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

here's how you do it.

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1013446/s/hellodrag.cap

I know it crude, and it lags slightly behind.

but it works

the lagging thing won't happen with the next thing. I might be able to unlag this one as well

it could take a little time though

I'm really deep into some s stuff at the moment

I'm having trouble because the text is created on a UI layer that doesn't zoom or move with the camera. The player is on a layer that can be zoomed in or out and not always in the center of the screen because of the camera lag. I'm sure there's an equation to handle all that, but I've decided to just use the sprite font at the bottom of the screen to make it simpler.

Thanks again for looking at this though!

Small suggestion, clear text after delay.

I love this plugin but I would like some clear docu on importing sprite fonts, as while the example shows easily how to use the plugin it doesn't explain how to change fonts.

sorry for the delayed response

the hello world tutorial has the importation of a sprite font

unfortunately, there is no easy way to cut up the sprites into individual frames, unless they are evenly spaced

I was going to make an app to speed the process, but that's far, far on the back burner, as I really need to continue development on my game while I still have a job.

you basically just make each letter a frame in a sprite

if they are in order (the frames), then you can just set a range, , if they aren't in order, you can specify the order, with the Set By String action

Hey lucid, check your PMs (I need help )

There seems to be some issues with creating more SpriteFont objects at runtime. Basically I'd want to create some scores popping up at destroyed enemies, but creating a SpriteFont to a position results in nothing, which is pretty annoying.

thank you deadeye, and daiz.

i think i have a theory about the cause of all these weird bugs finally

ill have to test my theory tomorrow on my day off

if im right then thisll finally be in the release candidate stage

btw, for anyone who's curious

I was wrong in my theory

I have no idea what causes all these annoying problems

go ahead and send me the files deadeye

This thread was on page three! I had to go looking for it it, so... modbump.

thank you deadeye

to be honest. Unfortunately, I still don't have any idea when I'll be able to fix this.

but I'm going to be rewriting the spritefont plugin, from the ground up

I'll have a look over the original one, and see if it's not possible to actually make caps compatible, but also, it's probably a good time to make suggestions for the new version. I think there may have been some confusion over how to use this one, which is probably mostly the lack of documentation. sorry guys. if there are ways to make it more convenient or easy to understand, let me know. Also, I plan to still use sprite frames for individual characters, but if someone has a better idea that doesn't involve making an automatic tile splitter, or mesh distorter, I'm open to suggestions.

I apologize for the indefinite delay.

but the truth is, I've searched for the source of the random glitches. alot. that was my first major program beyond a beginner tutorial, it's pretty ugly. it will be quicker to start from scratch.

I understand some people may have important projects that were depending on this plugin to eventually work. The best assurance I can give is, I will be needing a reliable and easy to use version for my personal project, which I plan for commercial release. When I'm done with basic game and interface mechanics, I will be working on spritefont full force.

You know what I just remembered? The Bitmap Font object in MMF had a font creator built into the object. You could pick from the list of fonts installed on your system, change the color, size, add some simple effects like drop shadow or outline, italics, or whatever, and it would rasterize the font for you. (Or you could load one up from a sheet as well, I think.) For simple fonts that might be a way to go, yeah?

Or... I know David's unfinished Tile Map object let you load a tile sheet, and you could tell it what grid size the tiles were, and then place tiles in the layout by selecting them. Perhaps the spritefont object could use the same kind of sheet-loading system? And maybe there could be a standard for importing sheets, like all the letters, numbers, and symbols are in the same relative position, and you just have to plug in what the grid size is for your sheet. That way you could even include a template that people could resize to fit their font and they could place the letters on the grid and save the image in Photoshop or GiMP or whatever to import.

I dunno, just a thought. I'm sure it's already way to complicated without having to think about that kind of stuff . And I'm about to go to bed so I'm all groggy and I'm rambling, sorry...

The automatic font splitter does some of that, and makes for easy importing.

Heres my suggestion for a rewrite

* Defining fonts. The ability for Spritefont to use multiple sprite fonts and define them each seperately.

*Being able to spawn text locations, because trying to use multiple Spritefont objects seemed to not work too well. "spawn text at xy" (and associating some sort of variable with it so you could modify or remove it) would be very nice.

*Line breaks. Might already exist?

*Line breaks. Might already exist?

"Line one" & NewLine & "Line Two"

In other words, it's already built-in as a system expression in Construct.