Written and Edited By: MarkEAW

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT ADD-ONS
The Different Kinds

HOW ADD-ONS WORK

BUILDING AN IMPROVED EAW
Prepping For The Add-ons and Mods | Backup a Copy of EAW | Multiple Installs of EAW
Briefly Recommended Add-ons
Beefing Up Stock ETO | Beefing Up With A Manager Program

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USING COCKPITS
Installing Cockpits | Keeping Custom Cockpits
Instruments and Gauges | Create individual custom v files
HUD Fonts | Gunsights | Installing Gunsights | Uninstalling Gunsights | Gunsights and Managers

USING SKINS
Simple Skin Installing | About File Names In EAW | Simple Skin Uninstalling
More Complex Skin / Aircraft Installation | More Complex Skin / Aircraft Uninstalling
Use A Skin Manager | Skins Look Weird in Preview | Skin Video Mode Compatibility

USING SOUNDS
Installing New Sounds | Substitute Sounds | How To Uninstall sounds

USING TERRAIN
Installing new terrain textures | Uninstalling Terrain | Sky Files Compatibility

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CODEGROUP VERSION CONTENTS

USING COCKPITS
Gunsights
 

The first few sections are basic steps that will teach you about the Community made Add-ons and how to best use them if you choose too. These are suggested steps to improve the stock EAWv1.2 version of the game. For other versions or types of the game, that may or may not require additional add-ons to improve the game (since they may already be part of the standalone game), see my 'First Use Help Document' for some important information.

Before applying any add-ons, please understand 99% of the downloads available are for straight stock EAWv1.2. For ease of use of these add-ons and tools, its best to start with MicroProses' final official v1.2 patch.

Before continuing below, I suggest to you to play the classic stock version of EAW for awhile, fly several Single Mission's for a week or more, so you can eventually learn what you want to improve about the game, beyond out of the box. This will allow you to see the improvements more readily. Check out my 'Files Help Document', If you have played the stock game for awhile and now want to improve your game, skim it over and review some of the files available.

To get the MPS game successfully from the CD to your computers Hard Drive, then patched to v1.2, see my 'Install Help Document' for more information. Also for information about the v1.2 NoCD exe and the eaw.ini settings that are needed for the NoCD to function properly, see the end of my 'HexEditied Patches Help Document'.

The other sections in this help document is to provide some information on how to use add-ons, such as installing, uninstalling and a little background info. You may find some modding details as well. For specific add-on help by file, please see my 'Files Help Document' and read the per file description, sometimes I have more usage directions there. Its also advisable to read the 'readmes' that may come with each file.

To someone just starting their pilot career in EAW and downloading mods, It will be a bit overwhelming. You will learn that it is difficult to keep track of all the changes made by all the various modders, artist and programmers, with all the excellent add-ons available. You will be just wondering what to get and use first since there is so much to choose from, and this really is understandable, we all been their. When you finally begin noticing the details about all the mods available, you will come to understand that it's almost like you have bought several Flight Simulators together and trying to figure them all out at once.

To help the new pilots get in the air as quickly as possible while still experiencing some of the best the EAW community has to offer, I've combined several sources of information primarily from the years 1998-2002 and added a bunch of newly written descriptive and instructive text to make a Files Help Document with many community add-ons and Mods listed, it is a truly modernized piece of helpful info.

The community has produced many excellent new and enhanced Theater of operations for EAW complete with new terrain, planes, in-game screens, campaigns, sounds, speech packs and more. Virtual Pilots can now choose from hundreds of planes and fly in many different theaters and campaigns such as; Flying a Zero in the Pacific, a Yak in the Eastern Front, or just a Spitfire over the English Channel, there is something for everyone. The list goes on and on, the amount of excellent add-ons available, of every type is truly amazing.

The Different Kinds:
You also should be aware that there is a difference between something called an add-on, modification and tool etc. Knowing this, take care when placing any type of files into your games folder. Read the instructions here and the ones that come with the specific archive you download to know how to install and use them. Most of all keep track of what you install into the games folder as you will need to know in the future what is what.

An example; Let's look at the .50 cal. machine gun sound. When EAW needs to play a .50 cal. sound, it will search the EAW folder for a file called SND0026.SND. If EAW finds this file, it will use that file for the sound. If EAW cannot find this file, it will access the SOUND.CDF and will thus use the default stock file.

An example: When EAW needs to draw a terrain picture, it will search your EAW folder for specific filenames. If it finds these names, it will use the information they contain to draw the terrain pic. If EAW cannot locate these files, it will access the "TERRAIN.CDF" and extract the necessary information from within.

An example: If eaw.exe needs flight information for the Me109E, it searches the EAW directory (the folder where eaw.exe is located) for a file called "109e.flt". If eaw.exe finds this file, it will use the information within. If eaw.exe cannot locate this file inside the EAW directory, then it will go into the flt.cdf to find the flight info for 109E.

