Missing Non-English Characters from Subtitles

Black Mesa Archive In-game Issues (Mod)
#21

Hm, so this is only for chapter titles? Not for the subtitles themselves? I’ll be testing this out later today, thanks for the hint. If I remember correctly, the font for the Black Mesa logo is Trebuchet MS; could this font be used instead of Tahoma?

That’s a different issue. If you have any issues with the Italian translations, please join hereand voice your opinion :slight_smile:

Yeah, that seems to be a problem with all subtitles - some parts of the game, such as the tram ride and the beginning of the game, have no subtitles in any language. Hope a solution comes up soon!

#22

Exactly, 'cause the section “CenterPrintText” describe only centered text in the game, such as chapter titles and Freeman’s dossier in the beginning.
So, if you need to fix other titles - change the font in another section(s) the same way.

Or you can use your own custom font(s):

  1. Replace the name of the font in necessary section,
    [*]Then
  • If you use a system font - make sure that the section hasn’t line
    “custom” “1”
    Else you can set it to “0” or completely delete this line;
  • Otherwise if you use NOT a system font:

[list=1]
[*]make sure that the section has line
“custom” “1”

  • add a new line to section CustomFontFiles at the end of file ClientScheme.res:
    “” “”
    (see original lines)
  • and put the file of your font in this folder.
    [/:m][/:m][/list:o]

In game the original font for logo is [COLOR=‘Orange’]blackmesa.ttf (font name is “BlackMesa”, see ClientScheme.res). Eg the main title and logo is literally “BL@CK MESA”, but “@” drawn as lambda by this font.

Don’t know about all symbols, but in generally - yes, you can use your custom font. Just replace the name of font in necessary section (see above).
So just try… and write about the results :slight_smile:

#23

But the problem with using a custom font and disabling “custom” “1”, means the font won’t be read? Even if the custom font has the special Cyrillic/Czech/Polish characters?

#24

Ilucci
Don’t know…

I see it this way:

  • Flag “custom” “1” in file ClientScheme.res actually means that we use not a system font, which should be described in CustomFontFiles section and added like a file. Otherwise if we use a system font - “custom” flag should be disabled.
  • However when I tried to use non-system font (DIN 1451 Mittelschrift) with disabled “custom” flag - I saw that the characters which included in this font render by them, and which are not - by system Unicode font (Tahoma).
    P.S. And it’s not because Tahoma in other places of .res file - I’ve tried to replace them all to another system Unicode font, but nothing changed in our centered titles.
  • I didn’t testing anymore (can’t yet) so don’t know anything about your situation, when our custom non-system font has the special characters that we trying to draw by our font, and “custom” flag is disabled… or enabled.

So please try someone and write here about this.

P.S. Or are you trying to say that DIN 1451 Mittelschrift already has some special characters but game not draw them correctly? With enabled “custom” flag. And with disabled - draw them by Tahoma. Right?

P.P.S. Wow damn, just noticed that DIN 1451 really already has Cyrillic chara…
[COLOR=‘Magenta’]WRONG, sorry for my mistake (damned fontview.exe in Windows, it’s lying! charmap.exe is truly better), DIN 1451 Mittelschrift has no Cyrillic. (Unlike his cyrillic version surely)
[COLOR=‘Red’]BUT, I’ve heard that this didn’t work with cyrillic version too :frowning:
Still need to check in more detail, like for example install cyrillic version in system and try with disabled “custom”…

#25

Tested… So, [COLOR=‘Red’]nothing works. Only damned Tahoma instead of any custom font :tired:
Tahoma is almost everywhere, except ANSI.

What I tested (with russian characters, and doesn’t matter “custom” is on or off - but i checked both):

  • DIN 1451 Mittelschrift
  1. I found Unicode version of DIN 1451 Mittelschrift, russian characters are included too. Tried as a non-system font - fail (ANSI - DIN 1451, Cyrillic - Tahoma).
  2. Install it in system - still fail.
  3. Ok, let’s see closer… wait, font seems to be incorrectly compiled: attributes of the font specified support only for ANSI region, whereas in fact it includes much more, as well as Cyrillic. Well, try to fix and recompile (in FontLab, in FontForge, etc). And now look at results… Fail again. ANSI - DIN 1451, Cyrillic - still Tahoma.
  4. Install recompiled DIN 1451 in system - nothing changed (but in a text editors I see its cyrillic).

