The ultra cool signs mod uses unicode_text and tga_encoder to add full (almost, bidirectional text does not work at the moment) unicode support to signs without the need for texture files per character.
Other than the "classic" method of having multiple textures that each represent one character and which are then stitched together by texture modifiers, this uses unicode_text and tga_encoder to create a texture for each sign using a (hex-)font. The texture is then stored in the node meta of the sign alongside of the text so the texture can be regenerated if needed.
The main upside of this approach is the support of many different scripts, symbols emojis etc. (all of unifont + some of unifont csur).
UC signs can show characters the builtin minetest font can't!
Supports unified dyes and mcl_dyes for coloring signs (rightclick sign with dye)
Confirmed to work out of the box with the following games:
- Minetest Game
- Mineclonia
- MineClone2 (until the shipped tga_encoder is updated, you need to force load the most recent version)
- Repixture
- Xaenvironment
- Lord of the Test
- MeseCraft
- Asuna
Should generally work out of the box with all games that define nodes with the itemgroup wood (craft recipe also needs an item of group:stick).
For all other games you will need to supply your own sign registration where you need to at least define the desired color of your sign - see API.md for how to do that.
Credits
All textures and model files are from mineclonia / mineclone2 mcl_signs.
Fonts used
- unifont https://unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html
- unifont csur planes 00 and 0f from https://github.com/trevorld/hexfont
Probably the most advanced signs mod!
As the creator of the
unicode_textmod thatucsignsuses I may be a bit biased, but this is exactly the kind of signs mod that I madeunicode_textfor.As the description correctly states, with this mod you can have text on signs that Minetest can not even render in its interface using the fonts it comes with. As this includes the text input fields that players use to write on signs, this mod is best used with the standard font set to GNU Unifont and the fallback font set to GNU Unifont Upper. This font combination does not account for any CSUR glyphs, but it seems to be a limitation of Minetest that users can not stack an arbitrary amount of fallback fonts.
In the case that users find it difficult to input some Unicode characters, one can use
ucsignsto create a mod that translates ASCII sequences into Unicode (or CSUR) characters. An example of this is cora'ssitelen_pona_signsmod which uses a simple translation table to let users input ASCII syllables that are then transformed to sitelen pona CSUR codepoints, so that signs show sitelen pona glyphs instead.