Suggestion : Official Sprite Font Plugin

Hey there!

Since the Spritefont Plugin is discontinued by it's author, I thought it would be a good idea to include a similiar plugin to the construct 2 package.

Since Construct 2 is targeting multiple platforms it would be a logical move in my eyes.

I am suggesting this since it seems as if in the latest release (r133) the available plugin is not working as it should.

Using a ttf font is sometimes no option, especially if you want to go for that special retro look <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

rock on,

Michael

+1

+2

This could also be another use of a tilemap plugin, as you can make "tiles" (letters).

I made a custom webfont myself to replace the spritefont due to issues with it and potential want to throw my game demo on the arcade. I do understand the need for a more graphical approach towards some fonts though and if they had a tilemap plugin they could integrate mapping tiles to letters rather than tilenumbers for font support.

Yeah we're in dire need of an official bitmap font plugin and more control over strings in general, like the ability to change the color, effect, behavior, etc. of a single character or word in a string via metacharacters or w/e.

At this point there's basically no way to get bitmap fonts into your game. Mipey's plugin was good for a while but is now kinda buggy and he quit working on it. R0j0hounds's method works but can cause performance issues and there are no options (alignment, size, spacing, etc.)

They aren't only good for retro games either - bitmap fonts are used everywhere! Standard fonts & text objects are boring and you can't really do anything special with them.

Completely agree. The sprite font plugin is ok but it has some definite issues. Doesn't display in design time making it difficult to do formating, instead you have to use trial and error. The align centre is poked, fine for even numbered strings but too far left for odd numbered strings. The wrap function often leaves a single letter on the previous line. However, it is the only option available for getting nice fonts with effects, e.g., stroke line and gradients spring to mind.

+1

It's probably already on Ashley's never ending TODO LIST, but i hope he will bump it up <img src="smileys/smiley2.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

With webfonts you can do a lot especially if you can design your own. (Fonstruct is a good web based app) Should be easier to do if font selection/creation was an easier task (Seriously, I had to look for hours on how to make a webfont), so just a sprite-font would be low on the list of things TODO sadly :(.

Although with the April poll having Tile-Map support requested, I can see using that for fonts as well and becoming a more important thing on the TODO.

Yes, an official spritefont is required, especially with the fact that Scirra wan't to support mobile devices.

On top of that there is so much reason to have have sprite fonts. Many custom graphical custom fonts are the norm. Not having an official spritefont is a little strange as C2 is at the 1.0+ release mark now.

How do spritefonts work for unicode text?

My main issue is if we only support the typical 256-character ASCII set, we're effectively cutting out lots of non-european languages like Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. So far AFAIK all the official plugins and features in the whole of Construct 2 work equally well for all users due to the unicode support throughout. I would hesitate to add a conspicuously ASCII-only feature, especially if it would take lots of work to implement. I prefer web fonts because they don't have this problem and can work with the full range of unicode characters (providing the font supports it, but at least it's possible).

What do Japanese games do with regards to spritefonts? I have no idea, but I would guess they just pre-render text to images, since spritefonts don't work for that language.

Well, to my knowledge the Sprite Font limits you nowhere, since you can assign any graphic representation to any char (so you can do chinese, klingon lettering <img src="smileys/smiley16.gif" border="0" align="middle" /> )

I for my part am not really focusing on multilanguage support (making loca is a pain in the ass anyway and a waterproof localization in a language I don't really speak is nearly impossible)

You wouldn't have to trash the Webfont support, I am just suggesting a Plugin like the existing SpriteFont (wouldn't even need any more features) , just offically supported.

The things I want to do (retro pixel font with a shading, mutlicolor outlining) are not possible with the currently built in solution.

rock on,

Michael

I can see why Ashley is hesitant to take up the plug. Just read over the development of the existing plug and you'll see its a never ending battle, with endless feature requests, and bound to break with each new browser release.

Rather than have him spend valuable time on this, perhaps it would be better to do some crowdsourcing, and find someone else to work on the plug full time? Because frankly, that's how much effort it would require.

Then we risk the same exact thing happening. 3rd party plugins are no good in my book; every single one I've ever used had some sort of problem somewhere, or were simply abandoned (not just CC/C2 either). A working bitmap font plugin is incredibly valuable so I don't see how it'd be a waste of time in any way.

Also the unicode thing is not a big deal for me, personally. I can't recall a single indie game that offers language options anyway spare AM2R and MMX:Corrupted.

I have never had any problems with the existing spritefont plugin. It's also important to note that most font's have licences that restrict you from re-distributing them.

With the existing spritefont plugin you can easily have multiple languages because any character in any order can have it's own image made by you. You just set in what order each character will be read.

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

It's flat-out broken as of r133 so you do now!