Building a branching dialog system - Quick question
by WesTT · in Torque Game Builder · 08/06/2007 (12:19 am) · 4 replies
Hi all, it's good to be here. It's also good to see an active and helpful community and I am hoping my stay here will be a long one.
Well, I am starting work on *small* RPG, nothing large, very simple but with a lot of character and story. I am actually quite well versed in game development, and this is not my first game. However, I have a quick question about TGB and fonts, so without further adieu:
What would you say is the best way to build a bitmap font base branching dialog in Torque? Primarily, I am interested in how anyone else has done this in the past.
My current direction is getting a standard bitmap ASCII table (containing only the most used chars, of course) and from there using a Tile Layer to display the corresponding letters to the text string. From there, add various effects like scrolling lines and timed display of characters. This seems like a pretty standard 'first stop' way of doing it, and I am wondering if anyone knows or has used a better method.
I am going to look into the GUI editor soon, but I have an inkling that is not going to provide what I need.
Not asking for a solution, but a point (or shove) in the right/better direction would be great.
Cheers!
Well, I am starting work on *small* RPG, nothing large, very simple but with a lot of character and story. I am actually quite well versed in game development, and this is not my first game. However, I have a quick question about TGB and fonts, so without further adieu:
What would you say is the best way to build a bitmap font base branching dialog in Torque? Primarily, I am interested in how anyone else has done this in the past.
My current direction is getting a standard bitmap ASCII table (containing only the most used chars, of course) and from there using a Tile Layer to display the corresponding letters to the text string. From there, add various effects like scrolling lines and timed display of characters. This seems like a pretty standard 'first stop' way of doing it, and I am wondering if anyone knows or has used a better method.
I am going to look into the GUI editor soon, but I have an inkling that is not going to provide what I need.
Not asking for a solution, but a point (or shove) in the right/better direction would be great.
Cheers!
#2
Hmm, I was looking at the t2dTextObject and correct me if I am wrong but it doesn't seem to provide any functionality (at least, not exposed via the interface) for using a bitmap font? It's fairly important to be able to use our own custom style for the text as part of the games overall style and the text object doesn't appear to easily allow this to be used.
The use of physics sounds particularly interesting however. I think that for the most part it will simply be keyboard input at the moment, mimicing control styles used in old snes/megadrive(genesis) RPGs.
I'll have a look into the dialog stuff you mentioned as well, at the moment I was simply thinking I could use the container image the artist has created as well.
BTW, I was reading your .plan just two days ago, v.interesting! :)
Thanks again.
08/06/2007 (5:14 pm)
Hi Joe, thanks for the reply.Hmm, I was looking at the t2dTextObject and correct me if I am wrong but it doesn't seem to provide any functionality (at least, not exposed via the interface) for using a bitmap font? It's fairly important to be able to use our own custom style for the text as part of the games overall style and the text object doesn't appear to easily allow this to be used.
The use of physics sounds particularly interesting however. I think that for the most part it will simply be keyboard input at the moment, mimicing control styles used in old snes/megadrive(genesis) RPGs.
I'll have a look into the dialog stuff you mentioned as well, at the moment I was simply thinking I could use the container image the artist has created as well.
BTW, I was reading your .plan just two days ago, v.interesting! :)
Thanks again.
#3
08/06/2007 (5:58 pm)
You sure can get bitmap fonts on a t2dTextObject, it's just not the most straightforward thing in the world to do, which is why I made a tool. Here are some screenies of my project, pardon the ripped graphics and placeholder art :) These are all t2dTextObjects, and the dialog text lines are clickable/branching though these images don't illustrate that. To create fonts like this for TGB 1.5.X, try my font tool posted in the resources section. There are some issues with scaling, as you can see in the 3rd image, but if you can live with that it's not bad.
#4
And wow, that's great work Joe, the fonts look really good. Yeah, I can see what you mean about there being some scaling issues, but I doubt that will be too much of a problem. For text such as in the third pic, I am more likely to use a separate standalone image, but it certainly helps to have the flexibility there during development.
Seems you were right, I can avoid the whole tilemap/font approach which would have been significantly more work!
08/06/2007 (9:53 pm)
Ahah! So loadCustomFont and it's various support function is what I want to be looking into. Excellent, you've been a great help already Joe.And wow, that's great work Joe, the fonts look really good. Yeah, I can see what you mean about there being some scaling issues, but I doubt that will be too much of a problem. For text such as in the third pic, I am more likely to use a separate standalone image, but it certainly helps to have the flexibility there during development.
Seems you were right, I can avoid the whole tilemap/font approach which would have been significantly more work!
Torque Owner Joe Rossi
Indri Games