Textblox.lua

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textblox is a custom text and message box framework for LunaLua.

Installation
textblox comes packaged with cinematX v0.8+ and can be downloaded from the cinematX github repo. Textblox is installed as part of the cinematX suite; to install it manually, download the textblox.lua, graphX.lua, inputs.lua and rng.lua files and the textblox folder from the repository into your LuaScriptsLib folder.

Setup
To enable the textblox library for a specific level, add this line to lunadll.lua: This will load the textblox API.

Fonts
A core element of textblox is the Font class, which allows users to create custom fonts for use with the library. Font objects can reference either one of SMBX's built-in fonts or a custom monospaced spritefont.

To create your own Font, call textblox.Font (fonttype, properties). The first argument is the font type constant (textblox.FONTTYPE_DEFAULT or textblox.FONTTYPE_SPRITE); if DEFAULT is used for the first argument, the second argument is SMBX font number, but if SPRITE is used for the first argument, the second is a table of named arguments.

Example code:

Displaying text
Once you've selected or created your font of choice, you can display text using the font via the function textblox.printExt (text, properties). The first argument is the text string, the second is a table of named arguments.

Example code:

Results:

Text Blocks
Text Blocks are, as their name suggests, objects that store blocks of text. Unlike the print function, Text Blocks have their own window graphics and gradually reveal their text through a typewriter effect.

Text Blocks are created with textblox.Block (x,y, textStr, properties).

Example code:

Commands
textblox uses a markup language similar to HTML for special in-text commands. The following commands can be used to insert special characters and control the appearance of text.

These commands are for triggering effects and controlling the timing of Text Blocks:

Overriding SMBX messages
textblox is capable of overriding the built-in SMBX message box. When textblox.overrideMessageBox is set to true, all SMBX message boxes are replaced with Text Block objects using the table of named arguments stored in textblox.overrideProps. By changing the properties stored in textblox.overrideProps, you can thus customize the SMBX message box.