Colour map (first generation)

(Up to File formats)

The Amiga versions of Worms and Worms: The Directors Cut allow for colour maps, as does Worms: Reinforcements and Worms United for MS-DOS.

Amiga versions

Worms

The Amiga version of Worms supports .WRM files, a customised .IFF variant. Worms maps need to be in a paletted 8-colour mode at a size of 960x350. Additional information concerning gravity and friction are stored in the .info icon file for the .WRM file (all Amiga files with icons have an accompanying .info file, otherwise they are "hidden" files).

The palette must contain the following colour references, as they are also used for other elements of the game:

• 00 - Black or dark colour (transparency)
• 01 - White or near-white (also used for sheep, worms' eyes, worms' name/HP font, and graves)
• 02 - Pink (also used for worms' bodies and antialiasing on worms' name/HP font)
• 03 - Any colour (also used for mines and crates)
• 04 - Lighter variant of 03 (also used for shading on mines and crates)
• 05-07 - Any colours

These files are stored in the TWCUSTOM drawer. Worms can only recognise a maximum of 26 maps, possibly due to memory limitations, so if more than 26 maps are in the TWCUSTOM drawer Worms will only recognise the first 26 in alphabetical order and will ignore the rest.

You can set the gravity, friction, sky and water colours for your levels. Instead of saving your level as WKB.WRM, save it as WKB.????.WRM (the 4 question marks being 4 numbers). The first number is gravity and can be between 1 and 5 (1=very low, 3=normal 5=very high). Mars and alien levels have a gravity of 2. The second number is friction and can be between 1 and 5 (1=very low, 3=normal, 5=very high). Arctic and alien levels have a friction of 2. The third and forth numbers are the sky and water colours and can be between and 9 - fans of green water can now have a matching green sky.

You can also make your own message appear, when your level is chosen, by giving your level file a comment. Do this by clicking on the level icon and choosing "Information" from the Workbench menus.

It is worth nothing that Frontal Assault, a "Scorched Earth" clone by Apex Designs, allows the use of .WRM files in-game.

Worms: The Directors Cut

WormsDC features support for the above .WRM map files, as well as a new 16-colour .WRM16 map format. Like its predecessor, the .WRM16 file format is a variant of the .IFF image file format. .WRM16 files must be in a paletted 16-colour mode at a size of 960x350. Additional information concerning gravity, friction, water colour & type, and mountain set & palette are incorporated into the file using WormPrefs, which can also be used to insert a background later into the map.

The palette must contains the following colour references, as they are also used for other elements of the game:

• 00 - Black or dark colour (transparency)
• 01 - White or near-white (also used for sheep, worms' eyes, worms' name/HP font, and graves)
• 02 - Pink (also used for worms' bodies and antialiasing on worms' name/HP font)
• 03 - Any colour (also used for mines)
• 04 - Lighter variant of 03 (also used for shading on mines)
• 05 - Any colour (also used for crates)
• 06 - Lighter variant of 05 (also used for shading on crates)
• 07-15 - Any colours

Unlike the background that is placed in randomly generated terrains, custom maps can have backgrounds that extend beyond the physical play area. For example your level could incorporate the interior of a house, complete with decorated walls, etc.

DeluxePaint "Stencil" glitch

See article Loading maps saved with DeluxePaint "Stencil" feature active crashes the game for more information.

When creating maps, you must ensure that the "Stencil" feature in DeluxePaint is not active when you come to same your map. Doing so will cause Worms and WormsDC to crash.

Worms: Reinforcements / United

The MS-DOS version of Worms supports .PCX files, a common palleted image format. Maps must be 960x400, although with a 32 pixel gap on top for the KO bar. They can only use the first 80 colors of the pallete, color 0 being the transparent color. After which, they have to be processed by the GFXCON utility (in WORMS\EXTRAS\GFXCON) to remap the pallete for in-game use. After this, you can re-edit the PCX to customize the map colors:

• 80-95 (50H-5FH) - Water. A spread of 1 colour is usually best.
• 16-31 (10H-1FH) - Front background layer. You will have to check depending on the chosen background graphic, to see what is best as some gfx have cities in them etc.
• 129-175 (81H-AFH) - Back background layer. Remember that the top half of mountain graphics is usually the sky.

Additional information concerning gravity and friction are stored in a .INF file for the .PCX file, which contains a series of comma-separated numbers (as well as any misc. text you want to add), by this order:

• GRAVITY
  • 0 - Minimum
  • 1 - Medium
  • 2 - Maximum
• FRICTION
  • 0 - Minimum
  • 1 - Medium
  • 2 - Maximum
• WIND STRENGTH
  • 0 - Off
  • 1 - Minimum
  • 2 - Medium
  • 3 - Maximum
• BACKGROUND MOUNTAIN SET
  • 0 - Mountains
  • 1 - Alien
  • 2 - Hell
  • 3 - Alps (1)
  • 4 - Alps (2)
• WATER SET
  • 0 - Default/Normal
  • 1 - Martian Gloop
  • 2 - Fire
• CD-TRACK TO PLAY ON LEVEL
  • 0 - Forest/Ambience
  • 1 - Hell/Evil
  • 2 - Snow/Icel
  • 3 - Alien
  • 4 - Arid/Desert
  • 5 - City/Urban
  • 6 - Warzone
  • 7 - Spooky/Graveyard
  • 8 - Bizarre Ambiences
  • 9 - Znork in Z minor Music
  • 10 - Alps/Farmyard Ambience

You can also use your own background graphics (overwriting the above) by including two more .PCX files, renamed as .BK1 and .BK2. BK1 is the front layer and must be 320x200, using the 16 first colours. BK2 is the back layer and must be 320x200, using 48 first colours. Again, colour 0 is transparent. The palletes are automatically remapped in-game. Note: The bottom line of pixels MUST be all the same colour!

All files must have the same filename and be placed in DATA\CUSTOM\GFX. To use in-game, just type in the filename in the landscape generation screen.