Fonts are killing me

[DrApostle]

Yes, I agree. I think we should be able to make the fonts smaller. I play on 1900 x 1200 and I want to get as much info on the screen as possible. -100 to this thread!

Just kidding! [:'(]

[sabre1]

I quit trying to learn the game simply because it was to hard to read things.

[Grotius]

Also, the "story screens" often involve a background of white-and-black that makes for a poor background for reading. In those cases, I'd put the text in a smaller black box below the image, rather than splash the text all across the image. Easier to read, and wouldn't block the graphics -- a two-fer.

[myros]

Just a quick update, decided to go ahead and support the dev by buying the 3 pack. Figured that was the best way to encourage some work on the fonts issue And the wee Matrix sale helped too.

Its a great game, gives me a headache squinting at some of the text though Enjoying it anyway.

Thanks for the tip on clear type fonts earlier .... has helped - not so much the game but web pages are so much clearer now lol.

[Erik Rutins]

We've been able to improve the fonts on the Research screen for a future update. We'll make other improvements where and when we can, it's not as straightforward or simple as we might like it to be.

Regards,

- Erik

[J HG T]

I haven't had THAT much problems with fonts, but I'm very happy to hear there will be some improvements, especially on the research screen.

[FirstPappy]

I guess I'll be the first to post on the font changes for the new beta patch.

I can see a notable difference. To me, the letters are much more solid looking. Can you do that in the scrolling info box at the top of the main screen next? I think more people will take notice to that.

[feelotraveller]

Yes. Three big cheers for the research screen improvements.

[J HG T]

Aye! Nice improvement. Research screen is easier to look at now.

[Rambe]

Is there any chance that DW could honor Windows 7 settings to disable "Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts" (atleast DW honor disable setting on truetype fontblurring) and not turn that font blurring on every time I start DW:L? It's bit annoyance to every time to remember alt+tab to windows to disable that settings (I will get headache in 20min when I accidentaly forgot to turn that settings off) when I start DW.

[nickwwest]

Agreed, fonts are unreadable on newer monitors even at 1920x1080 it's hard to read

[Deggial]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

We've been able to improve the fonts on the Research screen for a future update. We'll make other improvements where and when we can, it's not as straightforward or simple as we might like it to be.

Regards,

- Erik

Great to read, Erik!

That's what I realized earliest, when I started to play this game: Costumers support is just great! (I had a problem with my download, did write an e-mail to Matrix Games - and received feed-back. OVER CHRISTMAS!!!)

Reading this forum, I got the impression that the developers really listen to their customers, too and try everything to enhance the game. This is awesome!

Owning only the first add-on right now (may change in the future), I have one question regarding fonts:
Will the mentioned changes only be applied to the newest "Legends" expansion or will the first expansion be updated in this point, too?
(As you did write, changing is not as easy as might be wished, I can understand if only the most recent product is supported.)

[feelotraveller]

I'm pretty sure Erik is still on holiday for a while. There is definitely another patch planned for RotS, importing some of the more recent updates and bug fixes (but obviously not the new features for Legends). I am almost certain the larger fonts for the research screen will be included in this. It may be a couple of months though at a guesstimate.

I strongly advise getting Legends. Then you will look like this... [:D]

[Balakirev]

When I mentioned this issue about 9 months ago, I was told by one player that everything was easily fixed by lowering my resolution.  That actually did nothing to help, and I'm on a 1600 x 900 widescreen.  Good to see, then, that there's real discussion and agreement among many people about this.  I certainly don't think it's an issue only to the elderly, or even the larger group defined as people who lack perfect vision.  And in any case, what game should be made under the assumption that all its players are going to have eagle-eye vision?

Starwolf, your anti-aliasing suggestion helps a bit.  Stabilizes the image, in effect, by sharpening the focus.  Good job.

[lart]

Hello,
I finally took the plunge and upgraded my 2year old DW with Legends, hoping that through patches, the font problems were gone.
Still I have massive problems with the fonts and am out of ideas.
I run 2560x1440 on my primary display and lowering the resolutions is no option, as everything becomes blurry, even on 1920x1080.
The best approach until now was scaling the windows text to 125% (150% gets blurry). This way almost everything in the game becomes readable.
Unfortunately, the right click menus are still very tiny and do not scale. In addition some other Windows stuff breaks, so this is not really an option.
Am I missing something? Is there an ini/xml tweak for the ingame font sizes? Can the font be resized with a mod?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Grotius]

I have similar problems with Windows and small fonts. I run at 2560x1600.

Also, the "story texts" are sometimes hard to read against the background of the galaxy. That background has both dark and light elements (space and stars), which provides imperfect contrast for the text in the foreground. I rather wish it were just a plain black screen, or black with a few teeny little stars.

[ehsumrell1]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I have similar problems with Windows and small fonts. I run at 2560x1600.

Also, the "story texts" are sometimes hard to read against the background of the galaxy. That background has both dark and light elements (space and stars), which provides imperfect contrast for the text in the foreground. I rather wish it were just a plain black screen, or black with a few teeny little stars.

Hello Grotius;
Download and try out this background, it may help for the story texts. In the directory
'Your Drive letter:\Matrix Games\Distant Worlds\images\ui\chrome' there are two background
jpeg files named storyEvent and storyMessage. Back up those two original files, then replace
them with this accompanying background file (renamed accordingly of course for both).
At least this will help some hopefully! [:)]

[jpinard]

For those that want to run the game in a non-native resolution you can change "Sharpness" on your monitor to tighten up the fonts a bit. It makes some of the other graphics look worse though so this is not a perfect solution. Plus it's a major pain to keep changing the sharpness on your monitor between play sessions.

[elanaagain]

+1 to max re: font readability issues.

[FirstPappy]

These new glasses I got have helped the font issue for me but I would like to tone down the big nebula cloud in the galaxy screen - any suggestions?