New Text Renderer WIP

[JeremyaFr]

Hello,
I'm working on improving the text rendering.

[JeremyaFr]

In vanilla XWA.

Current text renderer:

text_1_vanilla_180_current.jpg

New text renderer:

text_1_vanilla_180_new.jpg

[JeremyaFr]

With DSUCP.

Current text renderer:

text_1_dsucp_149_current.jpg

New text renderer:

text_1_dsucp_149_new.jpg

[Darksaber]

Great improvement

What font are you using?

[Trevor]

looks like Times New Roman.

hmm... not sure about using a serif font for screen text, I mean yes, it looks amazing, but I think it would be better as sans-serif.

Trev

[Darksaber]

Arial, Verdana or Helvetica LT would be my preference, cleaner fonts

[Driftwood]

Could always give an option for arubesh for lore adherent masochists

Would be neat to have for immersion if bit impractical.

How is the new font being called by the engine? Or is this just a replacement of the font.dat?

[BenKenobi]

I agree with Darksaber, any sans serif font will beter. I have an eye condition which can't be corrected by glasses so anything making the texts better readable will be very welcome!!

[JeremyaFr]

Arial:

text_2_Arial.jpg

Times New Roman:

text_2_TimesNewRoman.jpg

Verdana:

text_2_Verdana.jpg

[JeremyaFr]

Hello,

This is NOT a replacement of "Fonts.dat".

The function in the exe that draws the text is hooked.
Then the text is drawn in DDraw.dll using Direct2D and DirectWrite.

[Darksaber]

Out of the three definitely Verdana, and well done looks really good

I don't know if it would be possible but perhaps the user could select there own preference of Font, through a cfg file, perhaps a few choices of default windows fonts though, something that everyone is likely to have

Arial
Calibri
News Gothic MT
Tahoma
Verdana

There are thousands of custom font, best to limit it to default windows fonts, you don't know what custom font would work or not

Also could the size be adjusted too?

[blue_max]

Great job, Jeremy!

[Ace Antilles]

That's amazing work! My eyes are getting worse all the time so any improvements help.
Verdana is best of those choices.
Will this affect the fonts in areas like the Crew Quarters too?

[JeremyaFr]

Hello,

I will use the Verdana font.

[BenKenobi]

Verdana is looking very good to me Jeremy!
Being able to choose the size in a config would be really nice to have.

[keiranhalcyon7]

Could always give an option for arubesh for lore adherent masochists

You say that as a joke, but I think the folks who've done XWA machinema, combined with dynamic cockpit, would be all over it.

Jeremy, I assume this resolves the clipping with HUD scale >= 1.5?

A font picker would be nice. If not outright in a cfg file, maybe a derivative of the dat editor that just renders fonts to fonts.dat?

[JeremyaFr]

Hello,

Here is a preview:

EDIT: link removed

[Ace Antilles]

Brilliant. You work damn fast

[Ace Antilles]

Hello,
Here is a preview:
xwa_ddraw_d3d11_WIP.zip

Quick test note. I copied the files across to the XWA directory.
The text is nice looking and seems clearer.

Problem. It disabled the new Dynamic Cockpits that have just been added.
I'm not sure if it changed anything else from recent patches either

[Kampher]

I think Jeremy's DLL is separate from Blue_Max's, so you'll need to wait until they are merged. However, I could be wrong on that.

[Darksaber]

You copied over Jeremy's test DDraw.dll, replacing the DDraw.dll that came with the Dynamic Cockpits, that should give you a slight tip to what may have happened.

Answer, they're two different DDraw.dll's

Jeremy's DDraw.dll is the Master and does not include the coding for the Dynamic Cockpits, Blue Max then adds his coding to jeremy's DDraw.dll code allowing you to use the Effects and Dynamic Cockpits. Since this is a Jeremy's test DDraw.dll, the new coding will not of been applied to Blue Max's DDraw.dll. you'll have to wait for that, at the moment you can either have the new Text, or install the Dynamic Cockpit's, but you can't have both.

Simply install the Dynamic Cockpit installer again.

Another tip is to always backup your files before testing new stuff, especially when copy, pasting and replacing

Sorry if this sounds sarcastic and condescending, it was meant too, you've been out of the game for far too long, you deserve a slap around the face with a fish! lol



Hi Ace (waves!!)

[Ace Antilles]

You copied over Jeremy's test DDraw.dll, replacing the DDraw.dll that came with the Dynamic Cockpits, that should give you a slight tip to what may have happened.
Answer, they're two different DDraw.dll's

Jeremy's DDraw.dll is the Master and does not include the coding for the Dynamic Cockpits, Blue Max then adds his coding to jeremy's DDraw.dll code allowing you to use the Effects and Dynamic Cockpits. Since this is a Jeremy's test DDraw.dll, the new coding will not of been applied to Blue Max's DDraw.dll. you'll have to wait for that, at the moment you can either have the new Text, or install the Dynamic Cockpit's, but you can't have both.

Simply install the Dynamic Cockpit installer again.
Another tip is to always backup your files before testing new stuff, especially when copy, pasting and replacing
Sorry if this sounds sarcastic and condescending, it was meant too, you've been out of the game for far too long, you deserve a slap around the face with a fish! lol

Hi Ace (waves!!)

I've not been away too long, you guys made it way too awesome lol
Yeah I'm getting the hang of it. I keep backups of stuff but now I understand what's going on more with some of these DLLs.
Hell I'm still trying to work out all the controls again and got to customise my Joystick still.
Also I swear you made it harder If i didn't have invulnerable on in my test missions I would be dead so fast.
Sorry for the confusion guys.
P.S Never change Darksaber

[blue_max]

Also, I don't see Jeremy's commit yet in his repo, so it might be a while before I catch up.

[ual002]

If its configurable.. and I know some of you will groan, but can we get an Aurebesh version?

Some of us.. I'm not gonna name names, can read and write it and it might be cool for them.

[Jaeven]

Some of us.. I'm not gonna name names, can read and write it and it might be cool for them.

No way.