[Issue] Something happened while rendering the fonts...

[CharlieFuu69]

Target: Ren'Py v8.2.1_24030407

Gentlemen, I have no way of explaining it, because I don't know exactly what happened in particular. It may be a Ren'Py bug, or maybe my code is already outdated.

My idea was to finally make the transition to a more recent version of Ren'Py to start enjoying the benefits that Py3 has (since my game uses a lot of code written in pure Python), but there was a mishap. The font the game uses (DIN Medium) is somehow not rendering as expected, and many UI things are not in the position they should be.

1. COMPARISON SCREENSHOTS.

1.1. Project running on Ren'Py v7.4.11

1.2. Project running on Ren'Py v8.2.1 (Recent)

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Is this a Ren'Py problem, or as I said above, is my code already old enough to have errors like this?

[renpytom]

Can you send an example game? There were a bunch of changes to font handling, so it's possible something broke. (Or something was marginal, and lost that margin.)

[CharlieFuu69]

The game is a little overweight (6 GB), so giving you my game is going to be a little complicated, but I can provide extra information that could help you see the root of this issue.

I did some side tests with other similar fonts, and in one case it did show me text. It should be noted that I have always used TTF fonts, and this case was no exception.

The sources I have used are the following:

Font	Performance
DIN-Medium.ttf	BAD
DIN_Next_CYR_Medium.ttf	Working

Do you have an email to send you the sources? Maybe you can replicate the problem using those sources (which once worked).

NOTE: I generally use fonts in styles (using font) and in config constants specified in Ren'Py documentation, but it is a single text font that I use for the game.

[CharlieFuu69]

Status update:

When creating a new project, the problematic font also does not render properly (using Ren'Py v8.2.1):

[renpytom]

renpytom@gmail.com.

It's probably a bad font file, but I can take a quick look and see if I can figure out why.

[CharlieFuu69]

Mail sent (I have indicated the Issue number in the subject for better identification)

[CharlieFuu69]

Status update:

I confirm correct operation in Ren'Py v8.1.3_23091805. The problematic font in v8.2.1 is visible in the aforementioned version.

[renpytom]

Can you try:

style default:
    shaper "freetype"

And see if that changes anything?

[CharlieFuu69]

I confirm correct display of the text font in Ren'Py v8.2.1.24030407, by updating style default.

[renpytom]

Sure, though now the question is: Why?

[CharlieFuu69]

Trust me, I'm not sure how to answer that question 😅😅

It's come back to life, but I honestly don't know why. I try to understand why it has been necessary to use shaper when it was not required before.

Did you find anything strange that was closely related to the source file? I always used it in the operating system, and I never had similar problems.

At the time of the error, I noticed that although the font was not visible in Ren'Py, some stylized strings with outlines showed the text bordered, but without the main colorization of the font.

[renpytom]

Shaper is a new thing.

Basically, Ren'Py now takes advantage of shaping information in the font, when we didn't before. The command I gave you switched that out to the old information which doesn't. My guess is one of the tables in your font is broken, and it just didn't matter before.

I haven't had a ton of time to investigate this, but at least we're getting there.

[CharlieFuu69]

Hmm... Maybe I should look at the information that resides in the TTF file. In any case, I think the main problem has been mitigated thanks to your help.

Should I close this Issue, or keep it open in case it is required?

[renpytom]

Let me keep it open.

[Tymedust]

Hi!

I had a similar issue with the newest Ren'Py version, and while it's resolved now, I was asked by HB38 to mention it here as well.

Adding

shaper "freetype"

to

style default:

Like so:

style default: properties gui.text_properties() language gui.language shaper "freetype"

Worked for me as well in resolving the issue.

What happened for me was the font started looking weird all of a sudden, especially the letters o, s and t. Here's a screenshot comparison (before the update, after the update):

The font used is called AftaSerifThin-Regular.

I hope this is helpful in some way. :)

[mal]

Specifically in @Tymedust's case:
Those are ligatures, and how the font itself expects to be shown. Entering that sentence using that font into an online font preview tool gives the same visual result. If you've grown accustom to a ligatured font being displayed (technically) incorrectly (without ligatures) then using the freetype shaper is the correct way to revert the behaviour for your game.