This is the mod we've been all waiting for: A clean method to render Unicode glyphs, based on the GNU Unifont.
I think GNU Unifont with its 16×16 pixel glyphs is just perfect for Minetest, there aren't many other fonts with such a huge coverage of the Unicode code space. And Pixel style is good for many retro-style games.
There are nice features like kerning and color selection.
However, while Unifont may cover the entire Unicode BMP and more, that doesn't mean this mod can render them all properly. Some writing systems are very complex and require additional adjustments. So any users of this mod need to be aware of these limitations:
Bidirectional Algorithm is not correctly implemented
Many complex writing systems have additional writing rules that would need more code to make them work. For example, rendering Arabic not only requires the bidi algorithm but also you need to draw the glyphs differently depending on where they are in the word. (Note: This is a limitation of Unifont as well.)
Complex combining marks are not supported well. The code admits they are hacky
But still, this mod is a massive improvement of what we had before. I will include a modified version of this mod in Repixture.
Bidirectional Algorithm is not correctly implemented
Correct, I stopped doing it when I got no user interest. It is tedious to do so. Do you think it should be optional?
Many complex writing systems have additional writing rules that would need more code to make them work.
Correct. I do not know any of those, e.g. arabic. Do you? I would appreciate help regarding that.
Complex combining marks are not supported well. The code admits they are hacky
I am pretty sure that the support is enough to support most latin languages, but it is admittedly hacky.
I thought about making it optional, but then NFC and NFD encoded glyphs do no longer render similarly.
Rendering them as U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER might result in text like “Ame�lie”, unfortunately.
I will include a modified version of this mod in Repixture.
I have said it before, but just so that I have said it on CDB: Please change the mod name of the modified version to rp_unicode_text or something, as it is intentionally incompatible with unicode_text (IIRC you removed everything hacky that you disliked) and no mod that depends on unicode_text can work correctly with your fork.
This is the mod we've been all waiting for: A clean method to render Unicode glyphs, based on the GNU Unifont.
I think GNU Unifont with its 16×16 pixel glyphs is just perfect for Minetest, there aren't many other fonts with such a huge coverage of the Unicode code space. And Pixel style is good for many retro-style games.
There are nice features like kerning and color selection.
However, while Unifont may cover the entire Unicode BMP and more, that doesn't mean this mod can render them all properly. Some writing systems are very complex and require additional adjustments. So any users of this mod need to be aware of these limitations:
But still, this mod is a massive improvement of what we had before. I will include a modified version of this mod in Repixture.
Correct, I stopped doing it when I got no user interest. It is tedious to do so. Do you think it should be optional?
Correct. I do not know any of those, e.g. arabic. Do you? I would appreciate help regarding that.
I am pretty sure that the support is enough to support most latin languages, but it is admittedly hacky.
I thought about making it optional, but then NFC and NFD encoded glyphs do no longer render similarly.
Rendering them as U+FFFD REPLACEMENT CHARACTER might result in text like “Ame�lie”, unfortunately.
I have said it before, but just so that I have said it on CDB: Please change the mod name of the modified version to
rp_unicode_textor something, as it is intentionally incompatible withunicode_text(IIRC you removed everything hacky that you disliked) and no mod that depends onunicode_textcan work correctly with your fork.