8 bit fonts

Hi,

is there a way to use your own bmp's as '8 bit' (8x8 matrix type) fonts? I want to recreate those classic msx/c64/nintendo fonts but I my current project I'm handdrawing the words...wich feels kinda silly: espially with lot's of tekst.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated.

Yea, It's possible. We like to call it Bitmapped fonts :P

Just create a matrix of all possible chars you'd want to use. in a bitmap. Devide the bitmap in "8x8" matrix. Id prefer to call it a frame. Now here's how i do my function.

look up the ascii table http://www.asciitable.com/. you'll create the matrix image with frames that go from left to right. I create my words in the decimal order. Witch means that my frames match the decimal value. So frame 33 would be the ! character. Use Fontext free to create something similar.

After you've generated you're bitmapped font just use the "LoadAnimImage" Command to load it in... Specify the right amount of frames.

I created a function witch i recommen you do to. That parses a text string and generates a bitmapped font text. It's structure is similar to the text command. BMFText(X,Y,Text$,Center,BitmappedFont)

Then i do the following. I use cases. If the first character in the Text$ is like a ! then i use the drawimage command to draw the Chr("!") value. witch is the 33'rd frame

Example:

Function BMFText(X%,Y%,Text$,Center,BMF%)
    Local BMHeight = 8    
    Tmp$ = Text$
    For I = 1 to Len(Tmp$) 
        Select Tmp$
            Case Left(Tmp$) = Chr(33)
                Frame = 33
            Case Left(Tmp$) = Chr(13)
                Y% = Y%% + BMHeight
        End Select
        Tmp$ = Right(Tmp$,Len(Tmp$-1))
        DrawAnimImage BMF%,X%,Y%,Frame
        
        X% = X% + BMHeight ; Move the Position       
    Next
End Function

IM not @ home right now so i didn't test the code i just wrote above, but it should help you along the way...

Get MasterBeaker's FONText here.

It makes the bitmap font for you, AND gives you a nice set of functions to get them into your game quickly (2d and 3d).

Thanks for that code...I made numbers 0-9 as imaged and

used a (score(/10^digit)mod 10) to decide which image i should use... this looks much more elegant. Thanks again.

Oh, here's code I wrote to do basically the same:

Function Write8(w$,wx,wy)
Local wl,wa
For wl=1 To Len(w$)
wa = Asc(Mid$(w$,wl,1))
DrawImage letter(wa),wx+wl*8,wy
Next
End Function

I'm Home and heres my function

;Draw BMFonts
Function DrawFnt(Start_X,Start_Y,TextString$,FNTNAME,HEIGHT%=0)
	StartX = Start_X
	StartY = Start_Y
	TextString$ = Upper(TextString$)
	While Len(TextString$) > 0
		.Redo
		TextLength  = Len(TextString$)
		Tmp$ = Left(TextString$,1)
		If TextLength-1 < 0
			Exit
		EndIf
		TextString$ = Right(TextString$,TextLength-1)
		Frame = Asc(Tmp$)-33
		If Tmp$ = Chr(32) ; SPACE
			StartX = StartX + HEIGHT%
			Goto Redo
		ElseIf Tmp$ = Chr(13) Then ; LINEBREAK
			StartY = StartY + HEIGHT%
			StartX = Start_X
		Else
			DrawImage FNTNAME,StartX,StartY,Frame
			StartX = StartX + HEIGHT%
		EndIf
	Wend
End Function

Thanks for that piece of code. It's a lot longer then mine though. ;)

Ps. Why do you use the right$ and not the mid$ command?

i dunno i guess i used it once and ever since....

I also see I used an array of images (1 to 128) instead of an animimage...hmmm..I wonder which is faster.