Avon: Thanks. :)
Grey: Yep, it's out AT LAST! :P I'm just pleased I managed to finish it as I didn't much enjoy the final 10% of development, for various reasons. And who likes writing docs??? :/ It's written using the 2D command set of Blitz3D but it would have made more sense to do it with BlitzPlus, really. That would have saved me from having to write the GUI and would have given me better/faster image manipulation, I guess. Anyway, that's moot as I don't have BlitzPlus and it's all done now. :)
Beaker: Thanks, but I don't see Juicy Fonts stealing FONText's crown anytime soon. :) Anyway, that wasn't my intention as I actually see the two apps as having subtley different purposes: FONText is an all-round tool whereas JF is more specialized towards the creation of 2D fonts that need precise kerning (to allow overlapping characters, etc).
Because of this, it's unlikely JF will ever support 3D fonts. Because of JF's precise kerning, I see translating this into a 3D environment as difficult. Anyway, we have FONText for 3D, right? ;)
I'm also unsure how well Blitz3D will handle my internal images when switching in/out of the app. Can I guarantee the images will be intact and located at the same place in VRAM when I switch back into the app? I'll have to think about this some more and do some research, I s'pose. :)
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! :)
Grey: Yep, it's out AT LAST! :P I'm just pleased I managed to finish it as I didn't much enjoy the final 10% of development, for various reasons. And who likes writing docs??? :/ It's written using the 2D command set of Blitz3D but it would have made more sense to do it with BlitzPlus, really. That would have saved me from having to write the GUI and would have given me better/faster image manipulation, I guess. Anyway, that's moot as I don't have BlitzPlus and it's all done now. :)
Beaker: Thanks, but I don't see Juicy Fonts stealing FONText's crown anytime soon. :) Anyway, that wasn't my intention as I actually see the two apps as having subtley different purposes: FONText is an all-round tool whereas JF is more specialized towards the creation of 2D fonts that need precise kerning (to allow overlapping characters, etc).
Because of this, it's unlikely JF will ever support 3D fonts. Because of JF's precise kerning, I see translating this into a 3D environment as difficult. Anyway, we have FONText for 3D, right? ;)
Windowed mode is likely to be more stable than fullscreen, cos DX handles multiple windows better than it does mixing windowed/fullscreen together. Having the option in an ini file can't do any harm either way.
I've been pondering the possibility of windowed mode, but there are some 'technical difficulties'. First of all, JF has to run in 32-bit mode so that the created fonts are of the highest quality (only really an issue for colour gradients), and also the internal image manipulation routines are hard-coded to work with 32-bits atm.I'm also unsure how well Blitz3D will handle my internal images when switching in/out of the app. Can I guarantee the images will be intact and located at the same place in VRAM when I switch back into the app? I'll have to think about this some more and do some research, I s'pose. :)
Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! :)