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Work in Progress / Bitmap Font Creator

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=PRoF=
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2012 18:59
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@Duffer:

Thank you for taking an interest in BMFC.

It's still under development, but has taken a bit of a back burner as we are all hard at work on Slimeblast. However, once SB is finished, then the whole of the next month is dedicated to finishing BMFC; or at least getting to the point where the app is both functional and stable

As far as I am aware it creates an acceptable data file to accompany the font image; but you may need to manually change the size of the image in paint or something as it doesn't currently ensure the output image is ^2

So in answer to your question, kinda


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=PRoF=
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Posted: 5th Apr 2012 01:58 Edited at: 5th Apr 2012 01:59
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Sorry for the double post, I just wanted to show this and ask a quick question of you guys.



I recently installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and have been testing out various WotC and personal projects on it when I noticed that the BMFC random crash bug WASN'T happening on the new OS, I've also never seen the random crashes when it's running on Windows XP either, so I was wondering what OS have you all tested BMFC on?

I'm also a little bit confused as to where to go with this. I'd like to get it finished soon, to clear up some dev time for newer and more exciting projects, but it's current C# guise isn't going to be finished any time soon. I did quickly look into using BBB Gui as a replacement in a new DBP rewrite, but it doesn't look like its capable of doing everything that BlueGui2 could do.

It's due for discussion at the next WotC meeting, right after the bit where we all get shouted at for not finishing Slime Blast in time, , but I'd be interested if you guys had any feedback/suggestions.

>Edit<
Forgot to say, thats the DBP version of BMFC running on Win8, not the C# version.


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Duffer
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Posted: 7th May 2012 13:14
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"Finish it"...



a long time dabbler with DBC and DBPro with no actual talent but lots of enthusiasm...
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=PRoF=
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2012 01:44 Edited at: 26th Jun 2012 02:17
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Update
BMFC_v1.0a(201206211044).zip

Complete rewrite in C#, This version is much more stable than the previous.
Added antialias
Can now output images which are Power of Two sizes
Gradient fill sometimes has a wrong coloured line through the centre of text
Only uses installed fonts at the minute, ability to just use fonts from font files will be added soon.


Hi guys,

So, here I am with another new version of the Bitmap Font Creator for you to try. This version has been completely rewritten using C# (Which wasn't so easy as I had to learn the language along the way).

Let me know what you think

@Duffer:
It's not finished yet I'm afraid, but it's closer to completion than it's ever been And yes, it's now fully compatible with AppGameKit


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gwheycs62egydws
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2012 02:21
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@=PRoF=

too bad you could not do it in DBP ;o(

but any addition that helps makes games better is worth it ;o)

to move side ways - is to move forward
Since a Strait line gets thin fast
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2012 20:51
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@Resourceful:
Yeah, I know, but sadly I couldn't sort out the random crashing no matter what I tried, and for this app to be truly useful it needed to be stable.

Glad you liked it though


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=PRoF=
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Posted: 26th Jun 2012 02:29 Edited at: 1st Jul 2012 02:25
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Update:
BMFC_v1.0a(201206251250).zip

Fixed problem with Output/Texture Directory paths.
Fixed problem with phrases being stretched when Power of Two images selected.


Sorry for the double post, but I just wanted to push out this update which fixes (yn) a couple of issues with the last version.

Any feedback, comments or criticisms welcome as always


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Rich Dersheimer
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Posted: 27th Jun 2012 06:51 Edited at: 27th Jun 2012 07:06
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Looks very good! One thing though - it output "xxx subimage.txt" instead of "xxx subimages.txt", easy enough to fix!

Thank you so much for your work on this, love it!

EDIT: Also, in the subimages text file, the space character should be a lot wider, maybe twice as much?

Some days, the bear will eat you.
Some days, you'll eat the bear.
Today, I'm eating the bear!
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gwheycs62egydws
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Posted: 27th Jun 2012 09:37
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@=PRoF=

umm how do I load the code into DBP ?

as the save file is a text file and not a image ?

to move side ways - is to move forward
Since a Strait line gets thin fast
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 27th Jun 2012 11:27
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The text looks very blocky. It needs smoothing with AA (Anti Alias). The AA has to be hard coded into the image, and not GPU dependant. To code AA you take the average of two colours, and add pixels between the two.

