Opened 21 months ago

Last modified 2 weeks ago

#12940 new defect

AGS: Texts render incorrectly in some games

Reported by: tag2015 Owned by:
Priority: normal Component: Engine: AGS
Version: Keywords:
Cc: Game:

Description

In some games the ingame fonts appear strangely compressed and missing some pixels. This can be worked around enabling the "force text antialiasing" option which seems to fix the problem, but also adds a shadow and makes the text harder to read especially on backgrounds with similar color.

This happens with any scaler/size.

I have attached some screenshots with antialiasing disabled and enabled. These are just a sample but there are probably many others affected.

Attachments (15)

scummvm-cedricandtherevolution-noaa.png (50.2 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-casenoir-noaa.png (27.9 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-casenoir-aa.png (31.4 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-brokenwindows1-noaa.png (15.7 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-brokenwindows1-aa.png (17.3 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-suspiciousmind-aa.png (35.0 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-suspiciousmind-noaa.png (32.5 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
scummvm-cedricandtherevolution-aa.png (51.3 KB ) - added by tag2015 21 months ago.
nellycootalot-ags.png (21.0 KB ) - added by eriktorbjorn 20 months ago.
nellycootalot-scummvm.png (10.3 KB ) - added by eriktorbjorn 20 months ago.
puzzlebots-ags.png (469.4 KB ) - added by eriktorbjorn 9 months ago.
puzzlebots-scummvm.png (238.2 KB ) - added by eriktorbjorn 9 months ago.
TheSamaritanParadox-AGS-600px.png (122.3 KB ) - added by GateKeeper-Adventurer 3 months ago.
TheSamaritanParadox-ScummVM-600px.png (106.1 KB ) - added by GateKeeper-Adventurer 3 months ago.
TheSamaritanParadox-ScummVM-AAoff-600px.png (160.3 KB ) - added by GateKeeper-Adventurer 3 months ago.

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (23)

by tag2015, 21 months ago

Attachment: scummvm-casenoir-noaa.png added

by tag2015, 21 months ago

Attachment: scummvm-casenoir-aa.png added

by tag2015, 21 months ago

by tag2015, 21 months ago

by tag2015, 21 months ago

by tag2015, 21 months ago

by eriktorbjorn, 20 months ago

Attachment: nellycootalot-ags.png added

by eriktorbjorn, 20 months ago

Attachment: nellycootalot-scummvm.png added

comment:1 by eriktorbjorn, 20 months ago

I don't know for sure if it's the same bug, but there are text rendering differences in the freeware version of Nelly Cootalot: Spoonbeaks Ahoy! as well. At least under Linux.

https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/860/

by eriktorbjorn, 9 months ago

Attachment: puzzlebots-ags.png added

by eriktorbjorn, 9 months ago

Attachment: puzzlebots-scummvm.png added

comment:2 by eriktorbjorn, 9 months ago

Another possible example is Puzzle Bots, which I bought from the Wadjet Eye Games web site. In the upstreams AGS engine:


And in ScummVM:


comment:3 by tag2015, 9 months ago

This bugreport is a bit outdated now.
Using latest git, I noticed that the situation has improved for games using low-res fonts (such as Case Noir and Broken Windows). Now the fonts are not "crushed", there are still some missing pixels but the text is clearly readable.
On the other hand, the "force text antialiasing" option now does absolutely nothing.

For games using hires fonts, I noticed the same problems that eriktorbjorn reported on the demos of 3GEEKS and Grandma Badass, Larry Lotter and others...

comment:4 by tag2015, 4 months ago

Similar issue reported for Willow House (https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/14133)

comment:5 by windlepoons, 4 months ago

Similar font issue in Starship Quasar. (#14137)
https://bugs.scummvm.org/raw-attachment/ticket/14137/Starship_Quasar.png

comment:6 by GateKeeper-Adventurer, 3 months ago

The same thing happens in The Samaritan Paradox too, even to the point that sometimes the texts in ScummVM are hard to read.

It should also be noted that the entire text box takes more space on screen in ScummVM, even though the text itself is smaller, which can be easily seen by looking how the words are placed on different text lines inside the text screen.

by GateKeeper-Adventurer, 3 months ago

by GateKeeper-Adventurer, 3 months ago

comment:7 by GateKeeper-Adventurer, 3 months ago

I tried to see if I can make The Samaritan Paradox work better with different settings. It was a partial success. Turning the anti-aliasing off made the text readable.

But as a side effect, the most bizarre thing happened!
The protagonist closeup image that is supposed to be on the left side of the text box moved to the right side of the text box!

To make sure this wasn't a random coincidence I repeated this twice with same results.

by GateKeeper-Adventurer, 3 months ago

comment:8 by tag2015, 2 weeks ago

Similar issue in Gobliiins5 (copied from bugreport https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/14463):

the text and the subitles, when played over scummvm, is harder to read, because the font is thicker (pic1), as with standalone (pic2) without scummvm. i have uploaded 2 pictures for comparison.
https://bugs.scummvm.org/attachment/ticket/14463/pic1.jpg
https://bugs.scummvm.org/attachment/ticket/14463/pic2.jpg

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