Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: killface on October 20, 2008, 10:01:16 pm

Title: Subtitle effect
Post by: killface on October 20, 2008, 10:01:16 pm

Hi all,

I am having a devil of time trying to get the subtitles to work during in-game activity.  Every time I try it, no matter what values I set for the X, Y, Z coordinates or the time to display value, NOTHING shows up on screen.  Words of wisdom, anybody???    :confused:
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on October 20, 2008, 10:15:22 pm
Never tried them but my advice would be to open up a mission in FRED that has them working correctly and see how it's done.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: killface on October 20, 2008, 10:25:13 pm

What's an example of a mission that uses subtitles?  Don't think any of the FS2 missions did, so I'm guessing you're referring to something else...
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Stormkeeper on October 21, 2008, 01:31:30 am
Blue Planet. Its used for quite a number of missions, I just can't remember clearly which ones they are ... I think Derelict uses them too, for the asteroid mission.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Cobra on October 21, 2008, 01:42:49 am
Uh, nope. Those were training messages.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: ShadowGorrath on October 21, 2008, 03:04:47 am
The intro cutscene of Blue Planet uses subtitles.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Rodo on October 21, 2008, 06:43:52 am
The intro cutscene of Blue Planet uses subtitles.

Yes, you can use that one, I used those and works just fine.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: CP5670 on October 21, 2008, 11:47:21 am
You may be better off avoiding subtitles completely and using training messages instead. Last I checked, the subtitles had several problems with scaling and positioning between resolutions, and even if you could get them to look right, they wouldn't look the same on other computers. (at high resolutions, they become microscopic and very difficult to read)
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Mobius on October 21, 2008, 12:21:43 pm

Hi all,

I am having a devil of time trying to get the subtitles to work during in-game activity.  Every time I try it, no matter what values I set for the X, Y, Z coordinates or the time to display value, NOTHING shows up on screen.  Words of wisdom, anybody???    :confused:

There are no Z coordinates in subtitles. Maybe switching to training messages is the best thing to do, but try checking the SEXP and see if there's something weird on it. FRED provides description of all SEXPs, read them :)
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Rodo on October 21, 2008, 01:30:20 pm
Last I checked, the subtitles had several problems with scaling and positioning between resolutions

they still do, but you can work with them, you just have to make the text as small as you can and If you have to make a long comment, then the best choice will always be placing a second sexp... but slightly moved downwards, so it does not interfere with the first line of text.

the size of the text is not a problem, seems to work just fine on any type of screen config.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Mobius on October 22, 2008, 01:39:11 pm
Depends...if you want the subtitles to be centered you have less issues. :)
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: LeGuille on October 22, 2008, 10:43:11 pm
For the files,( ie subtitle.tga), Do they need to be somewhere specific? During editing process, where does FRED2_O_INF recognize these subtitles to be?
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Skullar on October 23, 2008, 08:31:10 am
1. Subtitles have to be in the /data/maps folder, otherwise they won't work.
2. When they are .tga or .jpg, the engines considers them as textures. Be sure to have enabled the use of those textures in the launcher !!! If you don't NOTHING will show up.
3. Refer to them by filename only. I forgot if you have to state the file type ending as well, just try out.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Dilmah G on October 23, 2008, 08:53:54 am
Last I checked, the subtitles had several problems with scaling and positioning between resolutions

they still do, but you can work with them, you just have to make the text as small as you can and If you have to make a long comment, then the best choice will always be placing a second sexp... but slightly moved downwards, so it does not interfere with the first line of text.

the size of the text is not a problem, seems to work just fine on any type of screen config.

Yea there's not a huge issue with txt size, I play 1440x900 and was able to read the subtitiles easily on blueplanet
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: CP5670 on October 24, 2008, 12:48:59 am
Last I checked, the subtitles had several problems with scaling and positioning between resolutions

they still do, but you can work with them, you just have to make the text as small as you can and If you have to make a long comment, then the best choice will always be placing a second sexp... but slightly moved downwards, so it does not interfere with the first line of text.

the size of the text is not a problem, seems to work just fine on any type of screen config.

Yea there's not a huge issue with txt size, I play 1440x900 and was able to read the subtitiles easily on blueplanet

Do they actually scale though? The text should be the same size at any resolution, like all the other HUD elements. I use 2048x1536 and used to find them nearly impossible to read, but I haven't tried them out recently.
Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Rodo on October 24, 2008, 05:12:20 am
I didn't have troubles with the size of the letters, I tested it on a high resolution screen and the only problem was the fact that the coordinates X & Y are not the same for different screen resolutions.

maybe this trouble is a serious issue when you define the text size directly from the sexp (I don't remember well but I think there's an option for this).

Title: Re: Subtitle effect
Post by: Mobius on October 24, 2008, 11:19:37 am
1. Subtitles have to be in the /data/maps folder, otherwise they won't work.
2. When they are .tga or .jpg, the engines considers them as textures. Be sure to have enabled the use of those textures in the launcher !!! If you don't NOTHING will show up.
3. Refer to them by filename only. I forgot if you have to state the file type ending as well, just try out.

1) I placed my image subtitles in data/hud and they work perfectly;
2) Are you sure? INFA doesn't make use of TGAs, nor does its launcher, but I think image subtitles in TGA format work;
3) Filename only :)