Screentext

The art of HUD text can best be accomplished using the screentext command.

screentext <tilenum> <x> <y> <zoom> <blockangle> <charangle> <quote> <shade> <pal> <orientation> <alpha> <xspace> <yline> <xbetween> <ybetween> <text flags> <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2>

It would not be fitting to document this command without also documenting its useful helper and companion, qstrdim, which calculates the dimensions taken up by an equivalent call to screentext.

qstrdim <width return var> <height return var> <tilenum> <x> <y> <zoom> <blockangle> <quote> <orientation> <xspace> <yline> <xbetween> <ybetween> <text flags> <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2>

Parameters

<width return var> and <height return var> are both gamevars to which qstrdim will assign its results

<tilenum> is the start of the font range. The most common value is STARTALPHANUM.

<x> X coordinate, normally ranged 0-320

<y> Y coordinate, normally ranged 0-200

<zoom> is normally 65536. (ex: 131072 is zoomed in 2X and 32768 is half-sized)

<blockangle> is the angle of the entire block of text, normally 0, where 360 degrees corresponds to 2048 Build units

<charangle> is the angle of each individual character, relative to the block angle, also in Build units

<quote> is the quote to print, as defined by definequote.

<shade> is 0 normally but can be any standard shade up to 31 or 63.

<pal> can be from 0-255.

<orientation> controls the way the sprite is drawn (see entry). Note: It is recommended that you always include bit 16 so that the characters will be placed correctly.

<alpha> translucence, 0-255

<xspace> the width of the space character. Can be zero or negative.

<yline> the height of an empty line. Can be zero or negative.

<xbetween> the x-distance between characters. Can be zero or negative.

<ybetween> the y-distance between lines. Can be zero or negative.

<text flags> is a bitfield describing properties of the text block (see entry)

<x1>, <y1>, <x2>, and <y2> are boundaries on the screen that define where the text may be drawn. By far the two most common set of values for these fields are:

• 0 0 xdim-1 ydim-1 (Covers the entire screen. Orientation bit 8 recommended.)

setvarvar xdimminus xdim
subvar xdimminus 1
setvarvar ydimminus ydim
subvar ydimminus 1
// 0 0 xdimminus ydimminus

• windowx1 windowy1 windowx2 windowy2 (Shrinks to match the viewport.)

Notes

<x>, <y>, <xspace>, <yline>, <xbetween>, and <ybetween> are all affected by orientation flag 2048 which enables "full16" precision.

qstrdim can be helpful if you are designing complex text effects.

Text Properties Bitfield

(pretty table with explanations goes here)

This may be helpful in your CON files, using orvar to add bits and xorvar to remove them (but only when already set; ifvarand will allow you to check).

define TEXT_XRIGHT            0x00000001
define TEXT_XCENTER           0x00000002
define TEXT_YBOTTOM           0x00000004
define TEXT_YCENTER           0x00000008
define TEXT_INTERNALSPACE     0x00000010
define TEXT_TILESPACE         0x00000020
define TEXT_INTERNALLINE      0x00000040
define TEXT_TILELINE          0x00000080
define TEXT_XOFFSETZERO       0x00000100
define TEXT_XJUSTIFY          0x00000200
define TEXT_YOFFSETZERO       0x00000400
define TEXT_YJUSTIFY          0x00000800
define TEXT_LINEWRAP          0x00001000
define TEXT_UPPERCASE         0x00002000
define TEXT_INVERTCASE        0x00004000
define TEXT_IGNOREESCAPE      0x00008000
define TEXT_LITERALESCAPE     0x00010000
define TEXT_BACKWARDS         0x00020000
define TEXT_GAMETEXTNUMHACK   0x00040000
define TEXT_DIGITALNUMBER     0x00080000
define TEXT_BIGALPHANUM       0x00100000
define TEXT_GRAYFONT          0x00200000

Default settings replicating other text commands

gametext

• <tilenum>: STARTALPHANUM
• <x>: divided in half
• <xspace>: 5
• <yline>: 8
• <xbetween>: 0
• <ybetween>: 0
• <text flags>: TEXT_GAMETEXTNUMHACK

minitext

• <tilenum>: MINIFONT
• <xspace>: 4
• <yline>: 8
• <xbetween>: 1
• <ybetween>: 0
• <text flags>: TEXT_UPPERCASE (unless your mod adds lowercase tiles to the MINIFONT set, in which case 0)

menutext

• <tilenum>: BIGALPHANUM
• <y>: decremented by 12
• <xspace>: 5
• <yline>: 16
• <xbetween>: 0
• <ybetween>: 0
• <text flags>: TEXT_BIGALPHANUM + TEXT_UPPERCASE (+ TEXT_LITERALESCAPE if you want)

digitalnumber

• <tilenum>: DIGITALNUMBER or THREEBYFIVE
• <quote>: Use qsprintf to insert a gamevar into a quote.
• <xspace>: 4
• <yline>: 8
• <xbetween>: 1
• <ybetween>: 0
• <text flags>: TEXT_XCENTER + TEXT_DIGITALNUMBER