So the add-on files you use, no matter how many of them, will never actually replace the default files so it is easy to restore things back the default stock setup. To return to the default stock configuration of EAW, you only have to remove the add-ons files from the EAW directory and there you are! You can delete them, or you can move them to another folder; it doesn't matter. EAW will only use an add-on file if it is one place: the EAW directory. Any other folder, including any subfolder inside the EAW directory, will NOT be searched by EAW.

You can not organize the files in your eaw folder into separate folders, the game will not recognize them. Any add-on file MUST be located directly in the EAW folder in order for EAW to recognize it! Remember, EAW will search the EAW folder for specific file names. It was not designed to search subfolders! If you put the add-on files in such a folder, the effect will be the same as not having any add-on files at all, since EAW will not find the appropriate filename when it searches the EAW folder. The only exceptions to this will be when using some of the manager programs that move files in and out of subfolders. With programs such as these, however, you should just follow the instructions that come with them. For all other add-ons, you must not put them into a subfolder.

A good practice is to never unzip anything directly into the EAW directory at first. You may prefer to see exactly what you are placing in it first. For an example; Some zip files contain things that you really don't need in the EAW directory, like screenshots, PCX files, readme files, etc. (your EAW directory will get cluttered up enough as it is!). Unless you have specific knowledge about what to leave out when you are first beginning in EAW, it is probably wise to go ahead and read all the install instructions that come with the add-on, they normally tell you what really needs to be put in the EAW directory for the game and add-on to work properly together. You will after time learn what files should be added and which ones are unnecessary.

Prepping For The Add-ons and Mods:
You should set up a folder for all your EAW downloads, and start filling it up with subfolders - terrain, patches, campaigns, skins, skies, extra graphics etc. and drop all your downloads in there so that you can find them easily. (Also you can't beat a CD/DVD burner for keeping all this wonderful stuff saved on a ROM-DISC's once you obtained them).

Backup A Copy of EAW:
Always keep a backup of a fresh install of a patched EAW game to 1.2, that way whenever you need to do another install, you can just copy and paste that folder into a new EAW folder and rename it. A fresh install is really a pretty painless thing. When I say "fresh install", what I really mean is "another fresh install".

Multiple Installs of EAW:
This information is highly optional since most people these days (2015) use many full installs of multiple EAW folders set-up for different campaigns, add-on combinations or game versions/types, so trying to make things easier and to save Hard Drive space using the other methods is strictly optional. See my 'Many Copies Help Document' for instructions using those methods.

Briefly Recommended Add-ons:
As for what to start with, here are some brief recommendations. When beefing up the game for the first time, think in a moderate sense. You don't want to spoil the stock game, but you want to improve it eventually in all areas possible. For everything mentioned below, See the individual descriptions about them in this Help Document elsewhere. Note: These add-ons can be substituted for whatever you like, if you know of better choices.

Note: You don't need all of the listed add-ons, right away. The following recommended add-ons in the list below are really intended to be a list of great possibilities that you can use in EAW, but not all of them are required for great gameplay! Trying to use too much at one time can lead to some problems as well, since it's probably best to start with a few things and then gradually add as you go. That's the way most players learned to use the add-ons (Since many where not made at the beginning of EAW's release, and they trickled out into the community, usually by a few at a time).

The order to install for the recommend add-ons:

1) Get the official EAW 1.2 patch and install it over the installed CD version. Some people prefer the earlier official patch, 1.1, and there is also an unofficial v1.2a exe. See my other 'Help Documents' with descriptions of these versions, if you want. Of course, you can use more than one installation, but again, 1.2 is the "starting point". If you plan to use high resolutions, like very high, there is an unofficial "Large HUD Font" "patch", used by most players with high computer specs and high game resolutions.

2) Download the last version of "MeatWater Soundpack" and install it. This is much better than the in-game sounds, and replaces almost all of them. Also don't forget to check out Serb's new SoundPack as well. (You can even pick and choose different single sounds later on, like from Pasha's, Bandit's, and Cord's sound files).

3) (Optional) Install Alan White's "EAW Control 2000". This handy program gives you a windows interface to make the most common edits to your eaw.ini file. (something you will do often) This has numerous advantages over just opening it and making the changes manually, it's quicker. If not stick with Windows notepad to open and edit your eaw.ini file.

4) Next, you defiantly want to get some new Graphics, I recommend you get new plane skins first. (In the stock version the planes look nice, but once you start flying with custom skins you realize the stock skins are really bland, probably historically correct though, for the most part). Use the stock skins for now if you don't want to get any new ones.

Other graphic additions include new Terrain, Sky/Clouds, Cockpits, Gunsights, Ground Objects such as buildings, ground vehicles, etc., etc.; all things that improve the aesthetic appeal of EAW! It's hard to say which specific ones to recommend because there are so many great ones out there, so it is really a matter of personal choice. (We can add these later). ((Optional) EAW Stab can also manage terrains and skins for you if you want to try different ones out for the same game folder, read about this later).

