the pilot must first jump to the bombardier's position. The default view in the bombardier's position is through the bombsite, although the pilot can still look around using the view keys. The upper left corner of the screen shows the current calibration status. Items that need to be set are displayed in red, items are displayed in yellow while in calibration mode, and all items are displayed in green when the bombsite is fully calibrated.

1. Enter calibration mode
Upon entering the bombsite, the calibration status shows the current calibrated speed, drop altitude, plane altitude, the current salvo and delay settings and the bomb door status. "U" is the default key command to enter calibration mode, but if you have made changes to your key map at any time, you'll have to go into the key mapper and map this key before you'll be able to calibrate the bombsite. Press the key you have assigned or "U" to enter calibration mode.
2. Set target altitude
Make sure your altitude is steady and your course will take you over the target. It is generally best to calibrate once you get close to the target. Press the 'Y' and hold it for at least 2 seconds. This will align and calibrate the site to the target altitude and your plane's current speed. Press 'U' when you are done.
3. Exit calibration mode
After exiting calibration mode, the calibration status will be displayed in green, indicating that the bombsite is calibrated and ready to drop bombs. Remember that any changes to the flight profile (speed, altitude, etc.) between the calibration and drop will throw off the accuracy of the drop and the bombsite will need to be re-calibrated.

Custom skins can be made for the aircraft, vehicles and boats in Aces High and submitted to HiTech Creations, for approval, for use in any of the arenas. Custom skins are selected from the hangar.

In order to create custom skins, you must set the maximum texture size in the game, to 2048 (or higher) and install the high resolution texture pack.

Making Custom Skins

Go into the hangar and select the plane you wish to make a skin for. We'll use the P-51D in this example.
Right click the P-51D in the plane selection list and select Save Skin. This will export the default skin bitmaps for the P-51D to the folder ../HTC/Aces High/skins/p51d. The name of the export directory will always be the base name of the plane, vehicle, or boat.
Create a new folder in the skins directory with the same name as the export folder but with a number appended to the end. In the example of the P-51D, this directory would be named "p51d_1". For each additional skin you make for a specific plane, the number in the name of the directory should be incremented by one so that the directories for each additional P-51D skin would be named p51d_2, p51d_3, p51d_4, etc, all the way up to p51d_15 which is the maximum limit. This will be called your working directory in this discussion.
In the export directory, view the .bmp's and decide which ones you wish to modify. Copy the files that you will be modifying from the export directory to the working directory you created in step 3. IMPORTANT: Copy ONLY those files that you will be changing.

Note: There are 3 types of files in the export directory:
- ***.bmp - The color part of a texture. This is what you will be modifying.
- ***_a.bmp - The alpha channel of a texture.
- ***.txt - 256 color textures can have a transparent index, this contains that index. There is also a material.txt file, for some planes, which contains various settings to allow for painted, versus bare metal skins.
If the name of the .bmp that you wish to modify has an alpha or transparency file associated with it, you will need to copy that file to your new skins directory as well. Example: If you wish to modify a file called p51dside.bmp and there is also a file called p51dside_a.bmp or p51dside.txt, then you will need to copy those files in addition to p51dside.bmp to your working directory.
Modify the bitmap files in your working directory using a graphics editor. Note: Do not change the color format, all files should be 256 color bitmaps. Additionally,all skins must be 1024x1024 texture size, or larger (2048x2048, 4096x4096...) as befits the plane being skinned. Older planes used 256x256 resolution and must be upgraded when doing a custom skin
Describe your skin. Create a .txt file in your working directory with the base name of the plane. Example: p51d.txt. This is a one line text file that contains the description of your skin and is displayed on the clipboard in the hangar. Open the text file and enter your skin description on the first line. Example: ###FG/###FS by PlayerName. Keep the length of your description short enough so that it will fit within the skin field on the clipboard, 30 characters or less.
To see your skin in the game, go to the hangar and select the plane you modified. Use the skin dropbox on the clipboard to select your skin. Now fly with your new skin.

