Adventure Game Studio

I want to adapt some code originally donated to me, to draw text onto a surface. As you know one can't draw anti-alised text onto an invisible surface (or is that possible now)? So what I do is create the text on a dynamic sprite, then put the text on top of a background of sprite slot 2.


DynamicSprite*Beta;
DynamicSprite*Gamma;
DynamicSprite*Final;
DrawingSurface*Surface;
bool FirstPrint = true;

function Print(String text, int colour, bool space)
{
    if (space) Print(" ", 0);   //just add an empty line to separate two paragraphs

    if (FirstPrint) {
    Beta = DynamicSprite.Create(DisplayBox.Width, DisplayBox.Height, true);
    Gamma = DynamicSprite.Create(DisplayBox.Width, DisplayBox.Height, true);       //have to define the sprites, and only once otherwise they are reset.
    Final = DynamicSprite.CreateFromExistingSprite(2);
    FirstPrint = false;
    }


    Surface = Beta.GetDrawingSurface();
    Surface.Clear();
   
    //draw new text
    Surface.DrawingColor = colour;
    int y = DisplayBox.Height - GetTextHeight(text, DisplayBox.Font, DisplayBox.Width)-2;
    Surface.DrawStringWrapped(10, y, DisplayBox.Width-10, DisplayBox.Font, eAlignLeft, text);        //draw new text at very bottom, minus however high the new text is

    //draw old text (shift current text up)
    Surface.DrawImage(0, 0 - GetTextHeight(text, DisplayBox.Font, DisplayBox.Width)-2, Gamma.Graphic);   //shift old text up by however high new text is

    Surface.Release();

    Gamma = Beta;


    Surface = Final.GetDrawingSurface();
    Surface.Clear();
    Surface.DrawImage(0, 0, 2);                       //draw a wood panel
    Surface.DrawImage(0, 0, Beta.Graphic);      //draw final text on top
    Surface.Release();

    DisplayBox.NormalGraphic = Final.Graphic;

}

Bottom line is, I understand what is happening, but I don't get why it's not working. Obviously the text ends up being anti-aliased, because it's drawn on top of a non-transparent sprite. However, it only shows the new text, and not the text that should be shifted up. It must be an obvious solution... Do I have my dynamic sprites mixed up, or is there a step I'm missing out? etc

Thanks
Atelier

I guess the problem is this line:
     Gamma = Beta;

This won't create a copy; all it does is that Gamma and Beta now point to the same, single sprite.

I probably should be:
     Gamma = DynamicSprite.CreateFromExistingSprite(Beta.Graphic);

Woo thanks Khris, it works now :)

Just one little question. I'm guessing the sprite is auto cropped when it's set as the button graphic?

Yes, the default setting is to clip an image to the dimensions of the button.

Really? The way I remember it, if the graphic is larger than the button, the button changes its size to fit it. Took me ages to understand what was going on and why it wasn't doing the cropping as expected.

Right, I should look at the manual first :)

Set GUIButton.ClipImage to true, it's false by default. According to the manual, the image spills over the edge of the button otherwise (as opposed to the button getting bigger).