5) The next important thing to get is undoubtedly Charles Gunst's "ECA" ("Enemy Coast Ahead") and the "ECA Control Panel ". ECA is required to use the Panel. This allows you to fly some extra planes (like the Mosquito which appears but is not flyable in the original version) and tweaks the flight models a bit. The Panel gives you the flight models for a multitude of aircraft from many theatres of operation and nations not in the original game. (Use the stock planes now to get use to how they behave if you want. Then come back and add in the two ECA mods.)

6) (Optional) After you have all that, it's time to think of an Add-On Manager. These are program managers to help with all of these add-ons to be managed with your EAW game. Stab is one of the really popular ones. This will let you switch between custom terrain sets with specific aircraft skins and models. Very cool. The three most common are EAW Stab, Skins-n-More, and Theme Manager, (also see the OAW manager; Once you are comfortable with this idea of adding things in, the OAW game manager is worth experimenting with). Each one has many strengths and they do have a few unique weakness. Over all they allow you to install new plane skins, terrain sets and all the other add-ons to replace the originals with ease. How about skipping this too and worry about getting the manager programs later. You'll have to start over but it's better to move new skins and stuff in and out of the EAW folder manually first.

7) (Optional) If you plan to fly online, another thing that's useful is an 'Enabler/Disabler' program. One of them is the ECA Enabler by Scorpion. This is a flight model switcher - essential if you need to switch between FMs (other flight models sets; ECA, ECAO, RIP, MSA, etc that change game-play). This allows you have up to five different flight models sets available in only one installation of EAW, and to switch back and forth between those versions with just a couple of mouse clicks! There is also the EAW Configuration Manager (EAWCM) This neat little utility allows you to also switch from "stock" version 1.2 flight models to ECA Panel and back. If you get ECA/ECA CP, then you'll really need something like this, so you can fly with a clean EAW folder or with the ECA FM's. (remember all players need to use the same FM's when online).

If you don't want to install any of the FM switchers. Then you must choose between one of the flight model downloads (unless you are going to use multiple eaw installs). You now install whichever flight model you have decided to use.

8) Take your time with the other Add-Ons. If you just instantly throw all the Add-Ons into the mix, you may overly-complicate the sim at first and miss something. Its exciting to see the sim evolve from "original" to "custom" over a few weeks. It really lets you appreciate the fine work all these community folks have contributed. Also, by taking your time with it, you can developed a better understanding of what all this great stuff is for.

That should start you off quite nicely.

Where do you go after these? Well, there are all kinds of other add-ons to explore. But just the recommended ones listed above should keep you going for a long while! What you need to install next really depends on what you want from the EAW. The best part is, whatever you may want or need from this sim, there is some genius modder that has already figured out a way to bring your dreams to reality. Most of all, have FUN and fly a lot. It is too easy to spend all your time at first installing, adding and configuring.

Beefing Up Stock ETO:
Now then... as you now know by now, there are a TON of must have's for EAW. You will be choosing from many great add-ons to make the whole game experience a lot more enjoyable and or immersive. Below are some quick sample steps to get you use to adding in add-ons. First manually then an example for using a Manager program. Keep reading to download more files.

Make a new installation of EAW and try these mods out to beef up the stock ETO. This is done manually; Overwrite any previous files as you go. I used these files for a quick and fun game. (Personal setup for EAW (12-17-2002)).

If you want, substitute like types of add-ons for the ones you want instead.

• Install game from the game CD. (by MPS)
• patch to the official v1.2 (by MPS)
• add the hex edited v1.2a exe (by DaveS)
• use effects.zip (by Max188; file to enhance game effects)
• use flames.zip (by Max188; adds flames to burning engines and ground fires.)
• use combomod.zip (by Max188; Increases planes drawn distance and Fuel consumption)
• use people.zip (by Max188; file to enhance soldiers and civilians)
• use p47c_nobar.zip (by Paulo Morais; increases view-able area, removes center bar completely in cockpit)
• use Instruments20.zip (by Angeleyes; sharpened gauges so you can read them)
• use sum_field.zip (by Max188; high res original airfields)
• use sum_hr.zip (by Max188; high res original summer terrain)
• use sounds.zip (by Cord; mixed sounds, engine, guns, rockets etc)
• use wwiifsnd.zip (by Cord; Jane's WWII Fighters sounds)
• use sounds_luke.zip (by Luke; new engine and gun sounds)
• use GRN File Upgrades.zip (by Harry McWilliams; original buildings enhanced)
• use skyclouds.zip (by Max188; new sky, horizon clouds, overcast clouds, and heavy clouds, and new sun)

Beefing Up With A Manager Program:
Get a new Clean v1.2 EAW game folder from your Backup and try it again, but this time it will be a more difficult custom install of EAW. The order that you will install these add-ons and modifications are somewhat important. Below is a listing of my installation order.

