Ingame Font(Without a Library)

ID:101895
 
Sep 13 2010, 10:39 pm (Edited on Sep 13 2010, 10:49 pm)
Redundant
Applies to:Dream Maker
Status: Redundant
This feature has already been implemented, or is already achievable with existing methods.
Sure, it's nice that we have libraries. But in-game font seems like something we should be able to add easily without a library or long procs and dmi's with icon states for each letter.


Example of how the code could be done:


ScreenText
    icon = words("Text you want goes here",size=1,colour=white)
    New(client/C)
        screen_loc = "1,1"
#1 Sep 13 2010, 10:51 pm
Seems to me like it would be simpler and easier for novice users to use than any current library.
#2 Sep 16 2010, 3:54 pm
BlackKingX wrote:
Seems to me like it would be simpler and easier for novice users to use than any current library.

DMIFontsPlus works perfectly fine and if you can't figure it out, read the doc again.
#3 Sep 16 2010, 4:19 pm
More importantly, having better built-in support for this can cut down on network traffic a lot. Current implementations might use a lot of objects to represent text or use a lot of icon operations to generate the images of text. With better support the sever can simply send a message to clients saying "display this text at this location using this font", no need for tons of objects/icons to be sent to all clients.

As a workaround I sometimes place labels with transparent backgrounds over the map control. The drawback is that it can look crappy when you resize the window and the map display gets larger while the labels don't. You also don't have as much control over positioning as you do with screen objects.
#4 Sep 18 2010, 6:59 am
Client-side icon processing sounds like it would help a lot in this area.
#5 Sep 20 2010, 12:05 pm
As Kaiochao said, I'd honestly rather see more support/power for icon functions which would over-all make the whole experience of designing your own screen-text easier.
#6 Sep 21 2010, 6:44 am
Handling on-screen text with icons will always be tedious and have poor performance. Client-side support is by far the best solution but given the lack of client-side functionality I don't expect this will be added.
#7 Sep 21 2010, 8:53 am
I suppose there could be an extra Tab within the Interface Editor for Map elements. A tab that would have any available screen-text options such as font, size, position, amount of lines, text-wrap, starting location, ending location, etc. etc.

Before that, you would need a new type of element or have it integrated in the maps. An element similar to Labels or Outputs but by default have a transparent background. But that's getting into Hardware/Software rendering. So, I would still look into giving more strength and efficiency to icon processes at the least.
#8 Sep 21 2010, 1:13 pm
Forum_account wrote:
Handling on-screen text with icons will always be tedious and have poor performance.

My on-screen text systems have practically no impact on performance. Plus they're quite user friendly. I should probably release a demo or library o.O
Also, though I support this idea, I think the suggested method(s) for implementing it need improvement.
#9 Jul 14 2012, 3:35 pm
Calus CoRPS resolved issue (Redundant)