Display text in xmb with prx

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:37 am

Edit: Not Sorted
I cant seem to get any text what so ever to print with a prx over the xmb can anyone tell me what functions i need to just print hello world cheers

another question though is it possible for the font that the xmb uses for menus and the like to print text from a prx to the screen

dot_blank · Post by **dot_blank** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:58 pm

the psps font system is incredibly large ...way too much
foolery going around with pointers and caches and its
tossed all over the place ...so not gonna happen for a while
at the most

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:56 pm

okay guess ill just stick with the debug text for a while, but i still cant seem to get it to print over the xmb without having to make the screen go black

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:41 am

hi guys has anyone here used the blit_string functions from the devhook sdk to put text onto the vsh, i can get it to work, im just wondering if there is a way to have the background color the txt sits on to be transparent??

cheers

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:27 am

sorry i have to bump this

fergie4000 · Post by **fergie4000** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:21 am

you don't need to bump on this forum, most people are very helpful, i too can't figure how to blit text to the screen over the xmb. if you find out, tell me how.
:P

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:24 am

the topic was going a bit stale that was all, but i know its no too hard i have seen many plugings that do it, i just can't find the source code for any and the sdk i got from devhook uses a background colour for its text which i need to be transparent thanks guys if you can clear this up for us

Zettablade · Post by **Zettablade** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:16 pm

You have to write the text directly to vram. A_nub's VSHPong does the. And it also deals with the black background of the text. Wait until he releases the src code, then check it out :)

be2003 · Post by **be2003** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:46 pm

Zettablade wrote:You have to write the text directly to vram. A_nub's VSHPong does the. And it also deals with the black background of the text. Wait until he releases the src code, then check it out :)

i havent done much research into the subject but i hope this helps out:

you should find this in the blit_string function...

Code: Select all

for&#40;p=0;p<8;p++&#41;
&#123;
     vram32&#91;offset&#93; = &#40;font & 0x80&#41; ? fg_col &#58; bg_col;
     font <<= 1;
     offset++;
&#125;

replace it with

Code: Select all

for&#40;p=0;p<8;p++&#41;
&#123;
     if&#40;font & 0x80&#41;
          vram32&#91;offset&#93; = fg_col;
     font <<= 1;
     offset++;
&#125;

once again. i havent tested this out but it should take off the background color and just use the foreground if it is present. the blit_string function still has the flickering problem though...

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:05 pm

okay so that should remove the bg color yes? but when you say flickering problem what do you mean?

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:33 pm

i think the main thing that is holding alot more developers back from producing more plugins and prxs is the fact that there is not much documentation or anything really to do with displaying reliable and usable text and graphics onto the xmb. For my self its holding back the release of an app that i have that also has a xmb plugin while i can write prx i cant display what i want and it makes it pretty much useless

Anissian · Post by **Anissian** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:43 pm

reefbarman wrote: there is not much documentation or anything really to do with displaying reliable and usable text and graphics onto the xmb...

Let me add that I share the same concerns. It is not something I have played a lot with, but I agree that the idea of e.g. having a firmware plugin that when the user presses a key combo the plugin displays a (graphical) window menu such as an overlay with alpha-blending is something I was planning to experiment with, and opens a lot of possibilities to customize and extend custom firwares.

Unfortunately, I am not sure where to start. Some hints and "proof of concepts" (like if it is a "modal-dialog"-like overlay it may be possible to capture the screen from VRAM and draw the overlay with blending) I am aware of seem to imply that this would require low level access.

Mine is not a very useful post, just adding that I've been following the thread in case a framework, proof of concept, prototype or sample (e.g. a user presses L and a circle is drawn in the screen) to do graphical layers/overlays in the XMB by means of plugins appears and it would be welcome :o)

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:37 pm

Anissian wrote:
reefbarman wrote: there is not much documentation or anything really to do with displaying reliable and usable text and graphics onto the xmb...
Let me add that I share the same concerns. It is not something I have played a lot with, but I agree that the idea of e.g. having a firmware plugin that when the user presses a key combo the plugin displays a (graphical) window menu such as an overlay with alpha-blending is something I was planning to experiment with, and opens a lot of possibilities to customize and extend custom firwares.

Unfortunately, I am not sure where to start. Some hints and "proof of concepts" (like if it is a "modal-dialog"-like overlay it may be possible to capture the screen from VRAM and draw the overlay with blending) I am aware of seem to imply that this would require low level access.

Mine is not a very useful post, just adding that I've been following the thread in case a framework, proof of concept, prototype or sample (e.g. a user presses L and a circle is drawn in the screen) to do graphical layers/overlays in the XMB by means of plugins appears and it would be welcome :o)

actually you have given me idea with talking about overlays, i hadn't thought of doing it that way before, but i use a 2d graphics library called OSlib to do alot of my graphical displays in my apps, and it has the abilities to grab the screen put it into its own buffer in vram so you can then draw onto the picture and then put it back out to the screen, i might give this a go and if i can get the library to work nice within a prx function i may just be able to get anything to the screen then thanks for the idea

dot_blank · Post by **dot_blank** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:54 am

just use the dialog utility of psputility to output text and let psp handle the fonts

reefbarman · Post by **reefbarman** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:51 pm

dot_blank wrote:just use the dialog utility of psputility to output text and let psp handle the fonts

oh excellent i didnt realise there was such a function ill have to give it ago, but i would still like to learn how to write text and graphics directly to the screen as i want to have a pop up box overlay and such over the top of the xmb.

But i think sceUtilityMsgDialogInitStart is not quite what im looking for as i need to be able to define where it is on screen size and colour

thanks though dot