Font anti-aliasing missing in 6.1.4 vertical mode??

[shbon]

Hi All

Has the font anti-aliasing gone missing from 6.14 in vertical mode? Or is it my eyes?...

The menu text certainly isn't as smooth as I remember and not as smooth as in horizontal mode. This applies when using the hot-key and via the config file setting.

I'm using Arial Rounded MT Bold as my font, for reference.

???

Shaun

[Tom Speirs]

Hi All

Has the font anti-aliasing gone missing from 6.14 in vertical mode? Or is it my eyes?...

The menu text certainly isn't as smooth as I remember and not as smooth as in horizontal mode. This applies when using the hot-key and via the config file setting.

I'm using Arial Rounded MT Bold as my font, for reference.

???

Shaun

The Anti Aliasing was never supposed to be in affect when using 16-Bit Colour, and Vertical mode always runs in 16-Bit Colour. There was a bug though in GameEx where it would still be antialised if Windows XP default font setting was for smoothing. I fixed it in the last release. What sort of display are you running on? Font Antialising generally looks awful in 16-bit colour in GameEx, and tons of artifacts. I'm a little confused how you think it could be better how it was?

[shbon]

Hence my query about my eyes!

I notice the font aliasing is different in vert mode v. horizontal in 6.1.4. I hadn't noticed this before, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. I *thought* I remembered the fonts looking good (to me) in both orientations. I'm intrigued when you say you've corrected something in this release...

My monitor is a quality 19" CRT Diamontron. This is currently connecting to a laptop host which has an ATI video card. I also see the same effect on the laptop's TFT.

*** My thought: I have Microsoft's ClearType active on the laptop (It's pretty good for increasing font legibility on LCDs). Could this be the reason? *** Is your change stopping ClearType doing its (good) stuff? Could activating ClearType help the initial problem?

Being able to download a pre-change 6.1 version would confirm if there is a significant difference...or if it's my eyes!

Shaun

[Tom Speirs]

Hence my query about my eyes!

I notice the font aliasing is different in vert mode v. horizontal in 6.1.4. I hadn't noticed this before, but that doesn't mean it wasn't there. I *thought* I remembered the fonts looking good (to me) in both orientations. I'm intrigued when you say you've corrected something in this release...

My monitor is a quality 19" CRT Diamontron. This is currently connecting to a laptop host which has an ATI video card. I also see the same effect on the laptop's TFT.

*** My thought: I have Microsoft's ClearType active on the laptop (It's pretty good for increasing font legibility on LCDs). Could this be the reason? *** Is your change stopping ClearType doing its (good) stuff? Could activating ClearType help the initial problem?

Being able to download a pre-change 6.1 version would confirm if there is a significant difference...or if it's my eyes!

Shaun

Here's the latest version exe patched to not remove the default anti-aliasing setting in XP in 16-bit colour.

Just extract to GameEx folder. Yes it was stopping cleartype, its overriding the default XP setting for font smoothing. Previous to the latest version it was not doing this.

You should see loads of atifacts with the antialiasing - black edges, blue dots etc.

http://tomspeirs.com/gameex/download/gameex.zip

(Cant seem to add attachments on the forum at the moment for some reason, Im looking into it)

[shbon]

Tom

There is a difference and I prefer the old version!... I can see there are some artifacts but it's still better for me how it was!

Attached are two screen shots (Alt PrntScrn). old = pre-change, new = 6.1.4

See what you think?

BTW GameEx screen resolution is 800x600. If I try 1024 it doesn't rotate. Is 800 a limit for rotation?

Shaun

[Tom Speirs]

Tom

There is a difference and I prefer the old version!... I can see there are some artifacts but it's still better for me how it was!

Attached are two screen shots (Alt PrntScrn). old = pre-change, new = 6.1.4

See what you think?

BTW GameEx screen resolution is 800x600. If I try 1024 it doesn't rotate. Is 800 a limit for rotation?

Shaun

OK, I'll put it back.

Yes, wont rotate above 1024 X 576, which means 800 X 600 for most folks.

[shbon]

OK, I'll put it back.

Yes, wont rotate above 1024 X 576, which means 800 X 600 for most folks.

Or an config setting. Don't let me influence you unduly...

[headkaze]

Would using outline with fonts make it look better with the second version?

[shbon]

Would using outline with fonts make it look better with the second version?

It makes a slight improvement, Headkaze. I personally, still prefer the original anti-aliased 16-bit color image...which is more than acceptable on my 19" CRT at 800x600. In fact I hadn't noticed the (slight) degradation in vertical mode before. Perhaps I'm just sensitive to anti-aliasing or something, as I did go 'what's happened there then' when I saw the new 6.1.4. vertical mode text.

Does the anti-aliasing look particularly bad on arcade monitors or larger monitors/TVs running 640?

Question:

Is the 16-bit color stipulation in vertical mode insolvable or just temporary? Similarly with regards to 800x600 vertical mode max resolution. Since, if these restrictions are going to be engineered out at some point, the anti-aliasing issue won't exist anymore...

Shaun