Bitmap font library?

[earok]

Can anyone recommend a good Blitz Basic bitmap font library? I'm after something with the following features:

- Supports the font graphics being in an IFF
- Supports proportional width with the character dimensions being in a data file (height would be a bonus but not totally necessary)


I'm currently using FNS, which would be fine other than we need to support fonts with multiple colors.

Thanks in advance.

[idrougge]

I was just going to recommend FNS.

The only font libraries supported by Blitz are the built-in one, OS calls and FNS. When using a custom colour font, I've just made it into a series of shapes and used the chr$ of the string as an offset into the shapes table.

[earok]

Cheers, I'll whip something up along those lines.

[MickGyver]

Old thread I know but FNS looks interesting. Is it possible to create your own fonts for that library and does anybody have an example how to use the library?

[idrougge]

Check BUM 09. It contains both example code and an editor for FNS fonts.

[MickGyver]

Originally Posted by idrougge

Check BUM 09. It contains both example code and an editor for FNS fonts.

Thanks! The editor is actually quite convenient to use, didn't take long to convert a font I'm using for a PC game.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by idrougge

When using a custom colour font, I've just made it into a series of shapes and used the chr$ of the string as an offset into the shapes table.

Is there a place where I can find a table of chr$ values?

[Havie]

Originally Posted by idrougge

Check BUM 09. It contains both example code and an editor for FNS fonts.

Wish I'd known this as I wanted to make an Invader font for my Space Invaders and even went as far as making one in an font maker (can't remember which one) but I'd obviously done something wrong and went down the shapes route.

Using shapes is possibly the most flexible option but you have sort out your own routine for printing to the screen.

You can of course use sprites - I did in my Flappy Bird game - and this has the added advantage of being able to print freely over scrolling backgrounds or moving objects.

I have yet to find a multiplexer in Blitz that works as well as I would like but Earok has one he wrote so maybe that will do what he wants?

I think in theory, if you multiplex sprites you can have a status bar/score/text out of sprites and still have sprites for your game but not sure the Amiga hardware is really up to this as not many games do it (or maybe it's just too complicated)?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Akira

Is there a place where I can find a table of chr$ values?

More importantly, where do i find this FNS library?

[Havie]

Originally Posted by Akira

Is there a place where I can find a table of chr$ values?

Do you mean ascii codes? Just type ascii into Google.

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by Akira

Is there a place where I can find a table of chr$ values?

Sorry, that should have been Asc() values. Just use Asc(Mid$(your_text$,offset,1)) to get the ASCII value of a letter in your text and use that as the Shape number, optionally offsetting it to some other base number using subtraction.

Originally Posted by Akira

More importantly, where do i find this FNS library?

It’s preinstalled if you use Ultimate Blitz CD, otherwise it’s on one of the BUMs.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by idrougge

It’s preinstalled if you use Ultimate Blitz CD, otherwise it’s on one of the BUMs.

Well that took A WHILE to find, really tired of the organizational mess that is Blitz.

Now the problem is: how do you convert an IFF file to FNS? Or am I missing something here? I do not want to have to edit all fonts one by one again, I have them as bitmaps.

[carrion]

I don't know what Fns is but in my project I just implemented it myself. It's really not that hard as it seams. I just copied letters as shapes.
I use normal strings like

mytxt$="abcdefghi"

and then access the letters in the loop and bit them on the screen:

i=0
letter.b = peek.b(&mytxt$+i)
block base+letter,......

it works well and I have full control over it and no mess with additional libs

[Amiga1992]

I went and made a parser myself too, similar to what idrougge did. Now I can even have color fonts.

Seriously, I find myself, most times, just making my own shit instead of using what comes with Blitz. Kinda lame