Bay 12 Games Forum

Dwarf Fortress => DF Suggestions => Topic started by: Dirst on February 12, 2014, 05:00:46 pm

Title: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Dirst on February 12, 2014, 05:00:46 pm
I apologize if this has been suggested before, but the keywords are just too common to search properly.

One of the upcoming features I read about was separating the font from the graphics tilesets, and that is a great idea.  I think Toady can go one step further and allow several fonts with very little additional effort.

The planned feature, as I understand it, would have something like text.png and graphics.png as two distinct tilesets.  Why not also allow for specific tilesets designated inside language files?  Then we could have a runic-looking Dwarf language tileset (font), a frilly Elf language tileset, a serif Human tileset and something ugly for the Goblin tileset (like Comic Sans).  Languages from mods can include their own fonts as desired, or pick one of the basic ones.  The vanilla version of the game just needs a single tileset to act as a fallback in case specific ones are missing.
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Iceblaster on February 15, 2014, 01:14:29 am
I apologize if this has been suggested before, but the keywords are just too common to search properly.

One of the upcoming features I read about was separating the font from the graphics tilesets, and that is a great idea.  I think Toady can go one step further and allow several fonts with very little additional effort.

The planned feature, as I understand it, would have something like text.png and graphics.png as two distinct tilesets.  Why not also allow for specific tilesets designated inside language files?  Then we could have a runic-looking Dwarf language tileset (font), a frilly Elf language tileset, a serif Human tileset and something ugly for the Goblin tileset (like Comic Sans).  Languages from mods can include their own fonts as desired, or pick one of the basic ones.  The vanilla version of the game just needs a single tileset to act as a fallback in case specific ones are missing.

That sounds like a pretty neat idea...

+1
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: ROFLMAOmatt on February 16, 2014, 07:34:06 pm
I'd upvote this if it were on Reddit.
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Trainzack on February 23, 2014, 09:27:39 pm
That does sound amazing. Would the tilesets be linked to the languages or to the entities?
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Crimson Catsup on February 23, 2014, 09:31:35 pm
Wow I'm lovin this idea! Yes! Time to start looking for the best dwarfy font now. Hmmmm.
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Dirst on February 24, 2014, 11:12:30 am
That does sound amazing. Would the tilesets be linked to the languages or to the entities?
My thought was to have it be part of the language to decrease duplication among the raws, but in principle it could vary by caste.  To attach fonts to entities, we would need a more robust system of grading tilesets by how they represent various Spheres.  Toady would need to introduce some sort of Tileset entity in the raws to track the Spheriness of each font.  That seems like a LOT of work for little incremental payoff over a font for each language.
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Matoro on March 05, 2014, 09:22:44 am
Comic Sans would be like the Black Speech of Mordor, which strikes fear and agony to the hearts of all free people everywhere. Comic Sans Goblins will rule the world!

A good suggestion. This would also stop different symbols appearing in the text when they aren't meant to.
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Putnam on March 06, 2014, 01:49:54 pm
Kobolds get Comic Sans. Goblins get Papyrus.
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Bumber on March 06, 2014, 05:32:27 pm
Kobolds: Comic Sans
Elves: Gabriola
Goblins/Megabeasts/"Deities": Impact. (Symbol for non-impostor escaped Clowns?)
Title: Re: Presentation/Interface idea
Post by: Dirst on March 07, 2014, 11:26:18 am
Kobolds: Comic Sans
Elves: Gabriola
Goblins/Megabeasts/"Deities": Impact. (Symbol for non-impostor escaped Clowns?)
Those would fit well, though I wonder if text will still be monospace after it is separated from the graphics tileset.  By the way, I saw a nice collection of fonts called Dan Smith's Fantasy Fonts.  DS RUNEnglish looks Dwarven and DS Celtic looks like a good fit for Human.  The problem is that they are not licensed for commercial use, and there is no telling if Dan is a DF fan :(