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Gumps Paint Tutorial
Page Updated 24/02/02

Here are is a advanced tutorial on how to paint planes for use in Red Baron. These notes are correct to the best of my knowledge, but I warn you, I have had no formal training regarding computer programming and this information has been learnt from simply testing and mucking around by me !!

There is a more basic set of notes in a text file called 'mpPaint' located in the Sierra/RedBaron folder that you can read.

NOTE: Due to the way the multiplayer game servers work (The game is played on each players PC and only the information needed for plane location and to register bullet, bomb etc hits is transferred), For other players to see your scheme, they will have to have a copy of all the files used on their PC aswell.

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BASIC OVERVIEW ON CREATING YOUR OWN SCHEME

Red Baron gives you the option of being able to create your own paint schemes for and use them in both the Single Player and Multiplayer games. To do this you need to do a number of things.

1) Have the modified BMP (Bit-Map) files that are used to cover the 3D skeleton of the plane, located in a sub-folder in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint directory.

2) Have the planes .CFG file that is used to tell the game which BMP files to use to cover each part of the skeleton, located in the same sub-folder in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint directory.
This file will be created by the game when you save your new scheme via the Red Baron Paint Shop.

3) Have a .INI filed called 'Paintcfg' located in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint directory, with a line of code in it that tells the game where to find your new scheme, which squad ID number is used to 'activate' it, and which plane to use it on during the game.

This may sound confusing and very 'technical' to start with, but its very easy to do and will be very worth it in the end !!

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STEP ONE : WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO PAINT A PLANE

You will need the BMP (bit-map) files for the aircraft you wish to paint, and a graphic editing program (eg. Paint Shop Pro). To get the BMP files, you can 'export' them via the paint shop in the single player game, or download the original parts zip from my Parts Bin page.

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STEP TWO : FILE & FOLDER NAMES

After getting the BMP files you need, re-name them. It is very important that the names you use are not the same as any-other BMP files that other custom schemes use. If they are, you will see your modified BMP files on the players plane that is using the files with the same name, and the other player will see their modified parts on your plane.

The BMP files must be no longer than 8 characters long. My suggestion would be to use 2 of the spaces to identify which plane they belong to, 2 to identify which part it is and the other 4 to identify that its yours.

For the rest of this document, were going to be painting a Sopwith Snipe, so to identify that it is a Snipe, I'm going to use the code 'SS'.

The Snipe is made up from 9 BMP files, the common codes for these parts used are as follows:

UWT = Upper Wing Top
UWB = Upper Wing Bottom
LWT = Lower Wing Top
LWB = Lower Wing Bottom
ELT = Elevator Top
ELB = Elevator Bottom
FUS = Fuselage
RUD = Rudder

ALL BMP FILES USED ON A SOPWITH SNIPE



Not all planes have 9 parts, the Triplanes obviously have more wing parts, the Mono's obviously less, and not every plane has separate BMP's for the top and bottom of the elevators.

To continue with our Snipe names, I'm going to drop the middle letter from the above codes for the 2 letters to identify each part. For the last 4 characters, I'm going to use 'gump', as I haven't seen another pilot using that nic name in the multiplayer games, I'm fairly sure it wont clash with anyone else's paint files.

So the full name for each Snipe part will look like this:

'gumpSSut' for the Sopwith Snipes Upper Wing Top
'gumpSSub' for the Sopwith Snipes Upper Wing Bottom
'gumpSSlt' for the Sopwith Snipes Lower Wing Top
....and so on....till I have named all the parts in this way.

Now you need to work out a name for your planes CFG file (the file that is created when you save your new scheme in the Red Baron Paint Shop, more on that later) Again, use a name that identifies the plane it relates to and that it is your's.
This also has to be no longer than 8 characters long.
For my Snipe, I'll use 'gumpsnpe'

The last name we need is the one for the folder that the BMP and .cfg file will be stored in. I'll simply call it 'Gumps'

To sum up, we now have the following:

BMP File names : gumpSSut, gumpSSub, gumpSSlt, etc etc
A plane CFG File name : gumpsnpe
Storage Folder Name : Gumps

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STEP THREE : MODIFYING THE BMP FILES

To modify the BMP files, use your graphic editor to open the BMP file and paint it however you want. It is advisable not to alter the shape of the BMP unless you feel that it will still look good when seen in the game.

HINTS AND THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR:

1) Look at some of the BMP files that other people have modified to get ideas. You have to add your own 'texture' to the plane to make it look right (eg to get the wing spars to look real and the fabric to look right)

2) The game 'mirrors' the Fuselage and Rudder BMP's to paint both sides of the plane. So numbers, letters and logos will be show back to front on one side on the plane.

3) The game can only use a certain number of pre-defined colors. Either only use the color palette that comes with the BMP files, or get the expanded palettes from Flyberts website. If you do use colors that are not on the palettes, there is a DOS based program that comes with the game that will convert each BMP back to the correct colors for you. It's located in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint directory and is called 'palmap'. For information on using this program, see the 'Paintme' text file also located in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint directory.
Remember, if you don't use any extra colors that are not in the original palette or the expanded ones, you will not have to do this !!

