Making lifebars display character logos instead of names?

[shastab24]

Over at MMV I have noticed a couple lifebars you can get that have a character logo in the place of a name, and I was wondering how one would do that for their own lifebars.  It would especially be nice to be able to have the lifebar display the character's name if there's no logo, if that's even possible.

An example of such a lifebar is here: http://mugenmultiverse.fanbb.net/t1591-marvel-avengers-battle-for-the-earth-lifebar-by-mazemerald-releasing-27-10-2013

[Cyanide]

Character edits are important here. Couple of options

Option 1: The portraits are custom to have the name and both left and right are specified seperately so the names face the right way. Rather than using the default it is using a new image. This is most likely, actual name is hidden completely off screen.

Option 2: Less likely. New font has been created with names instead of letters. Each character in the screenpack has their display name specified by a single letter rather than the full thing. So P would in fact be a picture of the word Psylocke. You run into problems when you run out of letters and numbers and things though so option 1 is still more likely.

Either way, characters have been edited to achieve that.

Edit: reread topic, he did the font one, note the comments at the bottom for "all characters available with the font"

[shastab24]

Ah.  But I do wonder--I've been trying to set up my own font (seeing about making stuff rather than just downloading) and Font Factory (which I'm not actually a fan of--I wish it could work a bit more like Fighter Factory) does seem to allow a single letter be for a string of characters (for instance, instead of "A", I can put in "Kung Fu Man"), so I was wondering if this actually works.  If not, oh well.  I would prefer to have lifebars that have character logos, but if it's not feasible I'll have to live with that.

[Cyanide]

Fonts are 100% about counting pixels. I never actually got the hang of font factory. The jist of it is you tell the fnt file where a letter starts and ends. Pretty much it.

You can do the icon method. But you will need to think of simul too. So each character will require a Select screen portrait. P1 portrait, p2 portrait, p3 portrait and p4 portrait to account for the different facings and different direction of text. It's probably more work if you go down that path but does at least not have the ALPHABET alphabet 1234567890 and a few special characters limitation.

[shastab24]

I was thinking, with the option of doing it as a portrait, if the lifebars could be set up to display the name if the character doesn't have the requisite portrait.  I'd understand that this isn't something that can necessarily be done with fonts (have the font be replaced with the portrait if it's there), so if there was a way to make a similar situation, where the font sprites are part of the lifebar sprites in general, and it writes them in a similar manner to a font when there's no portrait to display.

Maybe I just want such a thing to actually be feasible.  I really do like the idea of character logos as the displayed name, but I also would want characters who haven't been tailored to said screenpack to work.  But maybe it's a fool's errand.

[Cyanide]

Depends on layering there. If you can set the font as the lowest layer, like p1.name.layerno = 0 and the small portrait is on 1, it could work. The problem there will be that the logo version of say

The incredible Spiderman will probably be smaller than the displayname The incredible spiderman and you'll be able to see both.

[shastab24]

Well, I'm meaning not using the normal font and instead having the lifebar itself put up the letters from its own sprites, but only if it can't find the requisite sprite.  I was thinking how some characters have certain actions to respond to other characters (Batman putting on the kryptonite ring when fighting Superman, for instance) and would wonder if this same instance can be used when dealing with characters who don't have the requisite sprite, to specifically write their name out (and the letters not being put in the font's sprite file, instead being in the fight.sff, for this purpose).

Of course, I realize there actually is a simpler method: the name could be in a normal font, placed on a bar or something in the lifebar.  Then, when the sprite is there for the character, that logo has been placed on a bar that looks exactly the same, covering up any text without it looking like anything is different.  Not the ideal to me, but what I realize might be the most feasible.  Of course, that would make said logo only look right in that specific lifebar...

[Cyanide]

Lifebars aren't smart enough for that. You get 1 font for the names and that's it. That's why the screenpack above requires character customisation and has a list of compatible names. Everything else you put in would cause a mush of sprites along there trying to display the name as pictures.

[shastab24]

Darn.  Oh well, there is still that second bit of my previous post.  That, from what I gather from what you said, should be doable.  Granted, I'll also need to figure out how to do it, but such is as it is.  Now what I need to do is actually start working on making a screenpack.  Regardless of the character logo thing, I want to make one, since I want to see about doing my own game project (I must be backwards, thinking about doing one before making a character, but I do intend on making some) and even if I don't, having some of my own lifebars for myself would be nice, and one of the easier things to do.