Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!scea!peter_alau@playstation.sony.com
From: shade@dragonshadow.com (Scott Cartier)
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.programming.2d_graphics
Subject: Re: User defined fonts
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 17:57:03 GMT
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I actually do it two different ways in Decaying Orbit.

The first method is identical to what Adventure Game does (if I
understand correctly).  I parse my string and use MoveImage to
transfer the characters to another section of VRAM.  Then I just sort
that other section as a sprite.  As Rob (or is it Barry?) says, this
saves processing power in the long run as it doesn't have to re-parse
the text each frame.  However, it does have that processing-spike at
the initial parsing.  Again, similar to what Rob said, I get around
this by only processing a small amount of text each frame.

One other drawback is that, unless you play tricks, you're limited to
however much text you can fit in one TPage.  I made my font small
(8x12) so I could fit quite a bit.

I use this for all the text in the shops, the time display during the
game, the status box in the level editor, and a few other places.

The second way I display text is the one-sprite-per-character thing.
This has the advantage of allowing me to scale/rotate/color the
characters individually.  I use this for the opening title,
scrolling-text sequences, and level complete bonus summaries.

Scott