AngelFont.LoadPlain() -- faster Android loader

Monkey Targets Forums/Android/AngelFont.LoadPlain() -- faster Android loader

Nobuyuki (Posted 2013) [#1]

Hello, This routine was written to speed up the loading of .fnt files on Android. Since the old LoadFont() is now depreciated, the only official solution for AngelFont is to use LoadFontXML(), which utilizes skn3's config.monkey. Unfortunately, the amount of string thrash that occurs when loading an XML-encoded .FNT file causes the GC on my device (and probably yours, too!) to go absolutely bonkers. I measured loading times on my device to be an average of 26 seconds per font when using LoadXML(), which is completely unacceptable. I tried to make heads-or-tails of config.monkey, hoping to maybe find if there was an easy way to fix this, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with the code to know where would be the best place to optimize it. Since I don't have a lot of time to deal with it, and my project has to be out the door as soon as possible, I opted to write a new routine instead, for plain text .FNT files, and forego XML entirely. This routine should speed up the loading of AngelFont .FNT files from >20 seconds to less than a second per font on your Android device. 'Summary: Loads a .fnt encoded in plaintext! Faster loading than LoadFontXml() on Android? Hope so... -nobu Method LoadPlain:Void(url:String) current = Self iniText = LoadString(url + ".fnt") Local lines:String[] = iniText.Split(String.FromChar(10)) Local attribs:String[] 'Placeholder for an individual line's attributes, split up Local pageCount:Int 'How many pages does this font contain? For Local line:String = EachIn lines line = line.Trim() If line.StartsWith("info") Then 'general info about the font in this line. Continue 'Next line ElseIf line.StartsWith("common") Then 'common info here Continue 'Next line ElseIf line.StartsWith("chars") 'number of chars available. Continue 'Next line ElseIf line.StartsWith("char ") Then 'Char info here. Parse. 'Char proto. Local id:Int, x:Int, y:Int, w:Int, h:Int, xOffset:Int, yOffset:Int, xAdvance:Int, page:Int attribs = line.Split(" ") 'Get each attrib in this line. For Local i:Int = 0 Until attribs.Length 'Split up the attribs attribs[i].Trim() If attribs[i] = "" Then 'Residual .Split() cruft; Escape early Continue 'Next attrib ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("id=") id = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("x=") x = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("y=") y = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("width=") w = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("height=") h = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("xoffset=") xOffset = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("yoffset=") yOffset = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("xadvance=") xAdvance = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("page=") page = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) If pageCount < page pageCount = page End If Next 'WARNING: This will crash on unicode chars with "index out of range" -nobu chars[id] = New Char(x, y, w, h, xOffset, yOffset, xAdvance, page) Local ch:= chars[id] If ch.height > Self.height Self.height = ch.height 'Beaker's fix for descenders and ascenders If ch.yOffset < Self.heightOffset Self.heightOffset = ch.yOffset ElseIf line.StartsWith("kernings") 'number of kernings available. Continue 'Next line ElseIf line.StartsWith("kerning ") 'Kern pair info. Parse. 'KernPair proto. Local first:Int, second:Int, amount:Int attribs = line.Split(" ") 'Get each attrib in this line. For Local i:Int = 0 Until attribs.Length 'Split up the attribs attribs[i].Trim() If attribs[i] = "" Then 'Residual .Split() cruft; Escape early Continue 'Next attrib ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("first=") first = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("second=") second = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) ElseIf attribs[i].StartsWith("amount=") amount = int(attribs[i][attribs[i].FindLast("=") + 1 ..]) End If Next 'Start adding what we know based on the attribs we got. firstKp = kernPairs.Get(first) If firstKp = Null Then 'nothing here. Start building the prototype. kernPairs.Add(first, New IntMap<KernPair>) firstKp = kernPairs.Get(first) 'Switch to the second char of the pair to add the rest. End 'Add the rest of the prototype. firstKp.Add(second, New KernPair(first, second, amount)) End If Next 'Load the images hungnlfn For Local page:= 0 To pageCount If image.Length < page+1 image = image.Resize(page+1) image[page] = LoadImage(url + "_" + page + ".png") End End Method Simply add this routine inside of Class AngelFont, instance a new AngelFont() using the default constructor, and call LoadPlain() from your instance. You all probably know the drill here. Finally, LoadPlain() does not currently support channel packing; perhaps someone else can hack that in?

erebel55 (Posted 2014) [#2]

Does this support changing the color of the font within the .fnt? I tried changing the redChnl, greenChnl, and blueChnl and loading with your LoadPlain function but my font still shows up as white.