GUI v2.0

  • Thread starter Thread starter sl1982
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I personally like a lot the two screen of the original font upscaled that NCS posted. It's way closer to the original than the font currently being used. I think it's what basically the font should have been since the start, a polished and upscaled version of the original one. The letters width, shadowing, looks and spacing are just spot on. Would be awesome to see NCS effort continued and perhaps, offered as an alternative in the future to the current font. Great job NCS!
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You have got to be kidding me.  It is jagged and it looks like it has a filter applied to it.  The one currently in use IS what the original uses (minus a slight chop they did), and it looks smooth and professional.

Anyway sl1982 has spoken.   As always, anyone is welcome to create their own.  8-)
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At all, as NCS himself pointed out the font is still glitchy and needs to be polished, right now there are evident issues in the alignment of the font. What I am saying is: that font DOES LOOK more faithful to the original FFVII font than the one currently used. With proper polishing and adjusting that font has a lot of potential, the current one as good as it is (and it couldn't be any else, seeing that a whole bunch of talented people works on it) looks to me like a whole different type of font, that as much as it does resemble the original FFVII one, it is NOT. NCS' however is way more accurate in reproducing the original FFVII font looks.
 
It doesn't look more faithful to what was intended, which was the Verdana font.  That is what they would have used.  I prefer a font looking as good as it can to what was intended rather than trying to make it like the very thing we are trying to get away from with these overhauls.

Each to their own I guess!  :P
 
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Personally I think the GUI v2 font is great, no change needed.
Well done to sl1982
 
While we're on the subject of complete accuracy, I might as well show off something else I did.

The Avatar for Cloud always seemed off in the TA patch, and that's because it was, slightly.

Original (Upscaled w/fractals):
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x74/beefpwnage/cloud_00f.png

TA Avatar:
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x74/beefpwnage/cloud_00x.png


So I did a little editing in photoshop to get it right. I know I'm nitpicking here, but why the hell not? :P
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x74/beefpwnage/cloud_00.png

I'm not sure if it's the case with the other characters, I haven't checked, because I haven't noticed.
 
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Oh I never noticed that. I don't mind either one, as long as the characters are consistent.
Although, the blue eyes are definitely a must.
 
Version 2.0.8 is out. Includes fixes made by DLPB. Perhaps he can add a changelog?
 
Changelog:

1.  Reduced size of grey battle text, looks cuter

2.  Letters are corrected to be more proportional than last time, most evident when comparing words LIMIT and LEVEL.

3.  All outside bars slightly smaller to correct the fact that the inside bars (like that of ATB, barrier and Limit) were actually 2 pixels too small for the outside graphic.

4.  Patch should not be picked up by as many virus scanners as last time.

That's all really, it was done for the main battle mod, but why not for this too?

.. PS, this original battle menu looks awful, I am surprised the developers got away with it.
 
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I have to say, though, I'm not convinced about the Verdana thing. Verdana wasn't drawn until late 1996, when FF7 would have already been *well* developed. To me, FF7's UI font looks far more like Frutiger.
 
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That does look suspiciously like the ff7 font. There are some minor changes though.
 
To be honest, I'd imagine the FF7 font was written for the game ground-up, as opposed to being another font adapted. It's certainly inspired by 'Humanist' sans-serifs, and it does resemble Verdana in a lot of ways - the form of its 'y's especially. It reminds me of Lucida Sans, too.

The biggest issue is that FF7 renders its font in monospace. A variable width font like Verdana looks strange. What would Consolas look like, I wonder?

Oh, something else to note: remember that fonts have their own licensing restrictions. Whilst most font licenses allow you to embed your fonts in another creative work (such as when you author a PDF), I don't know if what we're doing here - printing out a set of glyphs as texts is streamed - might actually breach the font license. I'm likely being paranoid, but can someone check this out?
 
The biggest issue is that FF7 renders its font in monospace. A variable width font like Verdana looks strange. What would Consolas look like, I wonder?
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Consolas has great huge block serifs on the i, j and l; that would look weird.

But what do you mean by monospace? FFVII's letters certainly aren't the same width.

8)  Well verdana or not, it is close enough for me :P
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You'll never please Bosola; he's even more of a font snob than me :P
 
You're right, they aren't monospaced. Still, I do think that letter spacing is an issue.

Consider the following. On the left is a shot of the current UI. On the right, I've tightened up the lettering. I've also brought the stems of the 'r's up a little.

spacing.png


You'll never please Bosola; he's even more of a font snob than me
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I'm not a snob. Well, I am, yes, but with good reason. Times New Roman is a thoroughly average font, and with so many gorgeous serif alternatives out there, there's really no need to be lumbered with it. Look:

fontcompare.png


Now, I fully expect LKM to declare TNR the winner in the face of even this. But then again, he doesn't prefer FFVI to FFVII, so what would he know?
 
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You'll never please Bosola; he's even more of a font snob than me
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I'm not a snob. Well, I am, yes, but with good reason. Times New Roman is a thoroughly average font, and with so many gorgeous serif alternatives out there, there's really no need to be lumbered with it. Look:

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/289/fontcompare.png

Now, I fully expect LKM to declare TNR the winner in the face of even this.
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I prefer Garamond.

As a serif font, at any rate. I'm actually a huge Helveticafag.

But then again, he doesn't prefer FFVI to FFVII, so what would he know?
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You is
trollin'
!
 
the spacing is a big issue, but I am not sure anything can be done about it in game by a simply font change?  or can it?
 
Not really, If i start arbitrarily changing the width of letters to make it look better it will look fine in some spots, ok in others, and down right horrible in the rest. Look at the spacing issues with v1 for examples. This would have to be something modified in the game executable.
 
I guess Aali for that, or someone who understands assembly, because unfortunately me and Krans cant do it :(
 
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