Another possible fix to font problems

[longsword]

I've experienced the strange font problems that several other people have mentioned. After seeing the posts by sk0tie (Thanks for the extra help, sk0tie!) and others I went to remove some fonts figuring I had lots more than 256. I only had 111 fonts so that wasn't the problem. Just to test I removed all of my fonts with "Lucida" contained in the name. I started Civ 3 and it fixed the problem - no messed up fonts - everything was readable. So the fix was a little crude, it worked. Trying to find a little more refined solution I added the fonts back and started removing one at a time. The first one I removed was "Lucida Sans Oblique" (or something similar) and started the game and it worked. I thought I got lucky. Just to be sure I got out of the game and rebooted and started again - the problem was back again. So I removed just the fonts with "Lucida Sans" in the name and ran Civ 3 again and the problem was gone again. Rebooted and the fonts were still fine. I added back in the Lucida Sans font located in the Civ 3 directory and rebooted and started the game and everything still is fine. It's still a crude fix but at least I can read the text in the game. I don't know if I've messed up another application but, at this point, I don't care - It's time to play. Hope it can help someone else.

[longsword]

Something I thought of as I was getting ready for work this morning and I won't be able to test it for at least another 10 hours or so. *If* Windows doesn't let you uninstall a font that is in use by another app this knowledge could be used to determine which font or fonts are causing the problems. I don't believe you can alt-tab out of Civ 3, but you can use the "windows" key to get the start menu and task bar. If you then went into your fonts and removed any font with "Lucida Sans" in the name windows should complain about it and you would know which font is currently being used by Civ 3. Like I said, I don't know *if* windows works this way but might be worth playing around with. Just a thought...

[Indalo]

thank you very much, it worked for me.

[sk0tie]

IMPRESSIVE! Good work! I'll get to testing that right away!

[longsword]

Originally posted by Indalo
thank you very much, it worked for me.

You're welcome, Indalo. Glad I could help.

[longsword]

Ok. After playing a little more I can make the problem come and go at will, at least on my system which has just over 100 fonts on it. The offending font seems to be "Lucida Sans Regular". I tried working with the theory that windows would complain when a font an app was using was uninstalled. So after starting Civ 3 I switched to control panel/fonts and deleted any font with lucida sans in the name. Windows didn't complain but when I went back to the game, the jagged edges were gone from the fonts in the civilopedia. So after getting out of the game and installing the fonts back in I tried again and watched after I removed each font. As soon as I removed the lucida sans regular font the fonts were much easier to read. You don't even have to start a game - just doing it when sitting at the main menu works. (With later experimenting sometimes I had to hover the mouse over then words on the menu before the switch would take effect.) The font size did not seem to be correct though and overruns were still happening in the civilopedia, but getting out and back into the game fixes that problem. It also stays fixed after the reboot of the system.

Installing the font that is located in the Civ 3 directory seems to also have an impact but I haven't figured it out in a consistant manner. If you install it it shows up as "Lucida Sans". I have been able to have this font and lucida sans regular installed at the same time and have the game fonts look fine. I just can't consistantly get it to stay that way after a reboot of the system. In fact, when I turned on my machine tonight I couldn't get the font problem to appear in the game even though both fonts were installed at the time. It might have something to do with the order the fonts are installed. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader. (Sorry for the old college textbook ploy )

Anyways that's all the experimenting I'm going to try for now. I'm going to see if I finally get a chance to play for more than 30 minutes without outside factors forcing me to stop playing. Hope it helps.

[gtr]

Thanx for the tip.

I installed lsants.ttf from the civ dir into the windows font dir. No effect until reboot. After booting it seems to look fine.

[longsword]

Originally posted by gtr
Thanx for the tip.

I installed lsants.ttf from the civ dir into the windows font dir. No effect until reboot. After booting it seems to look fine.

Glad I could help out - I just reloaded my system (win98) and had the problem come back again. I don't know what program is installing that font out there since I really don't have that many applications - mostly games.

[pieru]

Originally posted by longsword
[B...It's still a crude fix but at least I can read the text in the game. I don't know if I've messed up another application but, at this point, I don't care - It's time to play. Hope it can help someone else. [/B]

I really have to thank you!

I love CivIII but this "bug" almost got me crazy!
Try to think: I could not access the "active" window in diplomacy. To stop a trade I had to declare war. Now I can also use diplomacy as Sid stated.

Thank again

Pier

[longsword]

You're welcome. That reminds me of Civ1 when your senate would accept a peace treaty that you didn't want to and the easiest way to get back to war was to change governments and go into anarchy for a few turns.