Please note: World War I skins have a special requirement. Please review this page for further information on the creation of World War I skins.

Submitting Custom Skins to HTC

Basic guidelines:

1) We would like to get some information about the creator of the skin. Create a text file named "info.txt" containing the following information:

Skin Reference #: (where applicable, leave blank otherwise)
Name:
Game ID:
Bulletin Board ID:
Email Address:
Contact Phone Number:
Information:

If you have any URL's which point to te history of the skin, or where you did your research, then include it. All the information about how you obtained the skin reference is helpful in expediting the process.

Put the "info.txt" file into the zip file you send as an attachment. Please do not send it separately.

2) Check the object.txt (replace the word object with the actual object name, for example p51d.txt note that the file name is all lower case too) to make sure the string in that file is not too long (20 characters or less will be fine).

We have adopted a naming convention for the information in this file we would like everyone to try and follow. Here is an example: 51FG/214FS by player_id

Basically, the flight group, and the flight squadron, separated by the '/' symbol. We are aware this convention does not work for all planes nor all branches of the military in the world, but you get the idea.

Replace player_id with your game/pilot handle.

3) Use the skin administration tool to submit and monitor the status of your submission.

Some basic guidlines:

We will not accept skins containing the swastika. NOTE: If you are making a skin that originally had a swastiska, just leave the spot blank where the swastika would have been, or change the swastika to the Iron Cross. Use your best judgement on this.
We will not accept skins that alter the overall shape of the object.
We will only accept skins that were historically used in World War II.
Only submit the files/skins you actually change from the original.
The text description file must be named by the object name, such as p51d.txt for a P51D skin, for example.

Mannable guns on player controlled task groups are a unique feature in Aces High. The fleets will appear on your clipboard map just like any other field, and a double click on the field icon will move you to the aircraft carrier deck of the fleet. Once on the fleet, go to the Hangar and select "Gun Ship or Field" to see what gun positions are available.

The icons represent the guns that can be manned and moving your mouse over any position displays the name of that position.

Click on an icon to select a position, then click "H" on the lower left corner of your clipboard to take over the gun.

A range sight is available for the large guns, which allows players to set bearing and range with just a mouse click. Use the Insert key to zoom in on your clipboard map, then click where you want to hit and use the ESC key to put the clipboard away. The range and bearing data is on the left side of the screen, with the first number being your actual and the second number being your aim point.

Pulling back or pushing forward on your stick adjusts the range, moving the stick side to side adjusts bearing.

There are three gunnery modes available to use with the range sight. After moving to the gun position, select a gunnery mode by pressing the desired key. If you've made any changes to your key maps, you'll have to use the Key Mapping utility in Aces High to map these keys before trying the gunnery modes.

Key "Q" - Direct Mode. The player has complete control of the gun.
Key "W" - Land Mode. The gun will shoot to the selected point regardless of the ship's movement.
Key "E" - Sea Mode. The gun will shoot to a point relative to the movement of your ship.

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Aces High takes the art and science of vintage WW1 and WW2 air combat and sets it in a high intensity online multiplayer environment. Hundreds of players simultaneously battle it out against each other in massive aerial dogfights and bomber raids.

High fidelity flight simulation is the heart of Aces High but it doesn't end there. A war rages on the ground and at sea. Engage enemy armor in tank combat. Protect your fleet as a gunner or make a torpedo run in a PT boat. Lead an assault in an amphibious vehicle. With over 100 warbirds, vehicles, and boats available, you have access to a vast virtual arsenal.

Take part in special events such as historical scenarios where famous battles are recreated and reimagined or try your hand at air racing at tree top level against skilled competitors.

In the air, on land, and at sea, the battle rages 24 hours a day with participants from around the world. Take our free two week trial and find out why Aces High is the online game for you.