• Install the Meatwater Soundpack and the upgraded so you have the last version(2.5)
• Add or replace any other sound files you wish to use such as speech packs, engine sounds, radio music, flak etc.. etc..
• Install the EAW Control 2000 program so you can modify your eaw.ini. Read the readme file for installation.
• Install the EAW Stab Manager v1.2. Follow the readme and create all your subfolders you'll need. Add any terrains you wish to use.
• Install a Skins Manager Program such as Relents Skin's N More and follow the readme file directions. Add any skins you wish to use.
• Add any new gun sight you wish to use.

At this point you will have a fully functional and slightly modded EAW version 1.2. You still will be able to fly against anyone with EAW version 1.2 since you have not installed any changes the Flight Model Data of the aircraft. It would seem unfair to all players to play when your moded differently than each other. But until ALL Game data is cheat checked, that's the way it is. Now lets add FMs (Flight Models).

• Install any other Manager program that handles custom Flight Model switching. Follow the instructions for installing these carefully and completely. In most cases you will first have to go into your main EAW directory and create a number of new sub folders for these new Flight Models. They will have to be named specifically.
• Install and UNZIP all the Flight Models you wish to use, make sure that you unzip each set into it appropriate sub folder within your main EAW folder.
• Create shortcuts to all your needed accessories for EAW such as EAW Control 2000, EAW Stab, Skins N More, and your Flight Manager program and place them onto your desktop for easy reference.

At this point you will have a fully functional EAW version 1.2 with a number of modified game subfolders. You should also be able to now switch between each installation by using your enable/disable Manager program. (When you created your subfolders for all of these sets, you should have also created a subfolder to bring you back to your original stock version of the game.)

See my 'Joystick and Controls Help Document' for details on how to adjust the in game FM sensitivity for your control and custom FMs.

There are several ways to improve the stock cockpit in EAW. Cockpits can be added, switched, made or modified. You will not be physically replacing the original cockpits, they will stay intact in the games CDF files. One thing you should be aware of about the awkward Cockpits in EAW, is that they don't actually fit in the plane's model, meaning more work needs to be done to make matching Custom Wing Views and Prop Views separately.

Installing Cockpits:
You would simply extract the cockpit files from your downloaded cockpit, dropping them into your EAW folder. EAW would load those files as your cockpit, instead of the game default cockpit. Note: the mod developers will have named the files so that EAW will load them for the correct plane--that is, a Hurricane cockpit would not be loaded for a Mosquito, if you chose to fly a Mosquito. If you download and extract a Hurricane cockpit into your EAW install, it would be used only if you chose to fly a Hurricane.

If you run a manager, then you would follow the given manager program instructions for where you drop the extracted files so that the manager can find them and use them.

Keeping Custom Cockpits:
Sometimes when your installing skins for planes they come with custom cockpit files. But you want to keep the files you already have for cockpits, like gauges, colors, wingviews etc..
Mark all the .tpc files for the cockpits you want to save as read only in Windows. This way when dumping in custom skins , you'll get a warning that the file exists with the same name.

Instruments and Gauges
EAW uses two ".tpc" files to draw cockpits. The "P***v.tpc" file is the "v" file. It is the cockpit color (including the "instrument panel" itself) and also the views of your wings when you look out of the cockpit. The actual instruments themselves are found in the "x" file, "P***x.tpc". Therefore, the instruments are in a separate file from the rest of the cockpit. There can only be one file in the EAW folder with the same name, so if you already have one file (named, say, P190av.tpc......this would be the "v" file for the FW190A), and you add another "P190av.tpc" file, the first file would be overwritten (depending on how you are adding the new file, you may or may not be prompted about wishing to replace the existing file).
 

Create individual custom v files:
It is possible IF you have the .pcx files that your .tpc files were made with! All EAW art files begin in PCX format (example: Pp51dv.pcx). To convert them into the compressed format that EAW uses requires them to be run through a utility called PicPac. PicPac was released by Microprose in the latter half the year 1999 and is what all EAW skins makers use to convert their files to EAW's ".tpc" format.

PicPac transforms the files into the ".tpc" files that you place in your EAW folder (example: the file "Pp51dv.tpc" will be created after "Pp51dv.pcx" is run through PicPac. Many skins makers include the ".pcx" files that they use to make their skins so people CAN modify them as needed. If you download a "v" file that does not include the original ".pcx", then you can...

Once you have the original .pcx's for both files (the one whose cockpit colors you want and the file with the wing views you need) it is a fairly simple process to combine them. You will of course, need an art program that can work with PCX files. I use MS Paint for actual art file conversions, transferring the changed portions of the file into my art program and pasting them in there. MS Paint only works with Bitmaps (BMP format), so that's why you need another program which can work with PCX files. Anyway, once the ".pcx" file is modified to the specifications you want, you just run it through PicPac. Instructions on how to do this are provided in the Readme file for PicPac. They can seem a little complex at first to someone used to Windows because PicPac is a DOS program. But if you do everything right PicPac works just fine.

