Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: "Mario Wynands" <mario@sidhe.co.nz>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics
Subject: Re: User defined fonts
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 12:20:16 +1200
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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Barry & Robert Swan <yaroze@theburrow.co.uk> wrote in message
news:376d35be.13127668@www.netyaroze-europe.com...
> advenutere game has a text handling routine already done. Mine is
> slightly different to the others. ( i think)
>
> I parse the text string once, and use moveImage to copy each letter
> one at a time from their original location to a part of vram
> designated as the sentance sprite.

But doesn't this

a.  limit the amount of characters you can have in a sentence
b.  restrict you to displaying only a single sentence at a time

although I like the idea of processing the string only once.

As for the speed thing, I just had a look at your code and saw

            {
            tAscii = tText[tEndWordCheckLetter];
            if (tAscii == 33) tLetterCode = 62;     // !
            if (tAscii == 34) tLetterCode = 63;     // "
            if (tAscii == 39) tLetterCode = 64;     // '
            if (tAscii == 40) tLetterCode = 65;     // (
            if (tAscii == 41) tLetterCode = 66;     // )
            if (tAscii == 43) tLetterCode = 67;     // +
            if (tAscii == 44) tLetterCode = 68;     // ,
            if (tAscii == 45) tLetterCode = 69;     // -
            if (tAscii == 46) tLetterCode = 70;     // .
            if (tAscii == 58) tLetterCode = 71;     // :
            if (tAscii == 59) tLetterCode = 72;     // ;
            if (tAscii == 61) tLetterCode = 73;     // =
            if (tAscii == 63) tLetterCode = 74;     // ?
            if ((tAscii >47) && (tAscii <58))   tLetterCode = tAscii-48;
// numbers
            if ((tAscii >64) && (tAscii <91))   tLetterCode = tAscii-55;
// upper case
            if ((tAscii >96) && (tAscii <123))  tLetterCode = tAscii-61;
// lower case
            tEndWordX += LetterWidth[tLetterCode];
            tEndWordCheckLetter++;
            }


It may be better structured like the following

            {
            tAscii = tText[tEndWordCheckLetter];
            if ((tAscii >96) && (tAscii <123))
            {
                tLetterCode = tAscii-61;   // lower case
            }
            else
            {
                if ((tAscii >64) && (tAscii <91))
                {
                    tLetterCode = tAscii-55;   // upper case
                }
                else
                {
                    if ((tAscii >47) && (tAscii <58))
                    {
                        tLetterCode = tAscii-48;   // numbers
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        if (tAscii == 33) tLetterCode = 62;     // !
                        if (tAscii == 34) tLetterCode = 63;     // "
                        if (tAscii == 39) tLetterCode = 64;     // '
                        if (tAscii == 40) tLetterCode = 65;     // (
                        if (tAscii == 41) tLetterCode = 66;     // )
                        if (tAscii == 43) tLetterCode = 67;     // +
                        if (tAscii == 44) tLetterCode = 68;     // ,
                        if (tAscii == 45) tLetterCode = 69;     // -
                        if (tAscii == 46) tLetterCode = 70;     // .
                        if (tAscii == 58) tLetterCode = 71;     // :
                        if (tAscii == 59) tLetterCode = 72;     // ;
                        if (tAscii == 61) tLetterCode = 73;     // =
                        if (tAscii == 63) tLetterCode = 74;     // ?
                    }
                }
            }
            tEndWordX += LetterWidth[tLetterCode];
            tEndWordCheckLetter++;
            }

In theory, if your sentences are made up mostly of upper and lower case
characters then you will be only doing two tests for the majority of each
character in the sentence, instead of doing sixteen tests for every
character as before.  That should give you a bit of a speed up (especially
seeing as this test logic appears twice in that function).  You could also
try turning all that symbol test stuff into a 'case' statement.


Regards

Mario

mario@sidhe.co.nz
www.sidhe.co.nz