UDKakugo_Large" is one of Fontworks' universal design typefaces released in 2015.
Due to the high visibility and functionality of "UDKakugo_Large", it was adopted as the main font for the PlayStation VR (PS VR) software "Summer Lesson" released in 2016.
In this issue, we would like to introduce how "UDKakugo_Large" was adopted for the PS VR software "Summer Lesson", which has cleared the challenges of character expression in VR space.
Cooperation ©BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
Challenges in expression in VR space
What is "summer lesson"?
Bandai Namco Entertainment's product "Summer Lesson" is a new genre of "VR character experience" that allows players to communicate with female characters within the game.
The player wears the PS VR head-mounted display and controls the game by looking at the screen, nodding, and shaking their head.
Unlike traditional games, the entire 360-degree VR space is the player's screen, so there was a major obstacle to expressing text in a VR space: "When trying to display text using existing methods, the visibility of text generally decreases on the VR screen." In addition, because it is a game of communication with characters, it was necessary to create a UI that prioritized the player's immersion in the game, and font selection was a key factor.
In order to resolve these issues, and also due to its high readability and design quality, UDKakugo_Large was adopted to create an interface that is easy for users to use.
Existing character representation in 2D screen
Since the size of the display varies depending on the player's environment, the screen resolution is an index that determines the character size. Along with the development of technology, the numerical value of the resolution has increased and it has become possible to express higher quality and higher definition Video.
The resolution of the arcade game "Gee Bee", which was first developed by Namco, the predecessor of Bandai Namco in 1979, has a resolution of 224 x 272 dots, compared to 3840 x 2160 dots, which has become popular in recent years.
At the time of game development, the Atari font, which was developed by Atari, Inc. of the United States and which expresses one character in 8 x 8 dots including spacing, was used as a reference. This is because the visibility and functionality were excellent even under severe restrictions.
As the digital production environment has improved with the development of technology and the range of expression has expanded dramatically, PS2 (released in 2000) with a screen resolution of 640 × 480 dots makes it possible to use commercially available DTP fonts even in games. It was. Therefore, in the expression on the screen, the idea of "displaying characters with ◯ pt" has finally become possible.
Reasons for difficulty in expressing characters in VR space
In the development of "Summer Lessons", trial and error of interface expressions and character expressions were repeated.
The conversation in the game is basically by voice, but it was necessary to select the option written in letters in the VR space or read the sentence in the story.
There were difficulties in character representation due to the characteristics of the head mounted display (HMD) and the characteristics of VR space, but the biggest problem was that the "standards for existing character representation" did not work. Regarding the text display of VR, the visibility will be lower than that of the existing game screen. There were various factors, and it was necessary to solve the problem.
"Game Shop and Characters Namco Bandai Studio x Monotype (held October 21, 2016)" Material
Compared to the existing game screen, VR has less visibility of characters
"Lens distortion"
HMD (Head Mounted Display) causes distortion and bleeding in the characters due to the structural reason of looking through the lens.
"It is not dot-by-dot because it is displayed in 3D space."
In the case of HMD (head mounted display), different images are displayed on the right and left eyes, and the human brain recognizes them as one image. Therefore, 1 dot of the Video does not correspond to 1 dot of the monitor, and the visibility is lower than the original character data.
"Affected by lighting and background effects"
For example, in the same way that objects look different in a real room and a dark room in the real world, the appearance of the surrounding environment also affects the appearance of the characters in 3D space.
"Direction of display"
Obviously, if you put the letters out of the player's view, they won't be noticed or read. It is possible that there is an object that you want to show in <the direction you are facing at that moment> because all 360 degrees is the screen.
Imagine that the player is facing backwards, and you can see that the text in front of the player is unreadable.
"White expands"
If you place black text on a white background, the white text will expand and the black text will appear thinner than it actually is.
Conventional standards don't work
There is a problem that "it is displayed as a texture that is pasted on a 3D model, so the unit pt does not function as a reference value." Since the characters in the VR game are displayed as a texture attached to a plate polygon, they appear small when placed far from the player, and appear large when placed near the player.
The <apparent text size> is closely related to the <reading distance> and the <text size on the object>.
A method of character placement in a VR space where you can experience a deep Video that can be viewed 360 degrees, instead of thinking with a pt number like on a 2D screen, "arranging with a size of △ cm at a distance of ○ cm from the player" It seems reasonable to change to.
To improve visibility
Two approaches
There are two ways to solve the problem that the visibility of characters is low due to the "difficulty of character expression in VR space" mentioned above.
One is to solve the "cause of poor visibility". This is doing everything possible. For example, with respect to the problem of “color swelling”, by displaying white characters against a black shadow, the possibility of <characters becoming thin> is minimized. At the same time, with this method, the <effect of lighting and background effects> is minimized.
