BitmapFont in libGDX problem

Newbie & Debugging Questions
#1

When I try to draw a string in libGDX using a BitmapFont I only get filled boxes instead of characters, with the specified font color.
I haven’t found any information googling so I’m asking here.

#2

Never seen that.
If you open the png in like photoshop, are the characters all fine and visible ?

Maybe you do something really wrong with the code, would help if you post a minimal scenario

#3

I open the font in the image viewer and the background is transparent.
Here’s the loading/declaration

BitmapFont font = new BitmapFont(Gdx.files.internal("data/font.fnt"), false);

And the rendering code


batch.begin();
		
font.draw(batch, "blabla", 10, 10);
stage.draw();
		
batch.end();
#4

Never used Stage before, but I dont think it would be a problems
It does sound like the alpha channel has a problem or the texture is destroyed or the png has like a color format not supported by the libgdx png reader

Try posting it here : http://www.badlogicgames.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

Mario, one of the creators checks there really frequently and not as often here.

#5

Try this instead:

batch.begin();
font.draw(batch, "blabla", 10, 10);
batch.end();

//Stage.draw will call begin and end on the given batch
stage.draw();

If you want to include text in the same batch as the rest of your stage sprites, use the Label UI.

#6

Thanks, davedes.
Another question I have:
Is it possible to change the text/font color without changing the file itself?

#7

Well font.setColor(Color)
Since the png has white characters, you can filter it to any color, which is done internally, by using that call

#8

That doesn’t seem to work. The characters in the font.png are all white, but they always display as black ingame.

#9

don’t you need batch.setColor?

#10

Tried changing the batch color to something else, no change.
Tried changing batch color to white and font color to something else and no change.

#11

no its font.setColor if you just want to change font color

there is something from with you font I guess.
What tool are you using to create them ?

You might wanna post your whole code and font files…

#12

I’ve tried fonts created with “Hiero” and “BMFont”, both look/behave the same.

#13

Both should work.

#14

This tool is better IMO:
http://twl.l33tlabs.org/themer/fonttool.jnlp

If your white fonts are not being recolored, I’m guessing you have something else in your code interfering (i.e. calls to glTexEnvi or a custom shader).

Try this test case:
http://www.java-gaming.org/?action=pastebin&id=282

Other than that, learn to debug… :wink:

#15

Well I hate TWL, so I would disagree. I think BMFont is the best, Hiero is very good but lacks features.

#16

This is really off-topic but jhallenberg you were using Slick2D a week or two ago, what made you switch over to LibGDX? The reason I’m asking is because I’m working on a Slick2D game but I’ve learned that LibGDX is a superior engine. I’m not sure if I should finish my game in Slick2D or switch over to LibGDX first, what did you experience with the two engines? Thanks in advance in you have time to reply.

#17

I switched due to libGDX having built in box2d mainly, I didn’t get very far into using slick2d either so it wasn’t a big deal.

#18

Ah good to know, thanks.

#19

Why do you hate TWL?

Why would your hatred of TWL have anything to do with this incredibly useful tool that Matthias has made open source?

I am not a Windows user so BMFont is useless to me. :slight_smile:

#20

I got the font coloring to work. It was a really dumb error made by me that I didn’t see until now. I placed the new font files in the wrong folder so I kept using the same ones… :emo: