[iPad] Text Font

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dunc
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Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:13 am

[iPad] Text Font

Postby dunc » Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:49 am

Hi,

is there a possibility to change the main text font on the iPad version of Uplink? The one that has been chosen is causing heavy strain on the eyes, IMHO, because the font in use tries to keep all the characters approximately the same shape. Which is not easy to read.

For a relatively small display area like the iPad, I'd really prefer some clean font like Arial/Helvetica/Tahoma/Geneva or similar, that would make it much easier for me to keep concentrated while gaming...

Thanks,
Dunc.
dunc
level0
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:13 am

Postby dunc » Mon Jun 18, 2012 1:22 pm

FYI,

figured it out. Yes, it IS possible to change the font, although it includes jailbraking your iPad. I will NOT post any tutorial on jailbraking your device, please don't ask about it. But in case you have a jailbroken iPad, here's an ARIAL replacement font for you:

uplink_ipad_arial.zip

Just unzip the files and drop them into your Uplink application Data/Fonts directory (/private/var/mobile/Applications/***/Uplink.app/Data/fonts), overwriting the existing files (but please make a backup 1st, you might need the original files in case Introversion publishes an update). After restarting Uplink, the result should look like this (click on the image for a full iPad 3 screenshot):

Image

Makes it much easier IMHO to decypher those tiny texts!

...

In case you want to create your own font, you can use a bitmap font creator like e.g. the one from AngelCode. You need to create a 256x256 png font, base height 32px, with an xml description (just select these options in the "font settings" and "export options" dialogs). Your font needs to include exactly 207 characters: the full "Latin + Latin Supplement" set (191 characters), plus SOME characters from the "General Punctation" set: #8211, 8212, 8216, 8217, 8218, 8220, 8221, 8222, 8224, 8225, 8226, 8230, 8240, 8240, 8250, 8260. If in doubt, check out the original dungeon.fnt file (it's XML).

Edit: forgot to mention the last steps... after you finished the character selection as described above, save the bitmap font as "dungeon.fnt". There will be a corresponding "dungeon_0.png" file created at the same time. Rename that png file to "dungeon.png". Next, open the dungeon.fnt file with a text editor, and replace your original font name (i.e. "Arial") with "Dungeon". Save the file, and upload both the PNG and the FNT file to your iPad as described above.

You might need to play around for a while to find a font and export settings which will actually both look ok and don't cause any word wrapping/line length issues. I'm quite happy with the Arial font above. Besides selecting "bold", I used ClearType and the highest available AA setting as well. So far, no issues have come up, all looks fine here!

Note: if the game crashes at some point in time, it is usually an indicator that Uplink wanted to load a character which is not part of your new font file. So make sure that you have ALL the 207 characters in your file as described above.

Ok, well, I hope that is enough as a "proof of concept". Thinking of it, I would not be surprised if that method would work for non-iPad versions as well. And I would appreciate it if an alternate "clean" font could be part of an official Uplink update in the near future, to make it available to non-jailbroken devices as well. :wink:

Cheers,
Dunc.

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