2.8 problem

[Kijutsu]

I can't type these symbols in tron: ; ' " ~ * etc, you get the picture. When I try, all I see is a blank space. Any way to fix this?

[Z-Man]

Which 0.2.8? You could try the other one
(if it's 0.2.8.3.1, the other one would be 0.2.8_alpha*, here: https://launchpad.net/armagetronad/0.2.8-snapshots )

[Phytotron]

Hmm, I just solved something of my own (although I don't know exactly how), which may or may not be related (and I'd like an explanation, anyway). So, backround:

At some point the game stopped displaying any "special" characters. I can see typical ones, like the semi-colon, apostrophe, asterisk, etc. that vogueliz typed, but ones such as ¡ ¿ é ñ and so forth only show as blank/black spaces (also making about half the player names unreadable).

This first happened awhile back, while still using 0.2.8.3.1, and I noted at the time it happened that I don't think I had changed anything. Seemed to happen spontaneously.

Well, just now as I was typing up this post, and thinking about that stupid thing recently with english_base.txt, it occurred to me to try this: I went into ~/Library/Application Support/Armagetron Advanced/textures and I removed the three font png files (I hadn't copied over those xcf files). Viola, I was able to view those symbols again.

Strangely, though, I'm quite sure they were the defaults, just copied over. They even say they were created in 2003, last modified in 2006. Although, I looked inside 0.2.8.3.1 and those now say they were created in 2010. I'm also pretty sure that they didn't stop displaying until some time well after I had copied them over. Not that my memory is entirely trustworthy.

Er....

[Z-Man]

Various special characters had been added to the font files in 2005, the last in January 2006. You probably had files there from before the changes. I don't know what the creation and changed dates mean on OSX if you copy/move files around, would the creation date be the download date or the date you copied/moved them? My guess is that if you moved them, it'll be the installation date, if you copied them, at least one of the dates would be the copy date. Certainly, the creation date will not be the original creation date in our source control, there is no way that can get passed on to an installation. So the 2003 creation date would explain why the characters were missing.
You probably didn't notice the problem right away because at the time you did the copying, nobody else had the special characters either, so nobody was using them.

And it's completely unrelated. Yours was an output problem, this is an input problem, probably with the old version of SDL bundled with 0.2.8.3.1 and the 0.2.8.3.2 betas not sending proper unicode character data with the key presses. If that's the case, simply copying over a new SDL from the alphas would solve it.

[Phytotron]

Various special characters had been added to the font files in 2005, the last in January 2006. You probably had files there from before the changes.

Yeah, looking back through previous versions, it seems I may have copied over the textures from 0.2.6.0; the creation dates match. I don't know why I would have done that, though. And I swear it didn't happen immediately after that, but maybe memory failed me then as it has now. Bah.

You probably didn't notice the problem right away because at the time you did the copying, nobody else had the special characters either, so nobody was using them.

No, they had been displaying, then they stopped displaying. But, reason being the above, apparently.

I don't know what the creation and changed dates mean on OSX if you copy/move files around, would the creation date be the download date or the date you copied/moved them?

I've downloaded programs which have a creation date that may be years prior to my downloading it (as noted above). It's the actual creation date, not the date it was downloaded. (That's for an application. A picture or something will get the download date attached. A zipped/compressed file will show the download date, but once decompressed the contents will often show their actual creation date, I think.) If you go to aabeta (or wherever they are now) and download old Mac versions to your Mac, you should see an old creation date on them and their package contents.

And simply copying something won't change its "created" or "modified" date.

Dlh could probably (definitely) be more specific and technical, if he sees this.

And it's completely unrelated. Yours was an output problem, this is an input problem....

Feel free to split. It just reminded me of my issue (which it seems I could and should have figured out myself ), and I was just thinking she may have put in a faulty or incomplete custom font file or something.

[Kijutsu]

Which 0.2.8? You could try the other one
(if it's 0.2.8.3.1, the other one would be 0.2.8_alpha*, here: https://launchpad.net/armagetronad/0.2.8-snapshots )

This one works, thanks. No idea what the differences are /noob but I was using the latest one off armagetronad.net