Some things to be careful about when modifying the EAW .pcx files are:

1) DO NOT use any colors besides those that are already in the PCX's. If you introduce colors that are not in the EAW palette you will have, um, an INTERESTING looking plane! (When PicPac first appeared, it seemed that everybody who tried it wound up with a "psychedelic" aircraft! I think it took most of us a few tries to realize how to avoid this problem.) If I need to replace a color somewhere when I'm using Paint, I use the color-matching tool to use a color from somewhere else on the .pcx file. If I need a red, for instance, I can't use the red in Paint, I have to find a red color on the .pcx file.............Of course, if you're only pasting parts of one file onto another this shouldn't be a problem, since you're not really changing anything that doesn't already exist.

2) If you've looked at some of the .pcx files then you already know that they bear little overt resemblance to an airplane! You'll have to figure out what is what on the files! It's easier to do this on some files than others, and easier for some PARTS of airplanes than others.

3) Make sure that the resolution of your modified file is still 256 x 256. If it is anything else, you will get an error message when you try to run EAW. This message will say something to the effect of: "Pic wrong resolution". I'm not sure why, but a couple of times I've wound up with a modified file that is 256 x 255 or something like that. That is enough to prevent the game from starting. I'm not sure why this happened, but it was probably something that I did wrong! Anyway, it was pretty easy to fix: I just resized the .pcx file in my art program to the correct 256 x 256.

4) After you finish modifying the .pcx, running it through PicPac, and have a .tpc file that works, save a copy of both your .pcx and .tpc "v" files in a folder and label them so you know what they are and which airplane/skin combo they belong to. Then ONLY use a COPY of the .tpc file in your EAW folder. Remember that any time you add a new skin to the EAW folder, it MIGHT contain a "v" file (which could overwrite your "v" file). So never put your only copy of your modified file in the EAW folder!

HUD Fonts
The Font (really sprites) for the HUD display in flight is found in the FONTS.CDF file and are called TINYFONT.FNT and TINYFONT.FSP. The .FNT file is the font itself, and the .FSP controls the letter spacing.  Note: This font is also used during online Chat, some custom ones are so large or spaced far apart that the text can wrap or not be displayed.

Several people in the past have made or combined different font types with different boldness and spacing. Some of the custom fonts require you to use a special hex edited eaw.exe that is tailored to use the font.
(You really can use the fonts without the hex edited exe's)...

However the available fonts files can be renamed to the EAW default names; Once you download them and rename them, simply take the two fonts files and copy the files tinyfont.fnt and tinyfont.fsp straight into your EAW folder to use, this should work, if it doesn't then EAW doesn't search for fonts outside of the .CDF file. (I haven't tested this)

Also remember you can change your HUD colors if they are too hard to see with the eaw.ini file.
See my EAW.INI Help Document for more information.

Gunsights:
The default EAW gun sight leaves a lot to be desired! Fortunately, there are now other options available. The stock version of EAW only allows for one sight to be used at a time for all aircraft. For the stock v1.2 game, in order to use a custom gun sight you must have a file named "GUNSIGHT.SPT" in the EAW directory.

Installing Gunsights
 Just copy the particular gunsight that you want into the EAW directory (this is the folder where the eaw.exe file is located; normally this has the filepath of "C:\Program Files\MicroProse Software\European Air War"). NOTE that you will have to rename the gunsight file so that it is called "gunsight.spt". That is all there is to it.

Uninstalling Gunsights
To remove a gunsight, you can simply delete the "gunsight.spt" file from the EAW directory. Then you can return to the stock EAW gunsight (ugh!), or you can repeat the process, using a different sight.

Gunsights and Managers
Basically, with the automatic gunsight movers, you can select individual gunsights with Skins-n-More and the Gunsight Manager program.

If you want to use the Stab Manager program or the Theme Manager program to use whatever gunsight you want without changing other files, it will be harder to accomplish (although not impossible. See the individual managers for instructions.)

The ability to customize the paint job on an aircraft is what started the first of all the EAW mods and are a MUST to have. The community had very talented artists that where making skins at an incredible rate. They really spruced up what otherwise can become rather repetitive-looking airplanes. Tired of flying that olive drab Thunderbolt? Having trouble spotting those B-17's from above? Have you always wanted to zip around in a Mustang with a checkerboard tail? There are literally hundreds of new skins to choose from. It's amazing how much new life changing the skins on the planes injects into EAW.

I won’t suggest any specific skins only because there are literally hundreds to thousands of beautiful skins which exist and include almost every plane you could ever want done. There are skins available for virtually all of the the squadrons involved in the European Theater of Operations. There are also Russian, Japanese, Finnish, Italian and even Condor Legion skins from the Spanish Civil War. Its easy to end up downloading many ,many skins, But if I where you, I’d just start out with one or two skins for each model of the original default airplanes. Remember though in the stock EAW game you can only have one set of skins per aircraft model (shape) / slot at one time. Source Coded improvements after the year 2005 in unofficial versions of EAW allow multi-skins, which makes it possible to have one squadron with one paint scheme, and another squadron with a different scheme. You also can outfit squad members with their own surface numbers.

