Adventure Game Studio

AGS Support => Beginners' Technical Questions => Topic started by: thezombiecow on Thu 02/04/2009 21:14:15

Title: Outline .ttf fonts
Post by: thezombiecow on Thu 02/04/2009 21:14:15
Was anything ever done about this (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=6519.0)?

QuoteThe spaced out sentence is the way AGS displays outline fonts right now. it's not too bad, but the longer the sentence, the worse it gets.

Basically, I've got a lovely .ttf font in use, but auto-outline isn't quite thick enough to render it readable in all colours on certain backgrounds. Ideally, it'd have a 3+ pixel outline thickness.

I've tried making my own outline font, but instead of centering the specified outline font directly behind spoken text on a per-character basis, it does so simply as a larger font... so I get the issue as described above in 2003; at the start of a sentence the two fonts are aligned, by the end they're well out of whack as the outline font is larger...

Is there a known workaround for this that I've missed?
Title: Re: Outline .ttf fonts
Post by: Vince Twelve on Thu 02/04/2009 22:16:24
Yeah, the inability to read outlined .ttf fonts on busy backgrounds because of the too-thin outline is the reason I decided to build a speech bubble system into Resonance so that the fonts were always on a plain background.

The ability to customize the auto-outline would be ideal, for me.  Being able to change the thickness and the color would be sweet.

I wouldn't be able to use it in Res, but would definitely make use of such a feature moving forwards.  Especially if the outline was anti-aliased.
Title: Re: Outline .ttf fonts
Post by: GarageGothic on Fri 03/04/2009 02:48:56
If you don't mind using a custom speech function (shouldn't be a big deal now that the dialog system supports real scripting), then check my two posts at the end of this thread (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=35629.msg467126#msg467126) for a workaround. You will have to mess around a bit with the coordinates to get a 3-pixel instead of a 1-pixel outline, but you shouldn't run into the problem of the outline becoming offset.
Title: Re: Outline .ttf fonts
Post by: thezombiecow on Fri 03/04/2009 14:01:14
Thanks guys. Nice to know I'm not missing something simple.

The overlay system seems nice, but I'm slightly nervous about using it at this stage. I might keep tweaking and see what I can come up with.

I'm currently struggling to convert from ttf to .FON via bitmaps - everything's coming out oversized and out of place one I import it into AGS. Is there a well-known procedure for this?