Wrong Measurements from MeasureString

[char1estan]

Hi Developers,

I have notice that the MeasureString returns a wrong size. The string "W" is used to measure the string size. The spritefont file is generated using MakeSpriteFont tool. The font setting is

• FontName: Arial
• FontStyle: Bold
• FontSize: 185

The returned result for the width and the height are 233 and 283.642578 respectively. "W" is placed at (0,0) I have edited Image 1 to include a black dotted line and marked a red circle to indicate the position where my mouse positioned which reflects the values shown in the Window Title. Clearly, there is a big difference between the Vector2 returned and the size which I had measured.

Image 1:

In addition, when I used SpriteBatch to draw "W" on the screen (0,0) using origin (0,0), it does not draw at the correct place. Instead, there is some sort of spacing as shown in Image 2.

Image 2:

To test it further, I have used SpriteBatch to draw "W" on the screen at the bottom left (i.e. making it right justified) of the screen using the origin calculated via MeasureString, but it does not draw at the correct place as shown in Image 3. Instead, it is lifted and cut off.

Image 3:

[walbourn]

Which version of DirectX Tool Kit are you using? There was a bug with MeasureString that was fixed in the Febraury 2016 release.

[char1estan]

I am using:
Id: directxtk_windowsstore_8_1
Version: 2016.2.23.1

For your additional information:
I am developing Win32 application using Visual Studio 2013, but instead I am using directxtk_windows_8_1 (Version: 2016.2.23.1) as using the directxtk_desktop_2013 (Version: 2016.4.26.1) gives me error LNK1104:cannot open file 'x3daudio.lib'

[walbourn]

The different NuGet packages for DirectX Tool Kit are built for specific platforms, and make different assumptions. If you are writing a "classic" Win32 desktop application, you should not use the directxtk_windowsstore_8_1 NuGet package.

For Windows Store 8.1, the application requires Windows 8.1 or later, and so directxtk_windowsstore_8_1 makes use of XAudio 2.8 in the Windows 8.1 SDK. Similarly for UWP, the application requires Windows 10, and so directxtk_uwp makes use of XAudio 2.9 in the Windows 10 SDK. If you are making a Win32 classic desktop application, then I assume you are wanting Windows 7 compatibility. Therefore, if you use the directxtk_desktop_201x NuGet package, any use of DirectX Tool Kit for Audio requires the legacy DirectX SDK for XAudio 2.7. If you want specifically to write a Win32 classic desktop application that requires Windows 8 or later and thus uses XAudio 2.8, you can do so but you should use project-to-project references--this is a rare scenario, so I don't have a NuGet package specifically for this one. This is covered in detail on the wiki.

[walbourn]

In any case I'm able to repro your issue and I'm investigating.

[walbourn]

I think this was a bad fix, but I need to go back and figure out why I needed this change to make other things work.

[char1estan]

Chuck Walbourn, thanks for the explanations. Actually, I am shifting from DirectX9 to DirectX11 and happened to found DirectXTK. At the same time, I am not going to use the legacy SDK (June 2010) to support my game engine even though it is only used for building very simple 2D games. Using DirectXTK makes the conversion easier as I am not very technical or familiar with the Pipeline related knowledge/experience.

I do have the intention of converting it to Windows Store App style instead of Win32. However, based on my research, I found that I may also have to pick up C++/CX. So currently, I decided to convert it from DirectX9 (Win32) to DirectX11 (Win32) using DirectXTK first before I further my research on Windows Store App and the Pipeline. This may explains why my 2D Game Engine (Win32) uses directxtk_windowsstore_8_1 instead of directxtk_desktop_2013 for DirectXTK's Audio as it happens to works for this code snippet.

Another question aside from Audioand Spritefontis: Do you have the intention of making DirectXTK's documentation similar to the MSDN style or is it advisable for us to cross reference DirectXTK with XNA?

As for the SpriteFont, I will wait for you to fix it.

[char1estan]

Hi Chuck,

Has the said issue been resolve?

[walbourn]

I'm wrapping a robust fix this weekend. You can download the library and make the source edit yourself as well.

[char1estan]

Ok noted, in that case, i will wait for you to release all the fix at one go. Thanks,

[walbourn]

Sync to the master branch to pick up the fixes. Reverted MeasureString to old behavior, and added MeasureDrawString.

RECT MeasureDrawBounds(_In_z_ wchar_t const* text, XMFLOAT2 const& position) const;
RECT XM_CALLCONV MeasureDrawBounds(_In_z_ wchar_t const* text, FXMVECTOR position) const;

Documented on wiki

[char1estan]

Can you roughly estimate when will this fix be pushed to the NuGet Package?

[walbourn]

I generally wait until enough work has accumulated to justify a full release, but I can accelerate a publish to NuGet if that's required. I'll look at doing one this week.

[char1estan]

alright, noted with thanks.

[char1estan]

reminder for NuGet release. Thanks.

[walbourn]

Now that June 2016 is done, I'll be doing all the NuGet publishing for it tomorrow.

[walbourn]

Published to NuGet:

This version is also available on NuGet as version 2016.6.30.1

• Universal Windows Platform apps using Windows Tools 1.4 (10586)
• Windows desktop app using VS 2013 Update 5
• Windows desktop app using VS 2015 Update 3
• Windows 8.1 Store
• Windows phone 8.1

[char1estan]

yes thanks!

[char1estan]

Hi Chuck,

I am getting this error message: "This project references NuGet package(s) that are missing on this computer. Enable NuGet Package Restore to download them. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=322105. The missing file is packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.targets."

The solution I had discovered is to remove the lines that contains the April NuGet release. This is what is being removed:

<Import Project="packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.targets" Condition="Exists('packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.targets')" />
<Error Condition="!Exists('packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.props')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', 'packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.props'))" />
<Error Condition="!Exists('packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.targets')" Text="$([System.String]::Format('$(ErrorText)', 'packages\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.2016.4.26.1\build\native\directxtk_windowsstore_8_1.targets'))" />

Removing the 200MB package folder (previous releases).

Is there a better way to do it rather than editing it manually in the *****.vcxproj?

***EDIT
I think the above is a weird situation as I do already have NuGet Packages installed, but it doesn't allow me to update. This is shown here:

(Other similar issues faced: Some project files do not even mentioned that the DirectXTK NuGet Package was installed. In fact, it was actually installed.)

I decided to proceed on to download the NuGet Package again then compile the project. However, it just tells me that the April release was missing. So if anyone faces this problem, you may go ahead and edit out at your own risk.

Note: There are some projects files that can be updated successfully without the popup window shown in the above image.

[walbourn]

As I said earlier in this thread, you shouldn't be using directxtk_windowsstore_8_1 for a Windows desktop project. In my experience, the NuGet Manager is able to do the Update as long you have restored the old package.