Customizability of console font

[slipher]

In principle, I suppose it should be possible to customize the console font. But the console is supposed to be a place that cannot be modified by the sandboxed gamelogic. So it should not be possible for paks to override it in the VFS. If we go ahead and embed unifont.ttf in the engine, that could work to prevent pak overriding.

I believe fonts are currently searched in both the VFS and the homepath. So it should be possible to customize the font by setting cl_consoleFont and putting your custom font in the homepath (haven't tested though). Customizing it in the VFS as a user is not very useful, since servers enforce the VFS contents.

Proposal:

• Embed the default font in the engine
• NUKE gfx/2d/bigchars
• Set cl_consoleFont to an empty string by default, meaning use the embedded one
• If the cvar is not empty, search for the font in (only) the homepath

Or, we could just decide not to care about customization and hard-code the embedded one only.

[illwieckz]

About:

NUKE gfx/2d/bigchars

The models.shader file in map-kravat-b1.pk3 define some shader file using that image file to display text:

//******************************************************//
//	mapobjects/scoreboard subfolder			//
//******************************************************//

models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_name
{
	sort additive
	cull disable
    deformVertexes text0
	{
		map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
		blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
		rgbGen identity
	}
}

models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_score
{
	sort additive
	cull disable
    deformVertexes text1
	{
		map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
		blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
		rgbGen identity
	}
}

Though these specific shaders seems to not be used, and that map isn't played (it requires work to fix textures paths working), but that's an example of how such standard file may have been used. It's not a big problem, but if we NUKE it I better ship this file in res-tremulous just in case.

Edit: About this map, the related model supposedly using such shader isn't in the pk3, it looks to be part of a mapmodel collection, and the kravat mapper deleted the models he didn't used. But then, that's still an example of how this file may have been used.

[slipher]

I did this search on the unvanquished.net server which includes all Betaserv archives etc., and confirmed that map-kravat variants are the only pak (excluding the console shader itself in files named engine.shader, core.shader, or 2d.shader) referencing bigchars, and that the shaders defined by map-kravat are not referenced anywhere. So it's safe to NUKE gfx/2d/bigchars with respect to Tremulous and Unvanquished.

slipher@daemon:~$ grep ^/ /home/slipher/pak-duplication.txt | xargs -d'\n' ugrep -z --file-extension=pk3,dpk,shader,particle,trail,bsp --exclude=engine.shader bigchars
/var/www/cdn.unvanquished.net/unvanquished_0.24.0_universal/pkg/unvanquished_0.24.0.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/cdn.unvanquished.net/unvanquished_0.24.0_universal/pkg/unvanquished_0.24.0.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:             map gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/cdn.unvanquished.net/unvanquished_0.50.0/pkg/unvanquished_0.25.0.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/cdn.unvanquished.net/unvanquished_0.50.0/pkg/unvanquished_0.25.0.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:               map gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/pkg/rocket/mod-rocket_2014-07-06-1505.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/pkg/rocket/mod-rocket_2014-07-06-1505.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:              map gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/mercenaries-guild/archive/dl/mercenaries_guild/downloads/tremx/data-1.1.0.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/mercenaries-guild/archive/dl/mercenaries_guild/downloads/tremx/data-1.1.0.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:                map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
ugrep: warning: cannot decompress /var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/mercenaries-guild/archive/dl/mercenaries_guild/downloads/maps/map-amusement_park-a3.pk3: an error was detected in the zip compressed data
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/resources/data-resources-0.16.2.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/resources/data-resources-0.16.2.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:          map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/main/pakG.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/main/pakG.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:                map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/main/pak0.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/main/pak0.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:                map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/illwieckz/public_html/dump/betaserv.tk/map-kravat-b1.pk3{scripts/models.shader}:          map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/illwieckz/public_html/dump/betaserv.tk/map-kravat-b1.pk3{scripts/models.shader}:          map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/dsalt/public_html/wip/unvanquished_0.a24~1.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/dsalt/public_html/wip/unvanquished_0.a24~1.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:              map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/illwieckz/public_html/dump/betaserv.tk/xxxspecv1.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/illwieckz/public_html/dump/betaserv.tk/xxxspecv1.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:                map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/modi/public_html/map-kravat_build.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:             map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/modi/public_html/map-kravat_build.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:             map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/kai/public_html/bunker/slacker/data-bunker.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/kai/public_html/bunker/slacker/data-bunker.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:              map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.24.999.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.24.999.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:            map gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.a24c.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.a24c.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:            map gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.25.0~pre1.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.25.0~pre1.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:         map gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_a24.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_a24.pk3{scripts/core.shader}:               map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.25.0~pre3.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.25.0~pre3.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:         map gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.24.0.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.24.0.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:              map gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.25.0~pre2.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/modi/public_html/unvanquished_0.25.0~pre2.pk3{scripts/2d.shader}:         map gfx/2d/bigchars
/home/sweet/public_html/pkg/map-kravat_0.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:            map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
/home/sweet/public_html/pkg/map-kravat_0.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:            map gfx/2d/bigchars.tga
slipher@daemon:~$ grep ^/ /home/slipher/pak-duplication.txt | xargs -d'\n' ugrep -z --file-extension=pk3,dpk,shader,particle,trail,bsp --exclude=engine.shader mapobjects/scoreboard/s_
ugrep: warning: cannot decompress /var/www/dl.unvanquished.net/mercenaries-guild/archive/dl/mercenaries_guild/downloads/maps/map-amusement_park-a3.pk3: an error was detected in the zip compressed data
/home/illwieckz/public_html/dump/betaserv.tk/map-kravat-b1.pk3{scripts/models.shader}:models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_name
/home/illwieckz/public_html/dump/betaserv.tk/map-kravat-b1.pk3{scripts/models.shader}:models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_score
/home/modi/public_html/map-kravat_build.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_name
/home/modi/public_html/map-kravat_build.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_score
/home/sweet/public_html/pkg/map-kravat_0.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_name
/home/sweet/public_html/pkg/map-kravat_0.dpk{scripts/models.shader}:models/mapobjects/scoreboard/s_score

[illwieckz]

Proposal:

• Embed the default font in the engine
• NUKE gfx/2d/bigchars
• Set cl_consoleFont to an empty string by default, meaning use the embedded one
• If the cvar is not empty, search for the font in (only) the homepath

That looks good.

Or, we could just decide not to care about customization and hard-code the embedded one only.

If we want to implement game customization, I would want to see it implemented that way:

• it would rely on the daemon.conf file we haven't implemented yet¹, configuring the engine for a given game
  ¹ Read game information from daemon.conf file, fix Unvanquished/Unvanquished#817 #588
• the font name would be set in that config file
• the engine would load the font from a special dpk it cannot download, and fallback on builtin font if missing
• no runtime configuration needed, no cgame configuration allowed

That would allow a game to style the engine, without any way for a game to hijack it.