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BMFont request: Save font widths in .INI format

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Started by Wanny December 14, 2013 02:59 AM

2 comments, last by WitchLord 10 years, 4 months ago

Wanny

127

Author

December 14, 2013 02:59 AM

(can requests/suggestions be posted here, right?)

I JUST found about the program and I like the incredible freedom to choose between multiple subsets. The only thing I'm missing is an option to save the font widths in .INI format, like Bitmap Font Builder or Texture Font Generator do.

I'd be told "why don't you use them?"... well, they are very limited in what subsets can I generate.

The .INI would be like this, for a simple Arial font:


[Char Widths]
0=14
1=28
2=14
3=14
4=14
5=14
6=14
7=14
8=14
9=96
10=0
11=14
12=14
13=0
14=14
15=14
16=14
17=14
18=14
19=14
20=14
21=14
22=14
23=14
24=14
25=14
26=14
27=14
28=0
29=0
30=0
31=0
32=8
33=8
34=10
35=16
...etc

Problem is, Bitmap Font Builder only outputs the standard ASCII characters (from 0 to 255)

For JAPANESE characters, there's a modified version of Texture Font Generator that can generate multiple pages/images, specifying the chars that are in each line. For example:


[kanji 1]
Line  0=????????
Line  1=????????
Line  2=????????
Line  3=????????
Line  4=????????
Line  5=????????
Line  6=????????
Line  7=??

...but it doesn't support other subsets, like Chinese or Korean.

Would be possible for BMFont to output this file?

WitchLord

4,834

December 14, 2013 01:16 PM

Hi Wanny,

I'm glad you like BMFont.

Unfortunately BMFont currently cannot generate the font exactly like Bitmap Font Builder or Texture Font Generator. It was never my intention with BMFont to try to mimic other bitmap font formats. What I wanted was to create a format that would allow you to pack as many characters in a texture as possible, and BMFont is definitely much more efficient at that than both Bitmap Font Builder and Texture Font Generator.

Do you really need to use the format that Bitmap Font Builder and Texture Font Generator uses? Are you generating fonts for an existing application, in which you cannot change the format?

If you really need the format of Bitmap Font Builder I'm sure you can quite easily write a tool that converts the output from BMFont into that format.

Regards,

Andreas

AngelCode.com - game development and more - Reference DB - game developer references
AngelScript - free scripting library - BMFont - free bitmap font generator - Tower - free puzzle game

Wanny

127

Author

December 14, 2013 02:22 PM

Hmm, at least in regards of how the images are generated, BMFont is practically the same as Bitmap Font Builder or Texture Font Generator (except from the order in how the characters are placed).

Well, I need the specified output format for a dance game simulator (OpenITG, a fork of StepMania).

Sadly I'm not good enough at programming, so I can't add a way to interpret the .fon format (or "easily" write a converter tool)

WitchLord

4,834

December 14, 2013 03:03 PM

Since OpenITG is open source, perhaps the authors might be interested in enhancing the code in order to support more advanced bitmap fonts. Perhaps you can ask them about it?

AngelCode.com - game development and more - Reference DB - game developer references
AngelScript - free scripting library - BMFont - free bitmap font generator - Tower - free puzzle game

BMFont request: Save font widths in .INI format

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