[Unity5] Problem with CharacterInfo for runtime font creation

So today I downloaded and installed Unity 5 to start adapting my code to the new changes and noticed a problem with CharacterInfo.

I'm generating fonts from external data at runtime assigning all the info needed for the chars and create a new Font component out of it. It used to work with no problem before Unity 5, but now I'm getting a bunch of warnings about deprecated variables from CharacterInfo.

I know that deprecated doesn't means that won't work but that will be stripped out in the future so I can still use my method but the problem is I can't adapt the code to the new stuff in CharacterInfo as it seems that half the variables are read only. Those are the warnings:

`UnityEngine.CharacterInfo.uv' is obsolete: `CharacterInfo.uv is deprecated. Use uvBottomLeft, uvBottomRight, uvTopRight or uvTopLeft instead.'

`UnityEngine.CharacterInfo.vert' is obsolete: `CharacterInfo.vert is deprecated. Use minX, maxX, minY, maxY instead.'

`UnityEngine.CharacterInfo.width' is obsolete: `CharacterInfo.width is deprecated. Use advance instead.'

`UnityEngine.CharacterInfo.flipped' is obsolete: `CharacterInfo.flipped is deprecated. Use uvBottomLeft, uvBottomRight, uvTopRight or uvTopLeft instead, which will be correct regardless of orientation.'

So I would like to know if I can work around this.

 

Yes. Instead of using uv, use uvBottomLeft, uvBottomRight, uvTopRight or uvTopLeft instead
...?
Or just suppress warnings until it breaks

 

I can't use those as they are read only, thats where is the problem, almost all new variables in CharacterInfo are read only, so instead of a warning I'll get an error.

 

Ah, sorry! Must've missed that.
Though... are you sure? The docs do not mention they are readonly
http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/CharacterInfo.html

compared to something like texture2d.width where it clearly states it is - may be an error in the docs if so

I haven't installed U5 yet so i can't test. Just suppress warnings until the proper release of U5 (#pragma warning disable ####)

 

Yeah I'm sure, I get the error in th console if I try to assign, I was surprised too in the docs this wasn't stated thats why I was confused, this what I get:

error CS0200: Property or indexer `UnityEngine.CharacterInfo.uvTopLeft' cannot be assigned to (it is read only)

and same for the other vars. Well I guess I'll stick with what it works now and supress the warnings, thanks.

 

Correct, these properties are read-only in code, but this is not documented. We'll make sure to fix this soon - we should see if we can somehow automatically detect that as part of documentation build...

Hope you find a way to get rid of the warnings. You are welcome to post your code here.

/Rasmus

 

I have this issue as well. It's no longer possible to configure a custom CharacterInfo struct without using obsolete members. The replacement members are all read only.

@Rasmus Selsmark do you refer to fixing the read-only issue, or just correcting documentation? CharacterInfo is rather crippled in its current form, and no alternate workflow seems available for creating custom font characters.

 

Yes, please don't make it read-only.

Also I'm trying to get the same values from the new properties and Y min/max values were changed:

minX == vert.xMin == 6
maxX == vert.xMax == 42
But minY changed to -1 from 28.1 and maxY is now 42 instead of -15.8.

How can I get the old ones without using deprecated code?

Log code:

Code (CSharp):

1. Debug.Log("vert.w=" + charInfo.vert.width + " vert.x=" + charInfo.vert.x + " vert.xMin=" + charInfo.vert.xMin + " vert.xMax=" + charInfo.vert.xMax +
2.                   "\nvert.h=" + charInfo.vert.height + " vert.y=" + charInfo.vert.y +" vert.yMin=" + charInfo.vert.yMin + " vert.yMax=" + charInfo.vert.yMax +
3.                   "\nminX=" + charInfo.minX + " maxX=" + charInfo.maxX + " minY=" + charInfo.minY + " maxY=" + charInfo.maxY);

 

