Text Blitter Question

[Sumo]

First of, I'd like to say that I found the Text Blitter object very satisfying! It's works great for online games using in game chat because it supports text, images, transparency, and the ability to change the text though the event editor. It also has a ton of properties and options. I can't believe I just looked at this object now!

I have one question though. Are you able to change the pixel width between each line of the text box. It seems a bit to crowded...

[Pixelthief]

Each line in the displayed text at runtime on your screen, or the image that is 'sliced' to produces the text? Either way, yes!

To increase the space between characters in the map image, use the "space" variables under Text Blitter-> Properties-> Options-> Edit Charmap, and edit the X/Y spacing. To increase the space between characters when it is displayed on your screen, in the event editor use the function for increasing the character spacing (text blitter-> characters-> spacing)

[Sumo]

Thanks it worked! I have another question about the Text Blitter though. Are you able to use BOLD/ITALICS in your text though the event editor?

[Pixelthief]

Not exactly.

In order for a sheet of text to be "bolded" or "italicized", your text blitter must already have the imagemap of the bold/italic characters loaded inside of it. The text blitter merely takes an image and chops it into pieces and displays it. It does *not* modify the image.


So to display bold / italic text, the easiest way to is to have a second & third copy of the character map with those modifications, and copy/paste it to be stacked vertically on the source image of the text blitter. So for example, it might look like this:


AaBbCcDd
AaBbCcDd
AaBbCcDd
AaBbCcDd

then, when you want to set your text to be bolded or italicized, you can access these lower parts of the image by adjusting the Y offset of the source image:

If text is bolded
Set source image Y offset to 128 pixels

If text is italicized
Set source image Y offset to 256 pixels

If text is bolded and italicized
Set source image Y offset to 384 pixels

[Sumo]

im not using imagemaps, just using the regular text and changing it though the editor for a in-game chat function. I just wanted the username of the speaker to stand out more, but I really don't have to.

[Pixelthief]

it uses a default imagemap. You can edit to change the character- but you'd have to create one of your own (its just a matter of putting text into squares)