I’ve installed the Defold Editor 2.0 and started doing the War battles tutorial. After some time I noticed that I don’t see anything in the Console window. I investigated that and figured out that the problem is with font or text color: the text is there, but it is not visible. Look at this screenshot: I searched for “add” and Console highlights the location of “add” text, but the text itself is not visible.
I searched the forum but was not able to locate anything related. My platform is Mac, editor is 1.2.117 (from About), I didn’t change any default settings.
Is there anything suspicious in the editor2 log files? You can go to the folder with the logs from the Help menu.
We use the “Dejavu Sans Mono” font in the console, which we embed with the editor. However, I believe it is possible for the system to not load our version of the font in some circumstances. It seems strange that you would be able to see it in the code editor view though, as it also uses “Dejavu Sans Mono”.
One thing you could check is if you have any duplicate fonts installed. This can sometimes cause issues. To check, open FontBook and look for fonts with a dot next to the name. These are duplicates, and you should pick one to use and disable the rest.
Also in FontBook, there might be something wrong with an installed font. Try selecting all fonts and choosing Validate Font from the File menu. If it finds any issues you could try to remove the problematic fonts.
Ok, I checked editor logs - nothing suspicious. Just in case attaching a log from the session where I opened the project, launched it and exited from the game.
I also checked the Font Book. I didn’t see any fonts with a dot next to the name… However one thing I noticed is that I don’t have Dejavu Sans Mono there:
Everything looks fine in FontBook and in the logs. It is normal that you do not have DejaVu Sans Mono among your installed fonts, as we load it from the jar file directly.
I’ve created a simple test application that draws some text using various techniques. I wonder if you could run it and post a screenshot? It might help us narrow down the issue.
I also had a theory that it was just the text color (the same as background), but actually when I select text I still don’t see letters. Here is a screenshot (searched for “a” letter and selected some text after that):
Same here, if I try a simple print(“Something”) in the update function and run the game, I just see the little number (I guess it’s the number of lines) on the left of the console rising quickly, as the game loop progresses… If I then drag-select one invisible line, ctrl+c and ctrl+v somewhere, I get this:
It certainly looks like the issue is with the text rendering, but we’re still not sure what could be causing it. To find out more, we’ve produced a special build with some speculative changes to things that might cause problems.
Could you try it out and let us know if it changes anything?
Note that you need to say no when it asks to install updates, or it will be replaced with the latest release of the editor that does not have the speculative changes.
I just tried it but it seems the issue still remains.
I’m also able to select and copy the “invisible” text:
INFO:DLIB: Log server started on port 49304
INFO:ENGINE: Engine service started on port 49306
INFO:ENGINE: Defold Engine 1.2.117 (4ac025d)
INFO:ENGINE: Loading data from: build/default
INFO:ENGINE: Initialised sound device 'default'
INFO:DLIB: SSDP: Started on address 192.168.0.33
Failed to create **plugInInterface via IOCreatePlugInInterfaceForService.
INFO:DLIB: SSDP: Done on address 192.168.0.33
Well, it was worth a shot. The issue does not appear to be widespread, so anything you could tell us that narrows down the scope would help.
Are you running the editor inside a virtual machine?
What is the path to where you’ve installed the Defold executable?
What graphics card are you using? Are the drivers up-to-date?
Do you use a non-english language setting for your OS, or have made custom Locale settings?
Are you running any other programs or utilities that might interfere with text or rendering?
Can you think of anything else that might be special about the computers you are using?
One more thing I’d like to try is to try enabling the experimental new code editor we’re working on. It uses the same text rendering as the Console, so it would be interesting to see if it is able to show anything.
To try it out, create a folder named “.defold” in your home directory and place an empty file named “.newcode” inside it. After restarting the editor, you will be using the new code editor to edit scripts and shaders. If you could post a screenshot of the editor with a script file open, that could provide some more info.
Please be advised that the new code editor is still in active development, and enabling it can cause data loss when saving. Be sure to use it in an empty project that you don’t care about. Once you’re done, simply remove the “.newcode” file and restart the editor to go back to the old code editor.
Wow, I did not expect the text editor to render any text! It uses the same rendering as the console, so this gives us something to go on.
One more thing to try: If you grab the invisible divider between the code editor and the console and adjust its height, does the text appear in the console?
Ok, ok, here is something! If I use the divider between the code editor and the console - nothing changes. However, if I use the divider between left side pane and the central pane - the text shows!
I have been following this issue for a few days because I’ve been experiencing the same problem (on Windows 7) and hoping that you all find a solution.
I just restarted my computer - and a Java update was available.
After updating, it is working now. (for me)
Old version was :
java version "1.8.0_121"
Java™ SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_121-b13)
Java HotSpo™ 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.121-b13, mixed mode)
New version is :
java version "1.8.0_151"
Java™ SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_151-b12)
Java HotSpot™ 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.151-b12, mixed mode)
edit: or maybe it was just the side panel adjustment? I didn’t think I made it that far when opening the editor again.
