Change in-game paper font

[Krtzk]

I'm not sure if this is the right place but I thought it was the best section to ask.

 

I find it very hard to read the in-game cursive font style. I just began to play Saint Lucia mission and the first thing I do is pick up a paper and I can't bloody read it.

 

Now I want to ask before I try to decipher it as that will likely take more time than using some neat tool with the map editor for Dark Mod to change the font.

[RJFerret]

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Readable_Editor

 

Using Dark Radiant, the editor, you shift-click the item in the map, and select menu "Entity", "Readable Editor". At GUI definition, select one more pleasing to you.

 

Once changed, either quit/load TDM for it to refresh, or use the console command in TDM "reloadxdata".

[Krtzk]

Could you explain how to use Dark Radiant? I've never used it before and I don't even know what file to open.

[RJFerret]

Then before you even get there, you'll need to learn the file system of TDM.

 

You'll want to extract the darkmod/fms/saintlucia/saintlucia.pk4 zip file (.pk4 is just a .zip renamed) so you can load maps/saintlucia.map into Dark Radiant.

 

The 7zip utility can open .pk4s directly, or you can rename the .pk4 to .zip and open it through Windows (other OS, other utilities).

 

Once you get the map loaded in DR, you right-click in the rendered window and hold control to scroll around the map, hold shift with control to zoom in/out. It looks very complicated compared to in game, so might take a bit to orient yourself and find the readable. You might also see spoilers. It can help to filter (Filter menu) out Caulk, Clip, Collision, Triggers and Visportals to see clearly.

 

An alternative would be to read it in a text file instead of changing it in game. However you are likely to see spoilers from other readables as well stored in the same text file in the xdata folder of the map's .pk4. It might also be tricky to sort out which section of the xdata relates to which readable in game unless you were able to sort out enough words to search.

[grayman]

There's a way to do this that doesn't involve Dark Radiant, and might be easier if you haven't used Dark Radiant before.

 

Where exactly in the map is this paper you can't read?

[RJFerret]

An alternative would be to read it in a text file instead of changing it in game. However you are likely to see spoilers from other readables as well stored in the same text file in the xdata folder of the map's .pk4. It might also be tricky to sort out which section of the xdata relates to which readable in game unless you were able to sort out enough words to search.

 

I take this back, due to language translation, the copy isn't in the xdata file, so that won't help you. (For most other FMs, it would have.) In this case, the copy is in strings/fm/english.lang and harder to associate with it's source readable.

[Krtzk]

There's a way to do this that doesn't involve Dark Radiant, and might be easier if you haven't used Dark Radiant before.

 

Where exactly in the map is this paper you can't read?

 

The first one in Saint Lucia mission where you walk forward right into a pub where there's a drunken dude on a chair but I believe this will be an issue almost every mission so I might as well find a way to change on a per-mission basis.

Edited February 22, 2014 by Krtzk

[lost_soul]

Sounds like an opportunity for a simple cvar "g_ForceAllFonts <fontname>" where fontname is the name of the desired font. Now, if I knew how, I would code this.

[grayman]

I have to go out, but when I get back I'll write up a procedure you can use to change the font that you don't like.

 

This procedure doesn't require knowing how to use DarkRadiant.

 

You can use this procedure on any mission where you run into the problem.

 

For missions that have been internationalized, you won't run the risk of spoilers. Unfortunately, with missions that haven't, you'll be able to read everything.

[RJFerret]

Instead of learning all that and modifying every time, another option would be to simply replace the font that's unreadable for you with another font, although formatting won't exactly match, and size might be an issue for some readables.

 

Here's examples of the fonts: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fonts_Screenshots

 

The fonts for the game are in darkmod/tdm_fonts01.pk4

 

You should be able to make matching folders in your install, IE, fonts/english/ and dds/fonts/english, then copy another font from the .pk4 which matches sizes that you can read, into the new folders, and rename it to exactly the name of the font you can't read.

 

Now every time the game calls for the illegible font, you'll instead see the legible font. Note, if a mapper used different fonts to discriminate who wrote what, and you happen to choose the same, it won't be as apparent.

[Krtzk]

Sounds like an opportunity for a simple cvar "g_ForceAllFonts <fontname>" where fontname is the name of the desired font. Now, if I knew how, I would code this.

 

Do I have to write that every time or could I add that to an autoexec? Not that I don't mind, a simple cvar is a fantastic solution as opposed to using the editor.

[grayman]

Bowing out.

[Krtzk]

I tried cvar g_ForceAllFonts but unfortunately the console doesn't recognize it nor will it allow me to show me a list of possible font name so I couldn't pick a different one even if the command had worked. Also, Is the seta com_allowconsole 1 command required first?

 

I'm not sure regarding off topic rules here but at notifications there's an option that indicates support for a Mobile App for this forum but I couldn't find anything for Android. Could someone point me in the right direction?

[Krtzk]

I tried RJFerret's solution and it worked splendidly! I changed the files from Treasure Map to Popsies and then repacked it as a ZIP-file and renamed it to a PK4 file.

 

If anyone don't mind is there a table somewhere either at the wiki or in-game files that show the entire alphabet based upon all fonts? I would like to learn to read Popsies as I quite liked the style even if it was hard to decipher.