Unfortunately, EAW is limited to 256 x 256 pixel skins (by contrast, Janes WW2F and CFS"1", I believe, use 512x512, while the resource-hogging CFS2 uses 1024x1024 pixel files!!!). The lower res textures in EAW is partly one of many things that have always allowed EAW to run with good frame Rates even on older, slower machines. But just because the pixels are limited doesn't mean that the skins don't look good. You will be consistently amazed at the level of detail that skinners in the EAW community can achieve!

Simple Skin Installation
The way the add-on skins work is when EAW needs to draw a skin for a specific aircraft, it searches the EAW main game folder on your hard drive for files with certain names. In the case of a simple skin for the Spitfire MkIX, these files will all be called "Psp09***.tpc". The "***" stands for things like "tex", "tes", "tra", "v", etc. If EAW finds any files with names such as those, it will use those files when drawing the in-game skin. If EAW does NOT find any files with those names, then EAW will use its default "Psp09" files (from a ".CDF" file) to draw the in-game Spitfire MkIX skin.

The custom skins come come in a compressed archives, usually in zip form, so unzip them in a new folder anywhere, perhaps one named \Skins. After unzipping, you will see several files, the ones the game needs, have a .tpc extension. Simply drag and drop all the .tpc files into your EAW directory and there you have a new skin that replaces the games built in stock skin. (The .TPC files are the files you would need to change the paint scheme of the planes.)

About File Names In EAW:
While there are many different skins for any given aircraft, there is only one file name that EAW will recognize for that
plane. If you move a skin file into the EAW folder that already has a file with that name, a prompt will appear asking if you wish to overwrite the existing file. If you click yes, then the old file will be overwritten, and you will lose
that copy of the old file, unless you have saved it elsewhere, like a new \Skin folder. If you click no, nothing happens, giving you a chance to move the old file first.

Simple Skin Uninstall
To remove the simple add-on skin and return to the game default, you will notice since the EAW game only recognizes a few file names in a designated format for a plane, it becomes easy remove a simple skin. The simple skin files to delete have the .tpc extension.
In the case of the Spitfire MkIX, delete ALL the ".tpc" files that begin with "Psp09". Example: the ones like "Psp09tex.tpc" and you will restore the default skins for that aircraft. It will be something similar for other plane skins, with the planes model number and ending in ".tpc". Another example name is: "Pp47dtex.tpc", for a P-47 plane.

More Complex Skins/Aircraft Installation
Installing a new complex skins is no easy business, especially if you are unaware of just what the artist intended and after months of community development into EAW, many of the more complex skins included multiple files; complete new 3dz aircraft model files, custom static cockpits, high and low resolution files, transparency file, virtual cockpit file and other files that are required, things can get a bit more difficult to understand.

When unzipping a new complex skin, there are several different named files, firstly the presence of a p****tex.tpc, the main exterior skin file, and it's companions: the p****tes.tpc, for the low res long distance model. The: p****tra.tpc, for the transparent areas that have been edited, which allows things like glass, moving propellers, and aircraft markings to be displayed on an aircraft. (though with default EAW aircraft, this is often not necessary, but with new 3dz files, or non standard aircraft, it is generally needed.) For the B17 and B24, the ******n.tpc is the file which contains the nose art.

The second thing to look for is whether it has any edited 3dz files. Those 3DZ files contain the wireframe data of the aircraft. Sometimes these are included with a skin. This is uncommon with default aircraft, but again a modified aircraft will need these files, which are named, p****f.3dz, p****s.3dz, p****p.3dz and so on. It is absolutely essential that you remember to install the exact 3dz files provided with the skin of choice, as many utilize specially edited 3dz files tailored to suit that particular skin and determine the coordinates for the aircraft's 3D wireframe model. (Note: the hitbox size is stored inside the FLT file for the aircraft and not directly connected with the 3dz files shape or size.)

Finally, virtual cockpit view files, named p****v.tpc (these also give you the wing view of the plane in which you are flying, since cockpits don't really fit in the plane model themselves) The *****vtr.tpc file is the virtual cockpit transparency file. The p****x.tpc file is the gauges for a virtual cockpit file, they should be copied over also. Of particular note are cockpits for modified aircraft, as these often come with custom 3dz files and more importantly, a file known as vcg_****.dat which tells EAW where to place the instrument needles.
A couple of aircraft have additional virtual cockpit files; the Me262 and P38 have ******y.tpc and ******ytr.tpc files. These are used because of the complexity displaying multi-engine models.

You should always use all files included in a given set of skins. Once you know what files you are looking for (you may want to write down their filenames until you get used to this), the next step is to copy them to the EAW directory, and that's it.

More Complex Skins/Aircraft Uninstall
To return to the default EAW texture and 3D shape of that aircraft simply delete all of the .TPC files and the .3DZ files you had installed previously. Also any other special files that where included. (refer to the filenames you wrote down or look them up in the ZIP file they came from.)
 