4) Watch out for 'stretching' on the fuselages. Since the fuselage BMP files wrap around the 3D skeleton, the game will take a row of pixels from the fuse BMP and use that one row (whatever color it is), and stretch it around either the top or bottom of the fuselage. For example, you may put a large letter 'A' on your fuse, but when it is put over the 3D fuselage skeleton, only the bottom half the 'A' may look normal, with the top half stretched over the whole top of the fuse.
This 'bug' does not affect all planes, by looking at the way the BMP file is originally painted, you can usually tell if it will stretch or not.

AREA OF FUSELAGE BMP'S THAT MAY STRETCH



5) All of the BMP files have 'Invisible' areas. The black background color around the outside of each BMP and the Cockpit on the fuselages are the most common. Make sure these areas stay colored with an invisible color. This means the color must have no 'RGB' values at all. The colors you should stick with are the BLACK and PINK colors on the palette that have no RGB values.
When you get more comfortable with modifying the BMP's, you can change the shape of them by using the invisible black color to 'rub' out certain areas or by adding colors to the invisible areas. One of the best examples I have seen of this was done on a Fokker Dr1 to make the wings look like 'bat' wings.

EXAMPLE OF INVISIBLE AREAS ON BMP FILES



6) If you color the nose cone on some of the planes all the way up to the left hand edge of it of the BMP, that color will be stretched across the the front of the plane where normally the 'grill' or engine would be showing. To stop this from making the plane look funny, simply use a dark grey or black color on the last column of pixels. Only one type plane I know of actually has a 'proper' grill showing, the Spad 7 & 13, so this doesn't affect these planes.

EXAMPLE OF HOW TO PREVENT NOSE COLOR STRETCH



The main trick when painting your planes is to get used to how the BMP files look when you paint them compared to how they actually turn out in the game.

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STEP FOUR: SETTING UP THE FILES

Ok, now we have the BMP files modified, we can apply them to the plane, make the plane .CFG file and put them in the right folder.

1) Make sure all your modified BMP files are in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint folder, then start up the Single Player game and choose a pilot which has the rank to modify paints and the correct plane available. The rank you need is the highest one available when you choose a new pilot. To be able to access the right plane, see the list at the bottom of this section for the right service, enlistment date and squadron for each plane type.

2) Go into the Paint Shop and select the plane (Sopwith Snipe in this case).

3) Choose which plane part you wish to change and click the 'Import' button.
This will bring up the list of the BMP files that you modified and put into the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint folder. Choose the correct part from your BMP files to replace the one you want and click 'Select'. Then to make sure it is put on the plane, click 'Apply'

NOTE: If you receive the error message "BMP file mostly invisible, cannot open file' don't despair. This is a 'bug' in the game and you can get around it. Simply use another BMP file of the same part that does work (eg a solid colored wheel instead of a spoked one), with the same name that your modified part uses and apply it to the plane. Then when you come to put your parts in your schemes sub-folder, put the modified part in it instead of the part you used  to apply to the plane (eg put the spoked wheel in it instead of the solid wheel). This usually happens to spoked wheels and some rudders.

4) Once you have changed all the original parts to the ones you have modified, click on the 'Save' button. When you do this, the game will create your planes .cfg file and place it in the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint folder next to your BMP files.
So here I type in the name that I chose before for my file : 'gumpsnpe'

5) Exit the game and access the Sierra/RedBaron/Paint folder. Here we create the sub-folder that is used to store the BMP files and gumpsnpe.cfg file. For my schemes, I chose the folder name 'Gumps'. Once you create your folder, place the BMP files and the plane .cfg file (gumpsnpe.cfg) into it.

PILOT LOGS FOR EACH PLANE TYPE
( ALSO SEE THE ALL PLANES PATCH ON THE ADD-ON PAGE ) 

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STEP FIVE : WRITING THE PAINTcfg CODE LINES

If you don't yet have one, create a .INI file in your Sierra/RedBaron/Paint folder called 'Paintcfg'. The code lines which has to go in here will look this this:

40,7,0,gumpsnpe,Gumps

1) The first number, '40', is the ID number that the game uses for the Sopwith Snipe. A full list of these numbers is included at the bottom of this section.

2) The second number, '7', is the number, which, when typed into the 'Squad ID' box during a multiplayer game when you chose a plane, activates the paints. This number can be anywhere between 1 and 190. *SEE NOTE BELOW*

3) The third number, '0', is the flag that tells the game to either just show the paints on your PC, or on everyones PC in the multiplayer game.
'0' = All PC's
'1' = Your PC only

REMEMBER, Everyone has to have the files on their PC to see the paints !!!

4) The fourth entry, 'gumpsnpe' is the name I gave to the plane .CFG file

5) The Fith entry, 'Gumps', is the name of the folder I chose to store my BMP and gumpsnpe.cfg files in.

6) If you want to add a description to the cfg lines in the paintcfg file, start any comments with the ';' (semi-colon) symbol. Example :

; My Sopwith Snipe
40,7,0,gumpsnpe,Gumps

*SQUAD ID NUMBER NOTE*
Most of these numbers are already in use if you have the Squad/Custom paints and paintcfg file from Flyberts site. You can, however, use any number you like (nobody 'owns' them). If the number is already in use, you will see your paints on all the same planes using the same Squad ID number as you.
If you use a 'taken' number, you will need to delete the cfg lines that are in Flyberts paintcfg file that also use this number, for that particular plane, for your paints to work correctly. Remember too that all the other players in the game will see the paints that have been assigned to that number by Flyberts paintcfg file if they have them installed.

PLANE TYPE ID NUMBERS 

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