Font and tyle size issue

[Dark]

Hi.

I'm just trying Buzzkill's new 32x32 tyles for Daaj, ---- which indeed do look lovely and make the game easier to see. There's only one miner issue, --- the font.

I've found that if the tyle size in the ini fyle is set to larger than the font size, my screen reading speech program tends to believe that there are spaces betwene all the letters and reads them as separate letters rather than words:

eg: "y o u c a n 3 m o n s t e r s" when using the view command.

Obviously, this isn't helpful.

i was wondering if anyone knew where I could get a 32x32 font file, ---- or any alternative ways of fixing this problem, sine otherwise the biggest tyle size I can get is 16x25, ---- which is visible, but not half as visible as 32x32 would be.

I've looked at unangband's ini file, ---- and it's fonts, to see how the tripple tyle mode works, ---- but there the font is stil listed as 8x13, ---- the default, so obviously in this case only the tyles are resized, not the font.

Any advice, ---- or indeed any suggestions on where I could get a 32x32 font fyle would be much appreciated.

[buzzkill]

I installed HAL (free version), to try and duplicate the problem you are having with DaJ, but can't get to to read anything in game, except the title screen. What am I doing wrong?

[Dark]

Wow Buzzkill, ---- that's going further into trouble shooting than I was expecting.

Hal will read most in game messages which popup, ---- such as status line messages in game by default. To read additional information though, it's necessary to activate the dolphin curser.

this is a special reading mode independent of on screen mouse or curser movement which can be moved around using a variety of keystrokes, ---- such as curser keys, and can be used to do things like activate mouse clicks.

In Angband, I generally activate the dolphin curser when I wish to scroll through information such as the various inventory more quickly, ----- or with certain screens which won't be read by default like the character setup screen due to their layout.

There are literally hundreds of key combinations in Hal, ---- but you can toggle dolphin curser on/off with numberpad minus.

To simulate the font issue, set the tyle size in the ini file to 32 x 32, ---- or indeed anything larger than the font, then, once the game is running, just listen to the way hal reads the various status messages, ---- such as those involved in the monster list view activated by the left brackit.

I'm also running things at a resolution of 1024x768 if that has any effect.

thanks for the intensive investigation.

[buzzkill]

I don't believe I have the same program as you. What I found (and installed) is Zabaware Ultra Hal text to speech reader. I suspect I you're using Dolphin Hal Screen Reader 11.

Three questions. Am I correct? Is there a free version? Where can I get it?

[Dark]

Yes, I'm using Dolphin Hal version eleven, ----- I'm actually surprised another company managed to use the Hal name, sinse Hal's been around and constantly maintained for about 20 years I think, ---- I've certainly used it for 15 years sinse I was 12, ---- and that was Hal version 3.

there is indeed a 30 day free demo version, which you can get from http://www.dolphinuk.co.uk/

It is just pure Hal that I have, ---- neither the self-installing pen drive version which you an run around and use on multiple computers, nor Supernova, which includes both the Hal speech program and the Luna magnification system,

nor am I using one of the mobile versions of Hal which have recently been released for pda's and such, ---- just streight up desktop Hal, ---- if i want portability I have a very functional laptop.
Bare in mind though, that I only have the Hal program itself, ---- I do not have the Supernova program, ----- which also includes the Luna magnification system besides Hal, ---- though sometimes I regreat that now.

Unfortunately though, I first used Hal on a laptop which had far too small a screen for me to considder doing anything graphical with it, ---- and buying the magnification components now would be considderably expensive, ----- especially sinse I don't need them to write my doctorate.

[buzzkill]

Dolphin HAL is a beast. My laptop can barely handle it, and while I though it would be somewhat novel, I found it's vocal intrusiveness excruciatingly annoying. That being said, I can part ways with it now. Despite my own low expectations, I've managed to solve your problem (at least I think that I did).

Using a trial of a program called Sib Font Editor, I took the one of the larger angband fonts and changed it into a 16x32 font. I should probably note that, while the technical size of the font has changed, it will appear to be the same size, just more white space. At least that is what I think happened.

My point is, after all is said and done, HAL and DaJ played nice together. It's kinda cute the way that that HAL always refers to your gold as "Australian dollars".

16x32.fon - Get it at mediafire.com/buzzkill

[Dark]

Thanks that's great! I'll also have the font file now in case any other varients develope a 32 x 32 tyle set.

As far as Hal goes, ---- by default, it's amount of speech is rather irritating, ---- one of the first things I do is alter the verbosity setting so I'm not getting quite as much random chatter about what sort of menue I'm in, ---- I also have Hal's character echo set to words instead of individual letters.

voice wise, the synth voice Hal starts up with, ---- realspeak daniel isn't actually the one I use. While Daniel is rather human sounding, it's reaction speed is far too slow for my liking, and it has this bizarre thing with acronyms (it even pronounces st as street), which can be a real pain in any rpg setting.

I use the orphius synthesiser, ---- though with a more decent voice than it's default rather electronic one, which reacts at a nice speed, and doesn't do stupid things like calling au australian dollars, ---- it actually pronounces it aw, ---- which in a Uk English accent also comes out sounding the same as Ore, ---- it thus fits, ---- sort of.

As to Hal's horribleness to run, ---- well I've only ever really run into problems running Hal when something interferes with Windows at startup, or my computer is doing something odd at the same time, ---- my university once managed to completely crash my laptop by forceably installing Mcaffi, which detected a virus (placed their from the uni network), at startup, and completely locked up the machine to the point where I had to have someone start it in safe mode and stop the processes running.

Indeed one of the nicer features of hal as compared to some other screen reading programs, is that you can flick the voice, and keys off and on without shutting down the program.

This is really useful for when I'm watching dvd's or playing games I don't need Hal for.

Anyway, I'll stop wranting for now.

thanks again for the tyle set change, ---- it might even let me get my next character to 2000 ft if I'm lucky!