Use A Skin Manager
Considering its laborious job to change skins manually you can use of either EAW Stab (you should unzip the TPC files into the appropriate subdirectory rather than the EAW main directory, read the readme instructions that come with the manager) or Skins'n'More. If you are using "ECA" and "ECAPANEL" by Charles Gunst you should start ECAPANEL.EXE in the EAW directory and select the just installed aircraft from the pull-down menus (this alters the name, flight model and armament to match the ones of the new aircraft) To return to default aircraft, Start ECAPANEL.EXE once again and change the settings back by selecting the EAW standard aircraft.

Remember, In the original game It is impossible to have two different skins in use at the same time for any particular aircraft slot. It is thus impossible to have individually numbered or coded aircraft. Note: However, some Source Code modified EAW's now have multi-skins that allow for this.

Skin Looks Weird In Preview:
Note that the View Objects 3D Screen most likely will CTD or lock up EAW as it uses an older code to display the plane model.
Some of the new skins you downloaded may look weird in the View Objects preview Screen and you many not hear the engine sound anymore while on that screen. The no-sound problem is just a strange thing happening when you add a custom aircraft to EAW. It will work fine in the actual simulation. Same goes for the textures - the color palette in the View Objects preview and Mission Briefing screens is not the same as it is in the actual Flight Screen. Just start a single mission with the chosen aircraft and see if it looks okay there.

Skin Video Mode Compatibility:
Sometimes skins downloads have a readme text file indicating something like "TNT-only" or "3Dfx" compatible. This is noted for your conveyance, since you may come across some Skins (colors) do not always work with specific video card types. (The range of colors used to make the EAW aircraft skins are in a defined set called an Indexed Palette.)

Therefore the skins may come in two versions from the author that made them.

The skins made for 3Dfx must use what is called an original "pre-defined EAW palette" (limited to a fixed 256 colors). (Which is why they sometimes look a bit more dull in Glide Mode, as the authors of the skins can't always find the color they want to really use). Under GLIDE if you add colors to the stock palette, they will not display correctly. You will end up with very oddly colored aircraft. They may look neon or pastel.

If you have a TNT-card (D3D Mode) you will not have any problems with any skins as the colors can be from limited colors to using added colors to the stock palette. (TNT is actually a generic term that's been tossed around since MicroProse's Picpac Art Kit was released in 1999, its a video card with an Nvidia or Riva chip in it. This old reference is noted here for us modern users of EAW after the year 2002).

So generally, a skin designed on a Voodoo video card will work with ALL video cards. If an custom palette is used in the skin (rather than the stock limited palette), the 3Dfx users will see the skin in neon type colors, whereas TNT users will see the skin just as it was meant to be. (Note: Both video modes use only 256 colors max at a time (same with Software Emulation Mode)).

If your not sure if the skin will work, don't worry--nothing will happen to your computer. It's just that all the airplanes in EAW that use that skin will now have a "psychedelic" paint scheme. You can easily restore the default stock skin by simply deleting the add-on from your main EAW game folder! Then Try another one suitable for your graphics card / display mode if available.

Installing new in-game sounds to EAW
Most sound downloads you'll need to Unzip the desired sound files with the extension SND to your EAW main folder.

Substitute Sounds
 If you want to pick and choose sounds, You can determine what SND file is corresponding to what in-game sound by referring to my Sounds Help Document, under Sound List. There is a list indicating which sounds are what by number and description. This way you can only substitute the sounds you actually want to be changed. Here's a quick example of replacing one sound with another. We will use the Gun Sounds for this example. The gun sound filenames and description are:

SND0025.snd=.30 cal. /.303 cal. / 7.9mm MG
SND0026.snd=.50 cal. /13mm MG
SND0027.snd=20 mm cannon
SND0028.snd=30 mm cannon

These SND00##.snd names will be the same no matter which converted sounds for EAW you have downloaded. Some popular gun sounds come from (MeatWater, Pasha, Bandit, or your own creation, etc.). There can only be one sound per gun and there is only four gun sounds for the stock game. If you look at the list above you will see that the 20 mm cannon sound will have to have the filename "SND0027.SND". It doesn't matter what the sound really is, when it is time for EAW to produce a "20 mm" sound, EAW will use that file! You can change any sound in the EAW add-ons with the following procedure:

1) Make sure you have at least one backup copy of all your existing sounds! (The default stock EAW are safely packed in a .CDF file)
2) Take whatever sound you wish to use as a replacement and rename it (if its current filename is different from the sound you are replacing) so that it has the same filename as the sound you want it to represent.
3) Take the "new" sound and just drag or copy it to your EAW folder. You will be prompted whether or not you wish to "replace existing file". Choose "yes" and you are done.

