Anti-Aliased TTF looking bad?

Started by Ali, Mon 21/03/2011 13:02:51

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Ali

Nelly Cootalot has almost been translated into Spanish. To achieve this, I had to switch to a true-type font. I also went through and upgraded the game to DX9, adding anti-aliased edges for the character sprites.

However I just got a complaint from the translator that the font is hard to read against light backdrops:



This was the clearest font I tested, but the outline is very faint. Is there any way to embolden it? Apart from downgrading to 16 bit colour!

Monsieur OUXX

Quote from: Ali on Mon 21/03/2011 13:02:51
I added anti-aliased edges for the character sprites.

My answer is off-topic but WELL DONE that was my main critics when the game was released.
 

Ali

Off-topic-reply: I my defence, AGS couldn't do AA with scaling characters back in the bad old days of 2007. Thanks for the encouragement!

Pumaman

AGS currently does a 1 pixel-wide outline, but looking at this it probably would be better if you could specify a thicker (eg. 2- or 3-pixel) outline. Something to consider for a future version.

Ali

I think that would be a great idea... especially if AGS is moving towards support for 1280x.

hedgefield

I've noticed the poor aliasing with TTF fonts aswell, more and more now recently as the resolution of my games go up and the polish of the graphics becomes higher. Widening the font outline (or being able to set it manually) would help a lot probably, though the outlines are still kinda choppy.

Calin Leafshade

This is a known issue actually (well i think it's known). Basically AGS doesn't AA the font outline. So it draws it something like this:

Get font
Generate outline from un-AA font shape.
Draw font AAed
Draw outline on top un-AAed.

This is why you can see part of the AAed font sticking out from under the outline if you look closely enough. This obviously does not look ideal and looks quite messy.

The manner in which AGS generates the outline for fonts isn't really suitable for true type AAed fonts and needs revising which i have half done in a plugin but then I didnt bother finishing it because no one uses plugins :p


theo

#7
Quote from: Calin Leafshade on Tue 22/03/2011 11:36:11The manner in which AGS generates the outline for fonts isn't really suitable for true type AAed fonts and needs revising which i have half done in a plugin but then I didnt bother finishing it because no one uses plugins :p

For you Calin, I might consider making an exception. Such a plugin would be nice.

Quote from: Ali on Mon 21/03/2011 13:02:51I also went through and upgraded the game to DX9, adding anti-aliased edges for the character sprites.

Sweet! Good call. Easy fix that will add much polish.

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