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Posted: 27th Jun 2012 12:38
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@Rich Dersheimer:
Glad you like it Both of your observations will be fixed in the next update.

@Resourceful:


Once you have edited your font settings, you save a Bitmap font as a tileset image by selecting the 4th Tab (Generate), ensuring that the Tileset check box is checked and that the output path is valid before finally pressing the big "Go!" button.

The resulting tileset is saved to the selected path as a .png image ready to be loaded into DBP.

Hope that helps?

@Pincho Paxton:
It would appear that I have broken the Antialiasing somehow. It definitely used to work :/ I have added this to the list of bugs to be fixed for the next update.


I'd also like to add my own bug to the buglist, It appears that when using certain fonts at quite small sizes, the size of the render image is a couple of pixels too small causing some of the text (or shadow) to be cut off along the bottom/right hand edges.

Massive thanks to everyone who has tried out the new and improved version of this. Stay tuned for updates


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Posted: 1st Jul 2012 02:29
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Update:
BMFC_v1.0a(201206300021).zip

Fixed problem with subset datafile naming
Fixed bug with space characters width
Anti aliasing is now working properly
Fixed bug causing incorrectly coloured line to appear sometimes in gradients 3 & 4 at various text sizes.
Found bug where app crashes when it tries to save the tileset image and it is already open by another app.


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Rich Dersheimer
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Posted: 1st Jul 2012 03:30
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Sweet, I'll be checking it out directly!

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gwheycs62egydws
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Posted: 1st Jul 2012 08:10
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@=PRoF=

it works with out any problems ;o)

the only thing I noticed the full screen button dose not work
more than likely not that important

to move side ways - is to move forward
Since a Strait line gets thin fast

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Kamakazi
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2012 05:55
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Well, to help Prof out, my system specs are below:

Acer Aspire 5515, 250 GB HDD, 2 GB DDR2 800MHz RAM, ATi Raedon, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Application worked great, all tabs were clicked to see what each did (my first time using it) and the debug window stayed open and showed what the program was doing. I didn't experience any crashing or issues.
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2012 15:09
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I couldn't load the PNG into Photoshop. It said File Format module cannot parse the file.

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=PRoF=
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2012 16:18
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@Rich Dersheimer:
Let me know if you have any more comments/criticisms

@Resourceful:
Thats a throwback from the DBP version, resizing all the gadgets to make it full screen was a pain. It'd be easier in C# though I expect. Would you rather be able to work with it in full screen?

@Kamikaze:
Thanks for checking it out, and welcome aboard

@Pincho Paxton:
Hmm, thats a weird one? I have just tested it out now and could successfully load the output.png into DBP, AppGameKit, IE, Firefox, Paint and Paint.Net; Sadly I don't have Photoshop to try it with, but if you post the problematic image here then maybe someone else with Photoshop could try it out?

I didn't actually write anything fancy for the saving, I'm just using the C# equivalent of DBP's Save Image command.


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gwheycs62egydws
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2012 20:18
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@=PRoF=

I did not think about the resizing of layout so
things are fine that way

@Pincho Paxton

if your talking about my upload

the following programs I have load the image file

firfox 3.62.8
Corel PaintShop Pro X4
XnView

to move side ways - is to move forward
Since a Strait line gets thin fast
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2012 22:29 Edited at: 2nd Jul 2012 22:38
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Quote: "but if you post the problematic image here then maybe someone else with Photoshop could try it out? "


Well this is the image...



...and it's the saved image. Hmmm even TGC can't load it.

EDIT: OK figured it out, I didn't click Tileset. I think you should default tileset as selected, and not allow any unselected boxes.

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Olby
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Posted: 2nd Jul 2012 23:35
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Nice tool, really useful. Can you ditch the installer? Why do you need it anyway.


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Posted: 3rd Jul 2012 00:41 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2012 00:42
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@Pincho Paxton:
I'm glad you got it sorted out. The file you uploaded was the .bmf project file. This is just a data file which allows your project to be loaded and saved into the Editor, using the Load and Save project menu items.

I will perhaps have a rethink about those tickboxes and the way they work.