Ok, funk you DIN 1451, let’s play with Tahoma…

  • Tahoma as Tryhoma
  1. Copy tahoma.ttf from system dir to /resource/tryhoma.ttf
  2. Open tryhoma.ttf in a font editor. Replace all internal names from “Tahoma” to “Tryhoma”, modify one glyph of Latin characters and one of Cyrillic characters (to make it easier to see the contrast to original Tahoma), recompile the font. Check for new glyphs in various character sets of cyrillic - all is ok, i see new glyphs.
  3. Add tryhoma.ttf to ClientScheme.res like a new custom font - in CustomFontFiles section and in “CenterPrintText” section.
  4. Try - fail. ANSI - see new glyph, so Tryhoma is here; Cyrillic - don’t see new glyph, so it’s funked Tahoma from system. again.
  5. Install Tryhoma in system… sadness, the same fail as above.

Well, thank you Tahoma at least for containing the most of needed characters… And bug is somewhere more deeper.

P.S. Also I’ve read such articles as Authoring and Using TrueType Fonts - Valve Developer Community and Steamscheme.res file structure - there is nothing new.

(and of course i tried to use “range” option with wide region)

P.P.S. Finally, just to make sure Tahoma is this, I tried to replace the system Tahoma to my Tryhoma (after returning all internal names to “Tahoma”) - well, flawless victory :slight_smile: New glyphs are both in Latin and Cyrillic in game.
So… funk with me Tahoma, stay with us baby :freeman:

#26

Just to take the fonts out of the problem, I tried using one of the official Team Fortress 2 fonts (With Latin-B and Cyrillic support) replacing the DIN one.

The Cyrillic and Latin-B characters still showed up on Tahoma, but only with the custom parameter as “0” (Or simply removed).

#27

IlDucci
So, everything’s the same?

(In my last tests above I forgot to say that when custom is “1” - cyrillic didn’t show up in any case, as earlier. I.e. nothing changed here since first tests.)

#28

Looks like it. Whatever was screwed, Valve fixed it for Team Fortress 2, but doesn’t seem like it got ported into the Source SDK.

The current only option is to disable the “custom” parameter on ClientScheme.res, so people at least see the right characters. Until someone fixes this via code.

#29

Funny, the patch you say we should wait for? Any subtitles that may be included there are being made by fans right now, and will not be available unless the fans finish. And for that, we need a font that works for additional characters, which is not very high on the developer’s priorities I’m afraid. The people posting here are not the only non-English speakers who have played Black Mesa, you know? There’s more than just English in the world.

#30

About the extra characters, Mimokodil, where’s that copy of DIN that contains Cyrillic characters? Would be useful to know if it it’s good to use by the Black Mesa team, and remove one headache for them.

#31

Yup, I second this request, I’ll be needing the font to test Bulgarian subs soon :slight_smile:

#32

Leijonasisu
Why so serious?
We found solution a long time ago, and today we’ve discovered that this bug is not in the fonts but in the engine of SDK 2007 itself, and no other fonts (except Tahoma) can be used for extra characters outside ANSI.
So, we’ve finished our research here. And why haven’t u? :lambda:

#33

And there is another solution, if you don’t need too many characters.
Just put all glyphs which you need in the ANSI region of your font :slight_smile: So they will show up without Tahoma.
And will accordingly change all texts with this font, so they can become unreadable in a Unicode text editor.

P.S. Original DIN 1451 Mittelschrift in Black Mesa has too few glyphs outside Latin, so this solution is not for it.

#34

That’ll only work on Singleplayer mods, like Black Mesa. Still, it’s an option.

#35

Any tutorial on this somewhere? I’d be up to try it out later :3

#36

Basically, you change all the accented characters in the font that work (EFIGS ones) with other characters, like the full Cyrillic alphabet or Latin-B characters (Polish, Hungarian…).

Then you mass replace in a text editor each special character in the captions and other text files with the accented versions so it shows correctly.

In order to make this work, it would need to overwrite the existing fonts. If you want to make a big language pack, you’d have to put a different font inside, per example, BMS_russian for Cyrillic, etc, etc.

#37

Ah, man, it’s really hard :frowning: I’m not good at this…

#38

It ain’t too hard. A bit laborius, but that’s it.

#39

Sigh, so I guess this means no chance of getting a font that has all the characters instead? That would be easier :stuck_out_tongue:

#40

Well, I do have the font with Latin-A, Latin-B, and thanks to Mimokdil, Cyrillic characters. But we weren’t talking about making those characters show up ingame without touching the real bugger, the game code? Right now the only help allows them to show up on Tahoma.

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