Can a font be created for this game, Commandos 3?

[dwstkar490-afk]

Can fonts be made for the games Commandos 3: Destination Berlin and Commandos 3 – HD Remaster? What type of font do they use?

[IanusInferus]

I think the font files is located in DATA.PCK\DATA\FONTS.
They use a custom binary format FNC/FNM.
I think these files contain characters and bitmap.
It looks that these files are simple. But I haven't modified these files.

[dwstkar490-afk]

I’ve tried several times before, but I haven’t gotten any results.
I thought it would be better to ask you, since you have more knowledge, if you could help me understand the structure of this type of font?
Can you guide me on how I can extract it?

[IanusInferus]

I found a tool by Zeppelin(herbert3000).
Download FontTools.zip in https://retrogamesvault.com/commandosmod/downloads.html

I also found a document by Zeppelin(herbert3000) for FNM and FNC.
FNM_FNC.zip

[dwstkar490-afk]

Thank you very much.
Inside FontTools.zip, there were WadExtractorFont.class and WadCreatorFont.class, which required the Wad format.
I was able to extract it using MultiExtractor, but I couldn’t rebuild it.
I’m currently working on FNM_FNC.zip, but I haven’t gotten any results yet.

[IanusInferus]

There are WadCreator and WadPngTools on that site. Maybe you can use them.

[IanusInferus]

For Commandos 3 – HD Remaster, maybe you need to check if the fonts are in the dds files.

[dwstkar490-afk]

Yes, it is. I found a few of them before. But how can we figure out the text position data?

[dwstkar490-afk]

There are WadCreator and WadPngTools on that site. Maybe you can use them.

Sorry, I think I said it wrong.
What I meant was that FontTools.zip can’t extract or create FNM and FNC files.
I’m still working on it, but I still can’t extract or pack them properly.
Would it be better if I used the C programming language?

[IanusInferus]

Yes, it is. I found a few of them before. But how can we figure out the text position data?

There must be other file(s) for text position data. But I haven't analyzed them.

[IanusInferus]

There are WadCreator and WadPngTools on that site. Maybe you can use them.

Sorry, I think I said it wrong. What I meant was that FontTools.zip can’t extract or create FNM and FNC files. I’m still working on it, but I still can’t extract or pack them properly. Would it be better if I used the C programming language?

C can be easier on accessing the bytes, but harder on other things (such as string manipulation). You can also use Java or C#, it's only a little harder on accessing the bytes.
If you need font rendering, it's very hard to use on C (FreeType, GDI), but much easier on Python. You can even generate code for Python with AI. Accessing the bytes in Python is moderate.

[dwstkar490-afk]

There must be other file(s) for text position data. But I haven't analyzed them.

I think the main problem is that the files output or displayed by PCKManagerHD.exe don’t have proper names.
If they had meaningful names, it would be easier to find their corresponding data files, in my opinion.

[dwstkar490-afk]

C can be easier on accessing the bytes, but harder on other things (such as string manipulation). You can also use Java or C#, it's only a little harder on accessing the bytes. If you need font rendering, it's very hard to use on C (FreeType, GDI), but much easier on Python. You can even generate code for Python with AI. Accessing the bytes in Python is moderate.

I tried everything, but I couldn’t extract MENU.FNC. However, I was able to easily extract FONT_19_COLOR.FNC and FONT_12_COLOR.FNC.
Sorry for bothering you — could you take a look at MENU.FNC and see if it’s possible to create an extraction or building tool for it?

[herbert3000]

Hi,
I've uploaded a FNC_FNM_Repacker (requires Java to run) to my website: https://retrogamesvault.com/commandosmod/downloads/
The tools were created for the original Commandos 3. I don't know if the font files have been modified for the remaster.

[IanusInferus]

There must be other file(s) for text position data. But I haven't analyzed them.

I think the main problem is that the files output or displayed by PCKManagerHD.exe don’t have proper names. If they had meaningful names, it would be easier to find their corresponding data files, in my opinion.

That is because Comm3HD's pak doesn't contains file names, but use some kind of hash to lookup a file. The file names can not be easily extracted.

[IanusInferus]

C can be easier on accessing the bytes, but harder on other things (such as string manipulation). You can also use Java or C#, it's only a little harder on accessing the bytes. If you need font rendering, it's very hard to use on C (FreeType, GDI), but much easier on Python. You can even generate code for Python with AI. Accessing the bytes in Python is moderate.

I tried everything, but I couldn’t extract MENU.FNC. However, I was able to easily extract FONT_19_COLOR.FNC and FONT_12_COLOR.FNC. Sorry for bothering you — could you take a look at MENU.FNC and see if it’s possible to create an extraction or building tool for it?

It looks MENU.FNC is not very special. I think it mostly matches FNC.txt.