------------------------------------------
GENERATING YOUR OWN CUSTOM GRAPHICS LEVELS
------------------------------------------

Generating your own custom worm levels has been made easy and fun. You have
the choice of quickly getting your level into the game, or spending a little
more time and customising it further through other methods - all of which are
explained here.

This document is in four parts;

(A)     BASIC (Getting your custom level in there)
(B)     ADDITIONAL EDITING (Setting Wind/Gravity/Background values)
(C)     EDITING COLOUR RANGES (For Water/Backgrounds)
(D)     ADDING YOUR OWN BACKGROUNDS


A Basic Steps;
--------------

1.      Digitise/Source/Draw your artwork, ensuring that the main graphics
        screen is EXACTLY 960x400 in resolution.

2.      You must ensure that your picture only uses 80 colours and these
        must be the first 80 colours in the palette. (Colours 0-79, or 00H
        to 4FH). There are many image processors available that will remap
        the colours for you, such as GRAPHICS WORKSHOP (C) Alchemy Mindlabs
        and shareware versions are available from all good PD/Shareware
        resources. Consult your image processor documentation with respect
        to "COLOUR REDUCTION" - try different versions with dithering on
        and off to get the best results.

3.      You must ensure that all areas of your picture that are to be
        transparent in the game are filled with colour 0. This is the only
        area that Worms can move and fire. Anything else is treated as
        solid.

        Also, try and leave a 32 pixel gap at the top of your image as
        any worms placed here will be obscured by the KO bar. This area of
        the image will automatically be cropped by WORMS anyway!

4.      Save/Convert your image to ".PCX" format. Again, there are many
        image processors and utilities available to help you do this.

5.      Use the GFXCON conversion program on the file. This utility auto
        remaps the palette for use in the game. (See about changing the
        water colour later in the doc).

6.      Place the file (making sure it has a ".PCX" suffix) in the
        WORMS/DATA/CUSTOM/GFX directory and load up the game.

7.      On the landscape generation screen, press space and type the
        name of the file (no need to type ".PCX") and that file should
        load and play. Providing you have followed the instructions,
        you should not have any problems.

8.      You can list all the custom graphics levels present on the disk
        by going to the WORM OPTIONS, LOAD/SAVE OPTIONS and selecting
        LIST CUSTOM FILES.  You can toggle between sample sets and
        custom levels.


Note:
-----
The above procedure is the easiest way to get your image into the game, but
there is quite a lot more you can do to change the way your level looks
and reacts - and even sounds...



B Additional Editing;
---------------------

".INF" Files
------------
If you look at any of the supplied custom levels (in DATA/CUSTOM/GFX) then
you will notice that each PCX picture file has a relevent INF file along
with it. This file is a standard text file, you can read/edit it with
a standard text editor, such as EDIT from DOS or NOTEPAD from Windows.

The .INF file (which should have the same name as your PCX file) allows
you to; For example the Team17.pcx would have a Team17.inf file.

1) Set the gravity              0 Min
                                1 Med
                                2 Max

2) Set the friction (slide)     0 Min
                                1 Med
                                2 Max

3) Set the wind strength        0 Off
                                1 Min
                                2 Med
                                3 Max

4) Which background to use      0       Default/Normal
                                1       Hellish Spiky Mountains
                                2       Alien Style Mountains
                                3       Alps Style mountains
                                4       Alternative Alps style mountains
                                5       Distant City/Hills

5) Which water set to use       0       Default/Normal       
                                1       Martian Gloop
                                2       Lava/Fire

6) Set which CD track to play   0       Forest/Ambient
                                1       Snow/Ice
                                2       Hell/Evil
                                3       Mars/Alien
                                4       Desert/Arid/Rocks
                                5       City/Urban
                                6       Warzone
                                7       Spooky/Graveyard
                                8       Bizarre/Crazy/Weird/Dreamstate
                                9       Farmyard/Alps
                                10      Znork in Z minor!/Tense Muzak!

The numbers on the top line of the file are seperated by commas and anything 
below the line is ignored. Do not let that stop you typing some text about
how you did it, how to get the best out of the level and stuff like that - 
check the example files that are already on the CD.

If the .PCX file does not have a similar .INF file, then WORMS assumes
default values.


C Editing Colour Ranges;
------------------------

You can change the colour ranges of the water and the backgrounds by editing
the .PCX file AFTER you have used the GFXCON program. Note: If you edit it
before, the GFXCON program inserts default colours on re-writing the file!

Water:                             16 Colours, in the palette these
                                   are ranges 80-95  (50H-5FH). A spread of
                                   1 colour is usually best. 

Background layer 1 (front layer):  16 Colours, in the palette these are
                                   ranges 16-31 (10H-1FH). You will have to
                                   check depending on the chosen background
                                   graphic, to see what is best as some gfx
                                   have cities in them etc.

Background layer 2 (back layer);   47 Colours, in the palette these are
                                   ranges 129-175 (81H-AFH). Remember that
                                   the top half of mountain graphics is
                                   usually the sky.

You can also copy one of the .BK1 and .BK2 sets (which are background layers)
and rename them to the name of your .PCX file. These will then be loaded
instead without the need to edit the .PCX file colour ranges.


D Adding Background Graphics;
-----------------------------

A facility for adding your own backgrounds has been added. You must draw them
in the following sizes and colour-resolutions only;

Background layer 1;     320x200         16 colours (Colour 0 is transparent)
Background layer 2;     320x200         48 colours (Colour 0 is transparent)
                                        Note: The bottom line of pixels MUST
                                        be all the same colour!

The colours must be in the first 16/48 respectively and the program will
automatically map the colours into the appropriate palette range in the game.

When done, name the files <name>.BK1 and <name>.BK2 - the same as your
<name>.PCX file and <name>.INF files.  If .BK1 and .BK2 exist, they will
auto-load, replacing the setting in the .INF file for background graphics
and the colour range you set for the background layers in your .PCX file.

And that`s about it... Phew!

If you produce any stunning levels, do not be afraid to send them to us!
Prizes await the best ones and we`ll put good ones on our site for all to
download!

<For reference, see GFXCON.TXT for using the conversion utility>




