How to add new characters to your fnt/tex font files to support PT-BR and other languages Thread - Vanilla UI Plus mod for Fallout: New Vegas

Hello, how are you all? I'm using a Brazilian Portuguese translation and an alternative font to support accents like 'ç' and 'ã' since the original game font doesn't have these characters. The issue is that it looks a bit misaligned in the dialogue boxes and the Pip-Boy. I initially thought it was a translation problem and switched back to the original font, only to discover that the problem persists with the font itself. Is there any way to solve this? Perhaps a version of the original game font that supports Brazilian Portuguese? I know it's not ideal to modify fonts, but since my English isn't that great, I'm using this translation for a better immersion in the game. I tried to understand how the VUI+ XML files work and attempted to edit them without success. Anyway, thank you in advance!

This isn't relevant to XML.

Use Cobb's Oblivion Font Editor. Load Monofonto_Large fnt. Export PNG, add the missing characters to the PNG, use Import PNG and allow the Editor to convert the metrics.

Then click on each missing glyph from the Editor's main map, and modify its position and size to match the one you've added on your texture.

First of all, thank you very much for responding. I've been searching for a solution for days, so with this program, could I convert the original game font so that it includes special characters from my language? Or is it just that specific font I mentioned that's having issues? Man, if I could create the original game font converted to Brazilian Portuguese, it would be fantastic and would help a lot of Brazilian players. Is there a detailed tutorial on how to do this? Thanks!

Start working on it and keep asking questions. I don't have the time to write a tutorial but I can answer questions.

Your first milestone is to expand the PNG to either 256x512 or 512x512, import it back to tex, save and make sure the fonts still look normal.

Ok, i will try, When you say expand, do you mean increasing the space to include more letters or upscaling to 512x512?

Increase the space

Ok, can I do this with the Oblivion Font Editor or do I need to edit it in an image editing program?

Ok, I managed to expand the PNG using the program itself, I was able to extract the .fnt and .tex, but in the game, the letters are all scrambled. How do I align them? I am using the expanded PNG without any modifications to learn before adding the new characters

I enlarged the canvas of the png to 256x512. I imported the PNG and got this message:

I chose OK, because I kept my original image on top of the new canvas. So I got this and the fonts still check fine on the test string on the editor:

Edited by: Axonis

Why does my monofonto font look different than yours?

Because I'm using the one from the VUI+ optional/tweaks folder with several improvements but broken support for Portugese, Spanish and French.

Ok, and could I use them to try to modify it for Brazilian Portuguese?

It strikes me as less confusing than the original game..

Alright, I managed to expand it, created a texture with 256x512 that seems well aligned based on my tests in-game, and now?

Add one missing glyph to the PNG with your image editor. Make sure it has some empty space around it, as in my modified font texture file. Vanilla made a mistake and crammed all glyphs together, causing issues. That's why I suggest that you work on my file.

Import the modified PNG in the editor. Click on the missing glyph on the main screen (Select a glyph to edit). Then modify its field values to correctly point to your new glyph. Click on save current font. Move your modified files to the correct folder in the game. Run and check if you can see the missing character.

If you do, add all missing glyphs to the PNG and fix them in the editor.

Sure, would I need to draw the missing character, like drawing a "Ç" for example, or does this letter already exist in the monospace font standard that I could use?

Yes, you'll need to draw it unless it's one of the glyphs that I mistakenly removed from my font edits. In such a case, you can copy and paste it from the vanilla font.

Otherwise, the smart thing to do would be to copy a cedilla from another glyph and merge it with "C".

Edited by: Axonis

Okay, is there any program you recommend or any image editing program will do?

Paint dot net 4.2.16

Edited by: Axonis

Excellent, thank you very much, my friend, this is slowly turning into a tutorial haha.

I was able to insert the "õ" as a test by copying and pasting from the original source, but the selection box around it became misaligned. How can I fix this?

Edit: I managed to solve it.

I can't even believe it's working, omg <3

Bravo!

Do tell us how you solved it though. This forum is watched by a lot of people, so any information we give them is useful.

Also, consider posting your modified font here or at Nexusmods. If you don't want to do that, consider sending me your font so that I can include it in the next VUI+ version.

BTW, all fonts in the VUI+ font folder are meant to be fixed... including the one in the Classic folder.

Edited by: Axonis

Okay, I'm thinking of releasing it on Nexus Mods when I finish, but if you want, you can also add it to VUI+. It would be great to have a Brazilian Portuguese option for VUI+. When I'm done, I'll send you the files. Regarding how I fixed the dialogue box, I compared an already created letter with mine and noticed that 'ascent' had the wrong numbering; I just changed it to 17 and it worked fine.

That's right, glyphs have ascenders and descenders. These must be properly marked up in the property values.

It also fixes Spanish and French. Posting it on the Nexus is probably the best as it will ensure visibility.

Remember to pack it to zip or 7z and retain the correct folder: Textures\Fonts. Make sure you can install it easily. Instruct users to overwrite VUI+ by your patch.

If you also fix all fonts under the "Font Tweaks" and "Classic Pip-Boy Font" folder, then please state that your patch it's "Recommended by the author of VUI+".

Thank you!

Okay, since I have plenty of free time at work, I'm using that time to work on the fonts. I finished monofonto_large, and now I'm going to move on to the others. The added letters were Ç, ç, Ã, ã, Õ, õ, Â, Ê, É, Í. I think those are the only ones, right? Or are there any more? Thanks for the support; I used to hate playing with fonts different from the game's fonts. I never understood why no one had done this before.

You can extract and inspect the California Font from this mod. I remember the author had added Polish characters. So if you can add Polish, that would be awesome.

Also check out this article, as it points to all extra French characters but I think you already cover those.

However, you might prefer to stick to Brazilian/PT and Spanish and let users know that you can add support to extra languages if they are willing to test your fonts.

Edited by: Axonis

Alright, my focus at the moment is to finish the pt-br, because I haven't played Fallout New Vegas yet, this would be my first time, and since it takes a lot of work, I might support pt-br/pt, French, and Spanish as well, because those are languages I'm mostly familiar with. I only need one more font to cover, which is Glow_Monofonto_VL_Dialogs to complete the VUI+ package. Based on the tests I've done in pt-br, everything is perfect. I saw that there are two more original game fonts not used in VUI+, which are nvfont_test and fixedsys_comp_uniform_width. Do these fonts not change anything?

Ignore nvfont_test. Be very careful of you modify fixedsys_comp_uniform_width. All glyphs in it must have the same dimensions. Change it only if necessary.

Worse yet, I'll need to modify Fixedsys, it doesn't have Ãã or Õõ. At least those are the only ones missing, everything else already exists!

Do you know what font is that?

Edited by: andreselos