Category Archives: Tutorials

Creating SDF Fonts For Daggerfall Unity

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Note: This information is out of date as of July 2019 and no longer applies. Fonts in Daggerfall Unity are now standard Unity TextMeshPro (TMP) fonts internally and font replacements are part of the Localization features entering preview in v0.10.26-alpha.

Introduction

All the way back in September, I upgraded font rendering in Daggerfall Unity to support Signed Distance Field (SDF) fonts. This enabled smooth high-resolution font replacements which can operate under the same “layout rules” as classic Daggerfall’s pixel fonts, with a substantial improvement to reading comfort as this comparison screenshot demonstrates.

 

Rather than storing individual display pixels of a text glpyh, SDF fonts store a distance value that can be turned into display pixels later at any resolution using a custom graphics shader. Unlike regular pixel fonts that become quite pixelated at high resolutions, SDF text can use those distance values to generate sharp detail even at UHD resolutions and beyond. If you’re interested in the inner workings of Signed Distance Fields, there are loads of great resources out on the web. This tutorial doesn’t look very deeply at SDF concepts, only the process of creating new SDF fonts for Daggerfall Unity.

 

Resources

There are a few resources you will need to work through this tutorial.

You can use whatever font or tools you like to generate your SDF font atlas. This is just the process I’m using that will generate known-good output for Daggerfall Unity. If you do use a different toolchain, the only thing that matters is the output image is a proper SDF texture and the glyphs are laid out in a specific way.

 

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Tutorial – Cloning from GitHub

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If you’re interested in developing mods or contributing to Daggerfall Unity, you’ll first need to clone the project from GitHub. This light tutorial goes through the basic process of cloning Daggerfall Unity using GitHub for Desktop and opening with a fresh Unity install. There are many other ways to clone from git, but this is probably the simplest if you’re new to Unity or open source repositories.

After cloning the project, I go for a quick run through Privateer’s Hold to check everything is working normally.

Release 1.1 and City Basics Part Two

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Daggerfall Tools for Unity 1.1 is now available for Download. This version introduces PlayerGPS and WorldTime components, along with several bug fixes and other enhancements.

There is also a new tutorial following on from City Basics, called City Basics Part Two. You will find this both inside the latest distribution and on the Tutorials & Docs page. This tutorial will help you create a fully automated day/night/season cycle using world time and a variable timescale.

I hope you enjoy this release and new tutorial. As usual, please let me know if you find any bugs or have trouble following the documentation.

Full 1.1 release notes are below.

  • Tutorials are now included with zip distribution.
  • Fixed inconsistent origins between blocks and world space. Imported blocks and locations are now all laid out in a positive X-Z direction with origin at south-west corner.
  • Added WorldTime and PlayerGPS components to core DaggerfallUnity singleton. These manage flow of time and player’s virtual position in world.
  • Added Time & Space options to DaggerfallUnity options. These options automate many time-based changes such as day/night cycles and seasonal changes.
  • Fixed RMB and RMB static assignments not working as they should.
  • Locations now store additional metadata about their world position.
  • Static door enumeration is now performed by API when initially processing model data. Door finding now has minimal overhead compared to previous post-layout method. Doors are also cached along with model data, so zero impact on future calls to GetModelData().
  • Removed individual door triggers for buildings and interiors. Doors are now tracked by a single component attached to building mesh. It stores an array of door positions evaluated used only when user clicks on building.
  • Added support for animated texture on imported Daggerfall models.
  • Added a SunlightManager to control intensity of sunlight rigs (including any number of secondary lights) and simulate time of day using a single key light for the sun.
  • Improved player position and facing when exiting buildings. The player is now positioned above ground using a ray hit and facing is determined by door normal.