Here's an Example walkthrough: I want to use the 20mm sound from MeatWater's v2.0 sound add-on for the .50calibers in Meatwater's v2.5 sound add-on. Since I already have the v2.5 sounds safely copied into another folder, I can go right ahead and proceed with the replacement process. I go to my collection of MeatWater's v2.0 sound files and find "SND0027.SND". I copy it to another folder (it doesn't really matter which one as long as it's not my EAW folder or any other that contains EAW sounds) and rename it "SND0026.SND". Now I drag the copied file into my EAW folder. I will be prompted that the file already exists, do I want to replace the existing file? I choose "yes", and now when I fire my .50 cal. machine guns, I will hear MeatWater's v2.0 20 mm sound! as the .50cal. When I fire 20 mm cannon, I will hear MeatWater's newer v2.5 20mm cannon sound. This is just one example and many other options are available to you to mix and match sounds.

How to Uninstall
It's actually MUCH easier to restore the default sounds than you think. You won't need to copy anything from the CD. All you have to do is delete the add-on sounds from your EAW folder or at least move all of them to a different folder.
For an example, To return to the default EAW sounds simply delete the no longer wanted SND file(s) you installed or added before.
 

I am a big fan of the look of the original EAW terrain for the European Theater. But, out of the box, there is room for improvement. There are a few new textures out there that replace the default textures with snow and desert and corrected colors. These can be added to the game by following the instructions included with the files. They are easy to use and very worthwhile to try. However, you can only run one of these texture layouts at a time. Changing Seasons are only possible with a terrain manager like "EAW Stab" by Matt Thompson-Moltzen. To start, you may want to get the cleaned-up and enhanced default version Hi-Res Summer EAW Terrain. You will also want to pick up the Summer Airfields to match the terrain, both add-ons are by Max188.

On low end computers you may experience frame rate hits with some custom terrain. If you turn "Ground Object Detail" and "Terrain Detail" both to "low", your frame rate may improve if you where having problems with a custom terrain (the downside is that the landscape becomes barren!).

Installing New Terrain Textures
Its Important to read the included README.TXT (some Terrains don't come with all the needed TER files for size-minimizing purposes and the missing ones are created prior to installation as the readme describes.) You just handle the "terrain" (.ter) files the same way you would any "skin" (.tpc) file. The only difference is in the sheer number of files! With a skin file, you only have a handful to deal with, but with terrain there are "hundreds"! Unzip and copy all files with the extension .TER to your EAW main folder. (If you are using "EAW Stab" by Matt Thompson-Moltzen you should unzip/copy the .TER files into the appropriate subdirectory rather than the EAW main directory).

How to Uninstall
To return to the default EAW terrain simply delete all of the .TER files you previously installed (the number of included .TER files in the Terrain sets differ.) If you stick to the habit of deleting all of those files before changing terrains either back to the default or another new terrain set, you eliminate the risk of mixed-up terrain textures.

 You should not simply unzip the new set into your EAW folder. This is because not all the add-on terrain sets have the same number of files. (A specific example is that the "Autumn" terrain, for instance, does not replace every default terrain file; so "Autumn" would have fewer files than, say "Winter". If you have winter terrain loaded and try to change to autumn, there will not be enough "Autumn" files to overwrite all the "Winter" ones. The result will be a "mixed" terrain showing up in the game.)

With EAW Stab the switching is done for you. If you don't have EAW Stab, just use Windows Explorer to delete ALL of the ".TER" files in your EAW folder before adding a new set (you've probably already used this feature before: arrange all the files "by type", left click on the first ".ter" file to highlight it, then click on the last one WHILE holding down the SHIFT key, thereby highlighting ALL the ".ter" files---and then while your mouse pointer is over one of the highlighted files just right click and choose "Delete").
 

Sky Files Compatibility:
Many of these "sky" files are NOT compatible with each other. In many cases they are forced to share the same file name and thus the newest one you add will overwrite the older one in the EAW directory. In addition, some of these "sky" files do not work with all video cards. The most common problem is with TNT cards, where some of these files display with ugly black spots all over them (by contrast, they seem to work well with most Voodoo/3Dfx cards). The only real way to tell if your computer can show them properly would be to download them and give them a try! If they work for you, then you are in for quite an enjoyable time playing EAW!

 These are some of the files not released in Microprose Pic-Pac utility, but are .TER files.
(use 128x128 pix) They are:

Highest cloud layer..no plane can reach :)
BNcltra0.ter
BNcltra2.ter

Overcast clouds:
BNcloud0.ter
BNcloud1.ter
BNcloud2.ter

Verious clouds scattered.
Cloud0.ter
Cloud1.ter
Cloud2.ter

Horizon:
BNHorizn.ter
Horizn.ter

Sky:
Skyblu.ter
BNSkyblu.ter

When working with the Horizon files you must blend the fog layer to your new color or you will get a box effect around the earth.

CODEGROUP VERSION CONTENT

Gunsights:
In v1.28 the code was changed by Ralf so each slot had a separate gsight**.spt , 00 to 29. In v1.30 with no slots it became "gsight.spt" in the aircraft's FM folder. This of course continues in 140 and 150.

However, If you have a preferred gunsight you can put it in the root folder as "gsight.spt" and it will be used for every aircraft type, like in the stock v1.2 game.

[END]