TextPlugin - Set Default Font for Whole Project

[onkoe]

Hey there! In #8445, a technique to change the font is mentioned.

I don't particularly love this method, mostly because I want to alter the TextPlugin's defaults instead of checking to see if there's a font I should replace each frame.

Are there any methods to change the default font that are more like the following for 0.12.1?

use bevy::{prelude::*, text::TextPlugin};

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .add_plugins(DefaultPlugins.set(TextPlugin.with_some_config(ThatChangesTheFont::new())))
        .run();
}

TextPlugin is just a unit struct, so I'm not exactly sure how to feed it a TextStyle.

Official Support

The Bevy 0.11 release notes mention that you can now change the default font, but doesn't exactly state how to do so.

Does anyone have experience with setting the global default font?

[rlidwka]

instead of checking to see if there's a font I should replace each frame

If I understood the example correctly, you don't need to do that each frame, it's only one time when your font is loaded.

[onkoe]

You might be right! I'm not sure what the Update schedule means on the low-level side of things. 😄️

If it does run each frame, then I would assume that at least the .run_if() part does a small check on each schedule loop. That's nothing horrible, though it does feel 'off' to me. By any chance, do you know why the technique is set up that way?

[rparrett]

Bevy itself is embedding a tiny stripped-down font in the binary, bypassing the asset server. But the example you linked is making the assumption that you want to load a normal font the normal way through the asset server and not bloat up your binary. In that case, you need to poll until the font is actually loaded (an asynchronous process that may take more than one frame) before you can replace it.

If you're okay with embedding the font, I think you can simplify like this:

use bevy::{asset::load_internal_binary_asset, prelude::*};

fn main() {
    let mut app = App::new();

    app.add_plugins(DefaultPlugins).add_systems(Startup, setup);

    // This needs to happen after `DefaultPlugins` is added.
    load_internal_binary_asset!(
        app,
        TextStyle::default().font,
        "../assets/fonts/FiraSans-Bold.ttf",
        |bytes: &[u8], _path: String| { Font::try_from_bytes(bytes.to_vec()).unwrap() }
    );

    app.run();
}

[rlidwka]

By any chance, do you know why the technique is set up that way?

Executing the system once when font loads requires a lot more code (see libraries like iyes_progress).

So if your goal is to make a small demo for github, it is a reasonable thing to go with quick and dirty solution of executing it each frame. But in real application, there would be separate Loading state that handles all of it.

[onkoe]

Thanks for sharing your experience! That code snippet was just what I was looking for.

I also appreciate the idea of a Loading state. I hadn't yet considered that side of things, but that implementation does make sense for a "demo" showing folks that the font can be altered.