@Olby:
Glad you like it As for the installer, it's there for several reasons altho the biggest of these isn't currently implemented, and thats the bit where it writes the data to the registry which allows you to open the .bmf files by double clicking on them and assigns them an icon.

Why is it you don't like the installer?


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Olby
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2012 12:01 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2012 12:02
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Quote: "Why is it you don't like the installer?"


Show me anyone who likes to use installers for every small utility they download. Not only it litters computer and makes it eventually slower but it also takes away our precious time to install it. To be honest I've been using "setup extractor" to rip the data out and avoid installation- it just simply extracts all files to a folder.

As for file associations. This can be done without the setup in the application it self. Search for it, I bet there are many ways to do it easily in C#.

Nonetheless good tool.


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2012 13:40 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2012 13:45
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Quote: "I'm glad you got it sorted out. The file you uploaded was the .bmf project file. "


Well my .bmf file has .PNG on the end of it, and no option to change it to .bmf. Once you click on the Generate Output file selector to save a PNG, it replaces the .bmf file selector completely. So Save As becomes PNG.

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=PRoF=
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2012 14:08
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@Olby:
I see your point, but I think I prefer the installer. Firstly I'm not sure I like the thought of having random folders all over my desktop with possibly multiple versions of the same app (My desktop is pretty cluttered at the best of times); and secondly If I make registry changes from inside the app, how will it remove these changes when I delete the app?

@Pincho Paxton:
And this is why having you guys test my software to death pays off You are completely right, I use the same file dialog for both parts; one of them changes the settings, the other doesn't (The .bmf settings are the default for it).

Thank you for your eagle eyed testing, and I'll get it fixed in the next update.


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Olby
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2012 23:25 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2012 23:26
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Quote: "I see your point, but I think I prefer the installer. Firstly I'm not sure I like the thought of having random folders all over my desktop with possibly multiple versions of the same app (My desktop is pretty cluttered at the best of times); and secondly If I make registry changes from inside the app, how will it remove these changes when I delete the app?"


I suppose we're coming from different backgrounds. Is there any reason why you cant use .ini or .xml files instead of altering the registry? I've wrote a simple bitmap font generator once and can't imagine why would I need to tinker with the registry. As I said previously, I just think that installer for such a small utility is a unnecessary overhead. One can always manage different versions of same application by deleting the existing one before extracting the new one.

Anyhow, good luck with it.


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Posted: 4th Jul 2012 02:59 Edited at: 13th Jul 2012 13:08
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Update:
BMFC_v1.0a(201207040007).zip[/href]

Fixed bug which caused project files to be saved with a .png extension.
Project files now contain Phrases as well. Saves from previous versions are still compatible.
Set default value of render tileset tickbox to true (Bit of a kludge but it should help a little)


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 4th Jul 2012 16:40
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Yeah it works well. You can quickly bevel a font in Photoshop, and make it look even better.

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gwheycs62egydws
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Posted: 5th Jul 2012 01:43
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@=PRoF=

my only thing with your installer is that I have to uninstall
the old one so I can install the new one

but every one you have put out works ;o)

it's just getting use the rules to have it do it tricks

to move side ways - is to move forward
Since a Strait line gets thin fast
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Posted: 13th Jul 2012 13:07
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Update:
BMFC_v1.0a(201207121152).zip

Changed “Find more fonts” provider as I didn’t like the unnecessary toolbar installation which they seem to have added since I last used that site. New site just downloads .ttf files in zips.
Added “Load” functionality to the font dialog. Now you can render fonts which haven’t been installed!
Window is now fully resizable
Removed need to uninstall previous version when installing the newest update.
Project can now be loaded in by double clicking on the project file.
Subset Data is only rendered when Tileset is selected for rendering. Checkbox disabled when Tileset is unchecked.

@Pincho Paxton:
I have added bevelling onto my list of new features for v2.

@Resourceful:
I'm fairly sure I have fixed the problem with the installer needing the previous version removed before installation.

I have also made the main window fully resizable and enabled the maximise button


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gwheycs62egydws
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Posted: 13th Jul 2012 14:55
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@=PRoF=

good job

it all looks good

to move side ways - is to move forward
Since a Strait line gets thin fast
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