Here's the thing. Ever been annoyed by the jumbo sized lettering on the in-game hud screen?
Ever wished you could use boost on your Luftie-kite without the banner headline ~ GottermanderungNiebelungenliedUberBoost ENABLED! filling half the screen? Ever lost your target because of it?
Ever looked down over your shoulder to watch your latest hard-won victory hit the deck, only to have it covered up by the ENEMY AIRCRAFT DESTROYED message at the exact moment it explodes?

Ever wished those pesky messages were smaller? Ever wished someone would do something about it????

Yeah, me too! And to that end I've been messing around under the bonnet to see if there is anything that can be done to sim-size them.

I'm not saying I've figured it out. But I think I've found a few clues about how the game uses font sizes, and I'm hoping to put them out there in case any of our resident brains can add any more pieces to the puzzle. Maybe there is something we can do here.

One thing I found while sniffing around the '46 main directory was the "Lib" folder.

Inside are a few sub-folders (one called Fonts) plus a bunch of "font.properties" files.
These properties files have extensions such as, font.properties AR file & font.properties.ru etc.
The font.properties seems to be our default English one (thanks google). If you open it with notepad, there is fifty or sixty lines of stuff like this:

dialog.0=Arial,ARABIC_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED
dialog.1=WingDings,SYMBOL_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED
dialog.2=Symbol,SYMBOL_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED

dialog.bold.0=Arial Bold,ARABIC_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED
dialog.bold.1=WingDings,SYMBOL_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED
dialog.bold.2=Symbol,SYMBOL_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED

dialog.italic.0=Arial Italic,ARABIC_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED
dialog.italic.1=WingDings,SYMBOL_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED
dialog.italic.2=Symbol,SYMBOL_CH****T,NEED_CONVERTED

dialog.bolditalic.0=Arial Bold blah blah blah....



Inside the Fonts sub-folder, there is a single font file called "LucidaSansRegular" TrueType Font File.

Take a look inside your folder - I'd be interested to see if you have a different one.
When I open mine up, It has samples of the Lucida type, and different sized variations of the same sentence - The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog 1234567890.

***********************

Now for some conjecture:

What I'm guessing is that with regards to displaying text in our otherwise zip-locked Il-2 series. The game doesn't refer to some preset font or .tga inside the SFS files. It actually orders takeout. It takes the size and style of font from either this Lucida TrueType thing, those font.properties files, or it gets it from the "global" font size for that font type, that it finds in your windows directory. Have a look in C:\WINDOWS\Fonts. LucidaSansRegular is in there too!

Now, what I'm thinking is that if this font information is located outside of the Il-2 game SFS files, we can mess with it.
It may well be possible to make or modify a font file with smaller type, then label it LucidaSansRegular, effectively tricking the game into using it instead.

So I'm asking, does anyone have any knowledge or experience with creating or editing fonts? Maybe there is some program that lets you do it. Maybe there are just a few variables in the properties files that need to be changed to reduce the size of the HUD-type....

If you know anything at all, step on up. I don't mind doing the work. I just need to be pointed in the right direction

This message has been edited. Last edited by: steiner562,

(quote)
Take a look inside your folder - I'd be interested to see if you have a different one.
When I open mine up, It has samples of the Lucida type, and different sized variations of the same sentence - The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog 1234567890


Same here....good luck!

quote:

Ever wished you could use boost on your Luftie-kite without the banner headline ~ GottermanderungNiebelungenliedUberBoost ENABLED! filling half the screen? Ever lost your target because of it?

Yes, the bost wep message is extremely annoying with it's size
I'll take a look too

I'd love to be able to get rid of them altogether! I am astounded you can't switch these off. And, I dn't need to be told a kill is confirmed---really unrealistic in many circumstances.

