UI Font size

[Slaxer]

Hi, posted this on the main EQ2 UI thread, and Taco-Man graciously offered a fix:

Hi there all, hope somebody can help me out.

I play EQ2 on my 46" DLP HDTV. I feed the TV via DVI -> HDMI from an ATI Radeon X850XT PE. Gameplay is simply awesome. The only problem I have is that given the viewing distance, most UI fonts are too small by like 1 or 2 pt's. does anybody know how I can increase the fontsize (*not* of the chatwindow - found those) of those fonts?

Thanks

Martijn

[SOE_Bobble]

Slaxer.

I'd be happy to help if you loaned me your HDTV for a few weeks.

I'm not sure there has ever been a good explanation of the two types of fonts. So here it is.

EQII uses fonts from bitmaps (uses BuildFont to create the image and the xml) and system fonts (cached on the fly.) You can tell the difference by looking at the TextStyle -- if the style contains FontCharacters, it is a bitmap font. If the style contains "UseCachedFont=true" then it is a system font.

Bitmap fonts:
Obviously you can't change the size of the bitmap fonts without creating a new copy. If you really want to do this, start playing around with BuildFont.
One nice thing about these fonts is that you can customize the advance.
One not so nice thing is that Chinese is really hard to do this way.

Cached fonts:
These fonts are built on the fly. The PointSize property is used to determine the size. You can change the Algorithm property - Simple, Bold, Italics.
One nice thing about these fonts is that the size can be changed on the fly.
One not so nice thing is that some people may not have the desired font installed and then the operating system gets to pick the font.


So to answer your question, change the UseCachedFont property of the TextStyles to true and increase the PointSize a bit. Then as long as things fit into the text area, you'll be good to go.


Bonus information:
Why is there a copy of the font for Euro, Japan, Chinese that isn't used?
If you start up a localized version of EQII, the fonts are automagically swapped.


MrBobble

[Kosmos]

Thanks for that info!!! Now, where did I put my notebook?

[Deathbane27]

If you want to do a very quick job, I recommend downloading QuickArial:

http://www.eq2interface.com/download...fo.php?id=3230

It moves all of the font definitions for US/EU localized versions into a single file so you can edit them easier, and changes everything to use system fonts so you don't have to use BuildFont.

Just change the PointSize, FontName, and Algorithm (Simple or Bold) for each font line, leaving Name alone.

Most of the UI uses FontZapf15, so that's the one you should increase first.

If you don't like Arial then you can switch it back to Times New Roman (and Bold), which is pretty close to the original font.

Good luck!

[taco-man]

if you dont know how to edit the file

here is one with everything increased by 1 pt (and in arial), if its still too small let me know and i can increase it more.

[Slaxer]

Thanks a lot people - really appreciate all the tips and help - and thanks for the file, Taco-man. At work currently :-( but when I get home I'll bne trying this out.

Cheers

Martijn