SpriteFont (v0.99.5RC) - new update, small bugfixes

Not sure if it's been noted yet, but SpriteFont 0.99.5RC in Construct build 0.99.5 crashes when you do anything (not sure if it's anything, but so far all the stuff I have tried) to it while its writing text. The only way around it is to include the "Is Writing" condition and invert it.

Perhaps I am just using it incorrectly? I love this plugin and it's obvious great work was put into it, so it might not be the plugin at all.

The newest version gives me the same issue I had before where I try to get text (from an Array) and display it in the game and SpriteFont refuses to display the whole text... Just cuts off.

could you post or pm me a cap, or a screenshot of the cap, konjak and cyvix?

Alright, I will send you my cap file. Thank you for looking into this.

If I were to try to make my own text writing engine (just to have my own controls and stuff) WITHIN Construct, how much more process heavy would that be compared to using SpriteFont?

And can you get the length of just one line of text in Construct somehow?

it shouldnt be too slow konjak, i think the main time event slowness as compared to plugin speed matters is when youre doing hundreds or thousands of events per tick. i think the array problem youre having might be fixed by using a different type of container, such as those provided in the new s plugin. also, if you plan on making an event based text writer, the s plugin may be useful for that as well. however, other than the issues with the arrays, what other features are missing, that i might add to a future version. what form of control? i still havent documented this plug, so its possible its actually already in there

The array problem isn't a problem in earlier versions, though. And I was contemplating it when things I did before in SpriteFont, like easily making multiple speech bubbles uisng multiples of the same SpriteFont, stopped working or even started to crash the game...

I don't have a CAP right now, and I'd have to make a unique one recreating the problems, which usually doesn't happen then, and I don't want to send the whole game I have, really.

understandable

and do you mean earlier versions of spritefont, or earlier versions of construct?

Well, it could be both.

Is it possible to set the Z of the spritefont? It doesn't seem to get the Z from the sprite. Or is this not really possible?

not possible to get or set z-elevation through another plugin. however, you do have z-order options, and you can set eh z-elevation easily with a "for each letter" loop

not possible to get or set z-elevation through another plugin. however, you do have z-order options, and you can set eh z-elevation easily with a "for each letter" loop

Actually, you can:

object->info.pInfo->z_elevation

cool, thanks link, i didnt know about pinfo.ill have to have a look into that, especially for the new plugin

I still haven't installed the latest SpriteFont version, so this might be changed at this point.

But basically, I wish the SpriteFont's source sprite for letters' current state was always how the letters would turn out. Right now it seems that the letters change according to the state of the source sprite upon layout start initially, and I need a series of For Each Letter events to change it every time I change the text.

So, basically, I can't set the tint or size of the source sprite, then set the SpriteFont to "show text 'asasd'" and get it to look like the source sprite. I need the For Each Letter afterwards, making all the changes.

One instance this is extra clear for me is my source sprite changes animation direction, but if I have a Show Text event that repeats (like for instance if I make the progressive text on my own) it will freeze on the first animation angle until the Show Text event stops executing.

Maybe I'm just using it the wrong way, and I remember Write Text not being very fast.

I think I know what you're saying

but that's not so much an issue with the plugin as it is with the way construct works in general

if I'm understanding you correctly

you can't affect the state of an object before it's creation in any case

for instance

if there are no sprites on screen

you can't say, set sprite tint to red

system: spawn sprite

the sprite won't be red, because the tint action doesn't apply to the type

just to the instances already present

if you wanted to change the tint of everything without a for each

you could just call the action after the sprites were created

but it would apply to all the letter sprites regardless of which spritefont created it