It'd be great to turn hud off completely.
I did, and tried it for a while.
Unfortunately the P51 (probally others) has no visual cue for radiator setting.
If the key binding was like the one for flaps.
ie: one to cycle open and yet another for cycling closed, I could probally handle it. But, with only one binding to cycle thru all settings...after a few changes, the current setting becomes a guessing game.

Bummed about it, and still using hud.

quote:

Originally posted by leitmotiv:
I'd love to be able to get rid of them altogether! I am astounded you can't switch these off. And, I dn't need to be told a kill is confirmed---really unrealistic in many circumstances.

you can! i do that for offline campaign play(i like the immersion). its in the conf.ini file, might be NoHudLog=1(just guessing, its been a while since i've had to use it)

quote:

Originally posted by badatit:
It'd be great to turn hud off completely.
I did, and tried it for a while.
Unfortunately the P51 (probally others) has no visual cue for radiator setting.

Bummed about it, and still using hud.

yeah that was the one problem i had with it, i couldnt tell if i was overheating or not
Everything else about it is so much better/more realistic/immersive.

quote:

Originally posted by leitmotiv:
I'd love to be able to get rid of them altogether! I am astounded you can't switch these off. And, I dn't need to be told a kill is confirmed---really unrealistic in many circumstances.

You can...check you manual. ALso size, position and as you alude to font can be as well I believe.

hacking the interface ?

That is a pain about the rads or I'd nail the text.

hehehe thats why real fighters dont have rads!

Might need a bit more information on that Badsight.

Billfish, there are no options to change the colour or font size of text in the manual. Only a couple of options for servers to turn some bit on or off.

I'm not looking to switch everything off completely. I already know how to do that. Some messages such as radiator and prop pitch settings, bombsite elevation and whatnot are still necessary. What I am trying to do is find away to retain the information but make it less obtrusive. Reduce the font size. That is all.

I think if I could find a way to edit the font file so that the 36-point (approx) font that we have is switched for a 10-point one instead, or somethingit should work.

Same kind of issue with the F4U (and I assume the F6F). There's no visual cue in the cockpit for whether the tailwheel is locked or not. I have to have the HUD to tell me that.

On my 32" lcd TV at 1280x1024 the letters are HUGE! It bothered me enough to turn off my HUD. Unfortunatly I now overheat much more frequently. I would love it if this could be figured out. I also wish the chat box would "time out" to nothing as well. I hate seeing a chat that is 5 mins old.

Maybe these things should be taken to ORR? I know the HUD won't be made more customizeable in this game at this point, but at least for BoB, maybe someone should suggest this to Oleg (if it hasn't been suggested already this is).

And for the record, I would like more control over the display text too.

quote:

I think if I could find a way to edit the font file so that the 36-point (approx) font that we have is switched for a 10-point one instead, or somethingit should work.

Me thinks that specific font file does not do much.

I've changed its contents by copying another .ttf file and renaming it to the one in the font folder.

Even renamed the complete 'font' folder.

No change in the Hud font, no change even when the font folder was renamed...

quote:

Originally posted by Fireball_:
Same kind of issue with the F4U (and I assume the F6F). There's no visual cue in the cockpit for whether the tailwheel is locked or not. I have to have the HUD to tell me that.

I dont use tailwheel lock, however, if you do use it simply lock it on the runway and dont touch it till after you land. Uunless you land on the CV, but even there you dont need to unlock it...its just that they did in real life.

There is probably no correlation for the text in the aircraft labels and the HUD and chat messages. If we could make the hud/chat the same font and size as the AC labels I would be ecstatic.

Bump for this. I'd like to see the chat-bar font reduced, too. At the moment I have it set for 4 lines of text but the window is still too intrusive.

I played around with that font file last night and I agree- I don't think they are connected to the hud messages in any way. I think its one of those tough dilemas - either animate every lever (most are but not all) or give us a clickable cockpit. I'm half-way to having my pit built, but unless you wire indicators off of dpdt switches or set up momentary toggle switches even having that is useless when it comes to determining some settings.