[Luke]

Hi

I am searching for the possibility to edit an existing font. After several hours searching in internet and at HLP for an font editor i gave up. 

I found "FONTTOOL", but with this i can't edit the font, only convert from a .PCX into a VF. But i only have the VF file.

Any ideas?

[MatthTheGeek]

You'd probably be better waiting for proper TTF support.

[Dragon]

I don't think you can open VFs. However, all the fonts in FS2 should be available in another format (IIRC, they're all "off the shelf" fonts), edit that, convert to PCX and to VF.

[Luke]

@MatthTheGeek
I read about that feature.

But sorry, this don't help me, WCS is a "FSO fork" (<-correct?)  and i only have this and i must work with that. ^^

[Luke]

I don't think you can open VFs.

That's my problem, i only have the VF  file (german version).

[MatthTheGeek]

But sorry, this don't help me, WCS is a "FSO fork" (<-correct?)  and i only have this and i must work with that. ^^

You don't need that anymore.

[Luke]

Matth and other, i think i must write some clarifying words:

I am no FSO guru.
I am no Modding guru.
And: I am not familiar with the WCS/FSO development.

My job in our little translation team is to find some solution for some integration-problems. The most things i have solved now, also with the help from HLP.  My job is not to work on WCS open or to write updates for WCS. Yes, i wrote several tools for WCS like DBST but i have absolutely no knowhow about FSO coding.

I have only the current WCS version and that's all what i have. We can't use any other WCS/FSO Build for our translation and we don't want that. Please understand.  So if you say "you can't do this with the WCS fork!" on some of my questions, that's okay for me, then i must live with it.

[The E]

I still don't quite see why you need to reverse-engineer the .vf font. Just choose a font that looks close to the one you want to replace, and use fonttool to create a new .vf file.

[Luke]

I still don't quite see why you need to reverse-engineer the .vf font. Just choose a font that looks close to the one you want to replace, and use fonttool to create a new .vf file.

Okay, how exactly? The problem is, i need a font for german language. I have one, but this is not optimal. So i need really a tool or whatever to edit an existing font. And the next problem is, the font i have switches WCS automatically into german language and i have no idea how can i create a font with that feature.

[The E]

Read this topic, it's as close to a user guide for fonttool you're going to get.

[Luke]

Hmm i read this topic already and i hoped i can find a solution that's a bit simpler. ^^

But ok, thx, i will try it and i give feedback here.

[niffiwan]

I still don't quite see why you need to reverse-engineer the .vf font. Just choose a font that looks close to the one you want to replace, and use fonttool to create a new .vf file.

Okay, how exactly? The problem is, i need a font for german language. I have one, but this is not optimal. So i need really a tool or whatever to edit an existing font. And the next problem is, the font i have switches WCS automatically into german language and i have no idea how can i create a font with that feature.

If I remember correctly, FSO uses the file checksum of font01.vf to determine what language to use with English being the default if it gets a checksum it doesn't recognise. Given that checksums are (for most intents) unique to a specific file I don't believe you'll be able to use this method to automatically select German unless you can modify the source code for WCS to add the relevant checksum for it to recognise.

The language can also be set by adding an entry to the registry (on Windows) or in fs2open.ini (for Linux/OSX), this may be the better option for selecting the language in your case.  The problem is, I don't know if WCS has changed any of this since they forked and I can't check their source code, so I don't really know if this advice is valid for WCS 

[Luke]

Hi niffiwan

If I remember correctly, FSO uses the file checksum of font01.vf to determine what language to use with English being the default if it gets a checksum it doesn't recognise. Given that checksums are (for most intents) unique to a specific file I don't believe you'll be able to use this method to automatically select German unless you can modify the source code for WCS to add the relevant checksum for it to recognise.

WCS uses MD5/CRC32/whatever on font01.vf to toggle the language? Yes, then i have no chance to build my own german font. ^^

But after my posting yesterday i have tested some things and the good news (for me) is, i don't need to change the font01.vf, this font is used for the GUI and game engine (what i can see) and this font is okay for our translation. What i need to change is the font for the Fiction Viewer, currently font04.vf. The problem is here: in the mission file i can select the font for the FV, but it seems only the fonts (font01-font04) in the original WCS .VP files is recognized. A font in our mod directory will ignored by the FV and i have no idea why. Any ideas?

The point is, font04 is working properly, but our german "umlaute" is not shown optimal, especially the a-umlaut and o-umlaut are realy bad, so that's the cause why i need to change this font a bit. On the other side: this is not our top priority, so if we found no solution for that, well.... never mind. ^^

The language can also be set by adding an entry to the registry (on Windows) or in fs2open.ini (for Linux/OSX), this may be the better option for selecting the language in your case.  The problem is, I don't know if WCS has changed any of this since they forked and I can't check their source code, so I don't really know if this advice is valid for WCS 

Generally you are right, this should be the better solution, but it isn't. We had big problems with our translation by using the registry to toggle the language. Long long story... i had trouble with this issue more than a year. Short: Using the reg value to toggle WCS into german language is a really bad thing! Only if we delete this reg value completely and if we use the special font01.vf all works as designated. To find out this has cost many time and many nerves.