The other is to simply use a "typeface with higher visibility and functionality".
Choose "typeface with higher visibility and functionality"
We spoke to Summer Lesson producer/director Tamaki and UI designer Shimosako about their choice of typeface.
Mr. Tamaki
"The expression of text in a VR space is a completely different field from anything we've done before, so our challenges were, <how do we express the interface> and <how do we express the text>. In the midst of all of this, we came across Fontworks' universal design font, and by adopting it, we were able to create an interface that was legible even in VR and easy for our customers to use."
Mr. Shimosako
"In an environment where the word VR is very difficult to see, we tried out a variety of fonts to see what would be suitable. Among them, we decided to use Fontworks' universal design font, which we found to be more readable and better designed than other fonts."
When selecting the typeface, the team compared multiple typefaces in VR. For example, for the Kaku Gothic typeface, they compared 12 Fontworks typefaces (NewRodin DB/B/EB, Cattleya Rodin DB/B/EB, TsukuGo E, UDKakugo_Large M/DB/B, NewCezanne DB/B) with 8 Universal Design and non-Universal Design typefaces from other manufacturers, for a total of 20 typefaces.
They discovered that in the VR space, players would be viewing the text from angles that the creators had not intended, so it became most important to create a typeface that was "easy to read from any angle."
The reason they decided that they needed a typeface with high visibility from any angle was because of road traffic signs. Road traffic signs have the visibility to be easily seen and understood even in <complex environments such as weather and background> and <diverse recognition conditions such as distance and angle>. They thought that this point was common to the conditions for character recognition in VR space.
Fontworks' Universal Design fonts are easy to read, with wide pockets and easy-to-read voiced and semi-voiced consonants. This was the deciding factor, and they were introduced as the main typeface for "Summer Lesson". Initially, we planned to use a thicker font in line with the European and American VR guidelines, and mainly use Universal Design Kakugo-Large_DB, but the alphabet-based guidelines were not suitable for Japanese writing, and there was a problem with characters with many strokes, such as kanji, becoming blurred.
Therefore, we adopted UDKakugo_Large M as the main font and UDKakugo_Large DB/B as the font for Heading, etc.
In fact, UDKakugo_Large is not the only font used in "Summer Lesson"!
KafuMarker
KafuMarker is used for the <handwritten characters> in the game.
There are many handwritten fonts, but other handwritten fonts that fit the worldview tend to be relatively thin, and have the problem of being cut off. In this situation, KafuMarker was adopted as a font that is Weight enough to be easy to read and fits the worldview of the game.
The production staff for "Summer Lesson" also stated that, although they rejected the font because it did not fit the worldview, there was a need for more handwritten fonts that were highly visible and could be read even if they were only displayed for a short time, like the New Cinema font.
"I would be happier if there was a handwritten font that changed with the quirk, rather than the weights L, R, M, D, B, U... Or a handwritten-style Universal Design font."
Originally, they wanted to use different fonts for each image, such as the letters written by the main character, the letters written by her mother, and the letters written by the user, but in reality there were only a few fonts that could be used, so they decided to use KafuMarker throughout.
Fontworks' Universal Design typeface, UDKakugo_Large, was selected for its high visibility, which was evaluated as being "easy to see" and "easy to read." In fact, its high visibility has been proven in a joint research project with Kyushu University.
Of font Works Universal Design typeface is "safe to use Universal Design font"
Comparative experiment by joint research with Kyushu University
Fontworks Universal Design font Is Characters that are “easier to read, easier to see, and easier to convey” It is produced for the purpose of being. Universal Design font (universal design font) is a typeface created based on the concept of universal design, which has been drawing attention in recent years, and other companies in the same industry are also working on Universal Design fonts.
However, the definition of "how to design a Universal Design font" remains unclear in the industry.
Therefore, Fontworks conducted a joint experiment with Kyushu University for the first comparative experiment targeting a wide range of subjects. As a result, it was concluded that it is a "Universal Design font that can be used with peace of mind" that is objectively based on [readability], [visibility], and [discrimination].
▶ ︎ Report of experimental results Here
What is "UDKakugo_Large"?
UDKakugo_Large, one of Fontworks Universal Design fonts, is designed based on the larger-sized square gothic font "NewRodin" and is an ideal Universal Design font for Heading.
We have improved visibility and distinguishability by changing the design to increase the space between alphanumeric characters and by adjusting the size of voiced and semi-voiced consonants.
Compared to general typefaces, UDKakugo_Large has larger character faces, but it is designed with kanji and kana characters of roughly the same size, which is a characteristic of Modern Gothic.
Fontworks' Universal Design fonts can be used with the annual subscription service "LETS."
For more information, please click here.
