Greetings!
I saw that some Woffers created their own individual Pilot Pictures. I tried that, too, but instead of my Picture, there is only a blank Space. The Program doesn't accept the Graphic somehow.

I took an existing one (Pilot2.bmp) and replaced it by my own. Same Size, 24bits, even File-Size is the same. Anyone got an Idea what I missed?

Check, if your new image is really like this:

Mode: RGB 8 bit
Size: 247 x 303 pixel
Resolution: 200 pixel per inch

If it is, you could write the ending BMP in capital letters.
With all this, it should work.

Ah! 8bits! I've got 24. I think that's it :-)
I'll check it out this evening.

If someone would be nice enough to post a step by step quide for a computer dummy I sure would appreciate it!

Mark, you could first go to the pilot photos and select some you like.
Then you copy those to your desktop.

They are to be found here:

OBD Software > WOFF > OBDWW1 Wings Over Flanders Fields > campaigns > CampaignData > PilotPhotos > [nationality]

Next things you need are some photos of yourself in a believeable age.
I had some old leftover passport pics and some other low-quality photos.

Convert both the WOFF pic and your own portraits to "greyscale".

Now you open a WOFF picture with a program like Photoshop;
and then look for an own portrait, where your head angle and lighting direction are suiting.
Cut this portrait out, copy it and insert it into the WOFF file.

To get the size right, I usually move it left or right of the WOFF face and try to get
the eyes to mouth distance the same as in the old pic.
Then you move it to place - maybe you need to tilt it a bit manually.

If you can change the opacity of layers, it would be useful to give your portrait
an opacity of ca. 50%, so you can see the original face below, and move your own portrait
so, that it is in the best possible same place and size.

You can now erase all parts of your overlay face with an eraser tool.
Maybe you want to slightly soft it's edge; I often use an "eraser" with it's edge softened to 60 - 90%.

When you are ready, change the opacity of the portrait layer back to 100%.
Then bring both layers together on one.

Now you can convert it back to RGB colour (8bit), and play with "Variatons" or however it is called
in your program, where you can change the colours.
Try adding more yellow and a little red or magenta, to get a sepia, yellow-brown or redbrown
"old photo sytle".

When you save it as a BMP image now, my Photoshop options read "Windows" and "Depth: 24bit"
I hope that is similar in all other programs.

Now compress the original WOFF pilot photo in their "PilotPhoto" folder with WinZip or other.
That way you can keep it safe.
Now move your own image in there, with the same pilot number, written the same way (for example: Pilot1.bmp).

The photos in the pilot books can only be changed during enlistment AFAIK;
so you enlist a pilot, switch through the pics until you get to your personalised one,
and now enlist the rest of the fellow.

Done.
I hope this was all not too complicated - good luck with it!

Thank you Sir! I should be able to follow that.

BTW, I found out, that you have to save your new .bmp-pic without Color-Code, WOFF can't read that. This doesn't mean, that you can't use color - it's just some additional Info-Whatever...

I could move this to the FAQ section if you guys agree ?

Yes, sure - might help others too.
It is actually big fun to have your personalised versions of the photos.

Hi Olham, I did this myself once but I forget how I did it! You think that Excel must be difficult and yet I think that Photoshop is one of the hardest programs to use I have ever come across even for simple things like email signatures and business cards, let alone adjusting photos as you do. I suppose it is horses for courses

I will have a go at following your instructions - if I am able to do it so should anyone else

It's a pity that I don't know what any other photo programs can do or not.
Maybe users of such other programs can contribute some of their experience here.

Nietzsche, only now I got it, what you were talking about.
You meant the moment, when you save the image as a BMP-file;
and there it should read "Windows" and "Depth: 24bit" indeed.

Sorry about the confusion.
What I had meant is when I work on the image in Photoshop, then it is in the "Mode": RBG 8bit.

I corrected this in my explanatory post.

I seem to be completely lost on the RGB 8-bit mode. Can some explain or PM me about this? I have the sizes correct, just at a lost at how to adjust this. I'm simply adding new photos to choose from so I'm not working with the pictures already with the game in the folder.

That is the mode I am working with in Photoshop. Maybe irrelevant for you.
Do you use this program?

When your image is ready, you save it as a BMP with 24bit.

Here: Von Peter,this one was a Richtofen picture from the net,I just substituted the face.

Any Picture editing program can do that,as long as it can save a Win BMP file,even Microsoft Paint

I'm not using photoshop, is that the only program I can use? I've saved it at 24 bit BMP but it won't show up. I ensured proper location and everything. Size too. I'm at a loss.

No, as Cavaliere said, you can use any such programs.

Can you select between RGB and CMYC in yours? It must be RGB.

Just save it as an BMP file RGB 8 bit these images are all RGB 8 bit,wich means a 256 color range,the 8 bits are used 3 for Red 3 for Green and only 2 for Blue (human eye is less sensible to blue depth) so 3+3+2=8
while an RGB 24 bits will allocate 8 bits for each color channel giving 16.777 colors shades,and 32 bit spare the extra 8 bits (24+8) for the greyscale channel or Alpha or Transparency Channel,I simplified a lot but this is the theory behind it more or less
This is one of the pilots pict they are all 8 bit RGB as you can see from analyzing them in Photoshop

An important note: the number of possible pilot pics MAY be fixed by WOFF,
so when you add higher numbers like "Pilot101.bmp", this picture may not appear.

I suggest to replace original WOFF pilot photos with your own giving them the same number, like "Pilot3.bmp".

Make sure you name the original "Pilot3" into "PilotC" or whatever, or move him into a backup folder,
so that you can "re-activate" him later, if you wanted.