Are there any tips to help deal with all the different graphics formats out there?
Find out what graphics formats your teammates can use. Settle early on the most compatible standard. It may help to designate somebody who has a fast connection and a good paint program as the “converter”, who will alter file formats as needed for other players. Windows comes with a basic Paint program which also allows basic drawing and editing of the map. Macs do not have their own paint program but there are some down-and-dirty shareware Mac paint programs out there. One that is highly recommended is GraphicConverter, which, as its name would suggest, allows the user to convert the graphic into all kinds of popular formats, allowing for cross-platform interchangability. If you find yourself in a group of Windows-only players, you can all use BMP format. Otherwise, GIF and JPG are the two preferred formats for cross-platform play (with GIF having a slight edge, according to a recent poll on the TacOps mailing list).
