ID:1960734
 
Is there any way to toggle this new maptext quality on and off? I like the addition, but there's a cool outline shadow technique performed through layering one maptext over another that this seems to break, and the anti-alias appears a bit blurred on some graphics.

I also had other less important uses for maptext without alias.
There isn't currently a way, but I'm open to suggestions as to how that might be done. I want this new behavior to be the default.
Hm. Well if possible I think the most useful option would be to have it as a new maptext setting we can alter per object, rather than simply turning it on and off for all maptext.

Maybe a maptext_alias var that accepts TRUE and FALSE, where TRUE is the default. Alternatively, if it has to impact all maptext then I would say maybe make it a world var, or an interface map setting.
I could see a case for using both forms in the same game. Maybe a style setting?
In response to Lummox JR
Yeah exactly what I was meaning to get at. A style setting could work, yeah, and it would probably be better than introducing another var.
Any idea if this might be done before Halloween? Just wondering because I need it for my project, so I'll have to revert to an older BYOND if it isn't.
I can try to come up with something. If you have any specific ideas for how that might be set, I think that would be helpful.
Can't say that I do, unfortunately. My mind keeps jumping to a simple no_alias flag, or something like <span style="no_alias"> or <font alias=none> we can insert into the text as if it were HTML or CSS.

It isn't, however, so I cannot even see that being possible.
a css value, aliasing: on/off
I got to thinking about this again tonight, and had an interesting idea. Would it be possible to offer multiple styles of drawing maptext? For example, the current one, one where it doesn't alias and/or adds an additional copy of the text offset 1 pixel below the original with a chosen color, and one where it wraps the entire original maptext in a single pixel of a chosen color.

I'm thinking probably not, but if so... Lot of flexibility and cool text options come into play from that. It would be a hell of a lot easier than doing hacks, or a custom font to achieve the same simple effects.
If you added maptext_style would it come with a few additional pre-built features we could play with?

maptext_style = NO_ALIAS
maptext_style = DROP_SHADOW
maptext_style = RUNESCAPE_WAVE_1

If it were upt o me I'd depreciate the current maptext structures and make the /maptext a datum?

Will break old code but right now 6 variables seems pretty dumb?

maptext
maptext_x
maptext_y
maptext_width
maptext_height
maptext_autoalias
Having a datum attached to any atom that has maptext would be a bit more overhead than six variables, or a dozen variables, even. There's a lot of stuff base datums have that make things like that more costly than they need to be.
In response to Nadrew
I wouldn't say datums are more costly than they need to be, but simply that there's implicit overhead. Anything more complex than a float has to be referred to indirectly, and datums can't be stored compactly the way a true structure can.