Well here is my font import method, is static method that reads from an external binary file serialized trough binary formatter and rebuild the font at runtime:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3.     #pragma warning disable 0618     //Get rid of ChracterInfo obsolete stuff warnings
4.  
5.      static public UnityEngine.Font ImportFont (string path)
6.      {
7.        string data = NM.IO.Path.GetExistingPath(path);
8.    
9.        NM.Format.Font m_font = Binary.ReadDynamicBinaryData<NM.Format.Font> (data);
10.  
11.        UnityEngine.Font font = new UnityEngine.Font (m_font.id);
12.  
13.        if(m_font != null && m_font.count > 0)
14.        {
15.          CharacterInfo[] m_chars = new CharacterInfo[m_font.count];
16.      
17.          for(int i = 0; i < m_chars.Length; i++)
18.          {
19.            m_chars[i].index = m_font.index[i];
20.            m_chars[i].uv = new Rect(m_font.uv_x[i], m_font.uv_y[i], m_font.uv_w[i], m_font.uv_h[i]);
21.            m_chars[i].vert = new Rect(m_font.vert_x[i], m_font.vert_y[i], m_font.vert_w[i], m_font.vert_h[i]);
22.            m_chars[i].width = m_font.width[i];
23.            m_chars[i].flipped = m_font.flipped[i];
24.          }
25.      
26.          font.characterInfo = m_chars;
27.  
28.          Color32[] m_colors = new Color32[m_font.image_w * m_font.image_h];
29.      
30.          for(int i = 0; i < m_font.alpha.Length; i++)
31.            m_colors[i] = new Color32(255, 255, 255, m_font.alpha[i]);
32.  
33.          Texture2D m_texture = new Texture2D (m_font.image_w, m_font.image_h);
34.          m_texture.SetPixels32 (m_colors);
35.          m_texture.Apply ();
36.  
37.          if(!Shader.Find (m_font.shader))
38.            m_font.shader = "Unlit/Transparent";
39.      
40.          UnityEngine.Material m_material = new UnityEngine.Material(Shader.Find(m_font.shader));
41.  
42.          m_material.mainTexture = m_texture;
43.          font.material = m_material;
44.      
45.        }
46.        else
47.          font = NM.Exception.nullFont(NM.IO.Path.fontPath + m_font.id + NM.IO.File.nmb);
48.    
49.        return font;
50.      }
51.  

All the warnings are on the m_chars part. I should also agree with Elderkarma, when the obsolete vars are gone we are basicly out of creating fonts at runtime, so maybe open up something if is possible for the future.

 

I would like an answer to @Elderkarma question as well. Are you just going to fix the documentation or are you going to make the CharacerInfo members not read only? Making these read-only really destroys the editor bitmap font importer script. Please return these members to settable. Thanks.

 

Oh no! I really need these to be writable!

 

When is this issue going to be addressed?

I would like to be able to script the creation of a custom bitmapped font - but am currently stuck with having to write code using deprecated members. WHY are the new accessors read only?

Can @Rasmus Selsmark please answer the question posted properly: if the old variables are deprecated, and the new ones are read-only... how are we supposed to create custom fonts?

 

Some, problem..instal new unity5 and my work is out...

 

Just keep using the old members
Suppress the warnings and you'll not even notice.
Presumably they wont remove the deprecated properties without making the new one writable

 

Is this being worked on? I don't see anything in the new road map regarding CharacterInfo or Font APIs. This really needs to be fixed ASAP. TTF fonts are not going to cut it with competition in the game engine market.

 

Case solved I guess, now is only a matter to adjust the old stuff to the new properties. Will post back if I figure out how the new properties works related to the old.

And thanks for the reply.

 

I have start working on clearing all the warnings but I can't find the same data that I had before (I'm using unity 5.2).
I have the exact same problem as Ox_ . The old values where floats and the new ones are integers. In my example if I use characterInfo.vert.y i t reads 31.23 and using characterInfo.maxY its 42. Anyone knows whats happening here?

 

OK thanks for the answer. Everything I was doing in the previous api can be done in the new one, and its even simpler so many thanks.

 

Did you manage to convert to the new system? I couldn't get maxX, minX, maxY and minY to be correct instead of using vert

 

Sadly not yet, same issue. Still trying to figre the math.

 

This is not entirely correct
Here is a textmesh + font with 2 of the glyphs having their vert values changed by 0.5f (width/height for #2, x and y for #8)

While this particular font might not need float value precision, you can't remove this functionality for all fonts and always round to ints.

 

If you are using the "xoffset", "yoffset", "width" and "height" of the glyph, try this:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2.   CharacterInfo charInfo = new CharacterInfo();
3.   r = new Rect();
4.   r.x = xoffset;
5.   r.y = -yoffset;
6.   r.width = width;
7.   r.height = -height;
8.  
9.   // BEFORE
10.   //charInfo.vert = r;
11.   // AFTER
12.   charInfo.minX = (int)r.xMin;
13.   charInfo.maxX = (int)r.xMax;
14.   charInfo.minY = (int)r.yMax;
15.   charInfo.maxY = (int)r.yMin;
16.