ExportFontToDoom3
This Windows command-line utility was created by Australian modder Grant Davies in 2005 to get standard Windows fonts into the Doom 3 engine. The final version, 1.02, was released as open-source and substantially used for TDM.
Using the Tool
The information here is adapted from the description doc included with the download.
Basic Command
To export with the common settings of 12, 24, and 48 point fonts, simply type:
ExportFontToDoom3
For example (and assuming here a font "badtimes" with no legal issues):
ExportFontToDoom3 badtimes.ttf
Most standard font formats (from the 2009 timeframe) can be used for export, but TrueType is most common.
Size Option
To export the font in a certain size, use the option:
-size
For Doom3/TDM, only the sizes 12, 24, and 48 should be chosen. More than one "-size" arguments may be specified, for example:
ExportFontToDoom3 badtimes.ttf -size 12 -size 24
As indicated above, if no "-size" argument is specified, 12, 24, and 48 point fonts are exported.
Name Option
To name the font to be exported, use the option:
-name <name>
By default, the name is extracted from the font file. This name will be included in the TGA filename(s), which are referenced in turn in the "shaderName" fields of the DAT filename.
Other Options
In the description doc, there is a great deal of technical discussion about these next options, but of little likely relevance to TDM nowadays. Just ignore them in favor of their default values.
-xOffsetFix <type> Default is "none", which causes the font's X offset value to be exported to the "pitch" member of TDM .dat file. -noXOffsetWarnings -textureFormat <format> Default is .tga, which is what you want. Use another tool to convert the output from .tga to .dds, since ExportFontToDoom3 won't do it correctly."
Output
A new folder will be created and all output files will be stored there. The folder will be named according to the font being exported. The output will consist of Targa image (.tga) files and .dat files.
Afterwards, from each TGA, you should create a corresponding DDS file.
Deployment & Further Adaptions
After export, assuming you have an FM set up to test them, rename the files into standard form and move or copy them to the expected locations...
- For DAT files: fonts/english/<your font name>/
- For DDS files: dds/english/<your font name>/
You'll undoubtedly have to make further iterative adjustments to both the DAT files (using other methods listed in Font Conversion & Repair) and bitmap files. For instance, the "glyphScale" value will likely have to be changed.
Tutorials that Include ExportFontToDoom3
Doom3-era tutorials, once posted on www.doom3world, can still be found with the "wayback machine" links given here:
Downloads of v 1.02
Windows binary:
- grantheant.com/products/exportfonttodoom3
The C++ project file with source code:
- grantheant.com/products/exportfonttodoom3
- https://www.moddb.com/downloads/export-font-to-doom-3-v102
- also from wayback machine
The project makes use of the circa-2005 FreeType font library (www.freetype.org) and DevIL image library.
Modifying ExportFontToDoom3 for 256 Chars
The standard version of this tool exports only the glyphs for the ASCII characters, i.e., in the range 0-127.
In 2009, Crispy (with input from other TDMers Hyeron, Fidcal, and greebo) developed a variant version, "ExportFontToDoom3_modified", that could would also export characters in the range 128-256.
Unfortunately, as of 2024, that version appears lost (see [this forum post] ).
Project Setup from Unmodified Version
It is possible that the modifications could be reapplied. The original modification project was https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/10154-the-dark-mod-readables-ttf-fonts/&do=findComment&comment=200984 discussed here]. To summarize:
- Start with the C++ source. It uses the FreeType and DeviL DLL libraries of that era.
- Stick with the non-Unicode version of DeviL DLLs.
- The code wants il_wrap.lib, , which is an object-oriented C++ wrapper around DevIL's procedural C interface, but il_wrap.lib no longer exists.
- Fortunately, the wrapper source code was available, so it could simply be added directly to the ExportFontToDoom3 project. Once the class implementation is moved out of the header, it compiles. (The wrapper code referred to is possibly il_wrap.cpp and related .h’s from https://github.com/DentonW/DevIL/ here].)
- Change the loop iterating over character codes, so it goes from 0 to 255. The type of the character code index must be changed from int to unsigned long. Simply make that change in Font::getGlyphIndexForCharacterCode and the code that calls it
