Phaser3 Bitmapfont Factory

This typescript class creates bitmapfonts at runtime ready to use in a Phaser3 game, using default or already loaded browser fonts.
Try demo here: https://jjcapellan.github.io/phaser3-bitmapfont-factory/

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Features

• Converts any loaded font¹ in the browser to a bitmapfont, ready to use in Phaser3 at runtime.
• Shares same texture for multiple bitmapfonts.
• Ensures power of two texture size (optional).
• Calcs kernings for 97 commonly used pairs. (optional).²
• Supports list of fallback fonts.
• Cache system reduces font generation time by up to 90%.
• Predefined fallback font lists for sans-serif, sans, and monospace types.
• Support for Phaser v3.50.0+.

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Table of contents

• Installation
  • Browser
  • From NPM
• How to use
  • Create a BMFFactory object
  • Define the tasks
  • Execute the tasks
• Basic example
• License

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Installation

Browser

There are two alternatives:

• Download the file bmff.umd.js to your project folder and add a reference in your html:

<script src = "bmff.umd.js"></script>

• Point a script tag to the CDN link:

<script src = "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/jjcapellan/[email protected]/dist/bmff.umd.js"></script>

Important: the class is exposed as BMFFactory

From NPM

npm i phaser3-bitmapfont-factory

Then you can acces the class as:

• CommonJS module:

const BMFFactory = require('phaser3-bitmapfont-factory/dist/bmff');

// In scene.create function
const bmff = new BMFFactory(this, onComplete);

• ES6 module:

import BMFFactory from 'phaser3-bitmapfont-factory';

// In scene.create function
const bmff = new BMFFactory(this, onComplete);

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How to use

There are three steps:

1. Create a BMFFactory object:

// In scene.create function

let bmff = new BMFFactory(this, () => {
            // your code here. 
            // this code is executed when bitmapfonts are ready
            // i.e.: this.scene.start('nextScene');
        });

BMFFactory(scene, onComplete, options)
Parameters:

• scene {Phaser.Scene}: A reference to the Phaser.Scene
• onComplete {Function}: callback function executed when all tasks are completed.
• options {Object}: optional object to set some features.
• options.PoT {Boolean}: The size of generated texture will be power of two?. Default: false.
• options.disableCache {Boolean}: Disables the cache. By default, the calculations generated in the first run are stored in the localStorage for reuse in subsequent runs. Default: false.
• options.onProgress {Function}: callback function executed two times per font. Receives a number between 0 and 1 (total progress). Each call to this function stops the generation for 1 frame. Default: undefined.

2. Define the tasks

// inside your Phaser.create() function...

// What glyphs do you want to use?
const chars = ' 0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuwxyz,.';

// This adds as task the creation of a bitmapfont using "Arial" font family and calculating its kernings
bmff.make('key1', 'Arial', chars, { fontSize: '64px', color: '#555568' });

// We can use fallback fonts like in css
bmff.make('key2', ['Lato', 'Lucida Grande', 'Tahoma', 'Sans-Serif'], chars, { fontSize: '64px', color: '#555568' });

// BMFFactory has three predefined arrays of common web-safe and browser default fonts:
// bmff.defaultFonts.sansSerif
// bmff.defaultFonts.sans
// bmff.defaultFonts.monospace
// In this case I'm using a monospace font so I don't need kernings
bmff.make('key3', bmff.defaultFonts.monospace, chars, { fontSize: '64px', color: '#555568' }, false);

make(key, fontFamily, chars, style, getKernings)
The method make creates a task to make a bitmapfont, and adds it to the queue.
Parameters:

• key {String}: The key used to retrieve the created bitmapFont (i.e.: this.add.bitmapText(x, y, key, 'text')).
• fontFamily {String}: The name of any font already loaded in the browser (e.g., "Arial", "Verdana", ...), or an array of names (first valid font will be selected). Any font loaded in Phaser via WebFont can be used¹.
• chars {String}: String containing the characters to use (e.g., " abcABC123/*%,."). Important: You must include the space character (" ") if you are going to use it.
• style {Object}: The text style configuration object (the same as the one used in Phaser.GameObjects.Text). Only fontSize, color and fontStyle properties are used. fontSize only supports size in pixels.
• getKernings {Boolean}(optional): You are going to use the kernings?. The kernings are calculated for 97 common pairs (i.e.: 'Wa', 'y.', ...). Monospace fonts doesn't need kernings. Not using kerning could save 40% of the generation time. By default is true.

3. Execute the tasks

// This function must be called after adding all tasks
bmff.exec();

exec()
This asynchronous method executes all tasks previously added to the task queue. When finished, it calls onComplete callback.

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Basic example

This example shows the generation and use of one bitmapfont in the same scene.

Sometimes we need to generate several bitmapfonts with many glyphs. For these cases is better generate the bitmapfonts previously in a load scene (look the demo folder of this repository).

import Bmff from "phaser3-bitmapfont-factory";

class Game extends Phaser.Scene {
    constructor() {
        super("game");
    }

    create() {
        const bmff = new Bmff(this,
            () => {
                // Now bitmapfonts are ready
                this.add.bitmapText(320, 180 - 3 * 42, 'fallback', 'my defined fallback font')
                    .setOrigin(0.5);
                this.add.bitmapText(320, 180 - 42, 'defserif', 'default serif font')
                    .setOrigin(0.5);
                let b = this.add.bitmapText(320, 180 + 42, 'defmono', 'default monospace font')
                    .setOrigin(0.5);console.log(b);
            });

        const chars = " abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

        const config1 = { fontSize: '42px', color: '#1a1c2c'};
        const config2 = { fontSize: '42px', color: '#1a1c2c', fontStyle: 'italic' };
        const config3 = { fontSize: '42px', color: '#1a1c2c', fontStyle: 'bold' };        

        bmff.make('defmono', bmff.defaultFonts.monospace, chars, config1, false);
        
        bmff.make('defserif', bmff.defaultFonts.serif, chars, config2);

        bmff.make('fallback', ['fdgsfd', 'Arial'], chars, config3);        

        bmff.exec();
    }
}

function runGame() {
    let config = {
        type: Phaser.AUTO,
        width: 640,
        height: 360,
        parent: "game",
        backgroundColor: '#cdcdcd',
        scene: [Game],
    };

    new Phaser.Game(config);
}

window.onload = function () {
    runGame();
};

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License

Phaser3 Bitmapfont Factory is licensed under the terms of the MIT open source license.

Footnotes

1. Fonts with ligatures are not supported. ↩ ↩²

2. In Phaser 3.55.2/WebGL kernings are not used by bitmapText objects. This was fixed in Phaser v3.60. ↩