Map text drawing downward

ID:2465878
 
May 13 2019, 8:44 am
(See the best response by Kaiochao.)
Code:
mob/var/TxtSpd = 0.32

var/list/font_resources = list('final_fantasy_36_font.ttf')
/HUD/Text
    icon='hud_font.dmi'
    parent_type = /obj
    screen_loc = "1:7,4:5"
    layer = 1000
    alpha=200

proc/Text(mob/M,var/Text="")
    var/Blank = " "
    for(var/HUD/Text/Te in M.client.screen)
        Te.maptext = ""
        del(Te)

    var/HUD/Text/T = new;M.client.screen.Add(T)

    T.maptext_width = length(Text) / length(Text)*249
    T.maptext_height = length(Text) / length(Text)*40
    while(length(Blank)-2<length(Text)+1)
        sleep(M.TxtSpd)
        Blank = addtext(Blank,"[getCharacter(Text,length(Blank))]")
        T.maptext = "<font face=\"Final Fantasy 3/6 Font\"><font size=3>[Blank]"
        if(length(Blank)>=length(Text))
            break


proc
    getCharacter(string, pos=1)
        return ascii2text(text2ascii(string, pos))


Problem description: I'm trying to find a way to draw text downward rather than upward.

I'm using Kidpaddle45's On-screen text lib, and I see it's using the built in maptext function to draw the text on screen. I don't know if this is a result of his lib or if BYOND's maptext by default draws upward. Is there a way to reverse which direction it draws the text vertically?
May 13 2019, 9:14 am
Wrap your maptext with the tag <text valign=top> or use the "vertical-align" CSS property in the usual CSS way. This changes the alignment within the maptext bounds.
May 13 2019, 9:17 am
In response to Kaiochao
Best response
Also, you can set maptext via animate() to have it animate smoothly client-side without needing any sleep inside the loop.

The Nth character in a string is string[n].
animate(T, maptext = "<text valign=top><font...>")
for(var/i in 1 to length(Text))
  animate(time = M.TxtSpd, maptext = T.maptext + Text[i])

And as usual, it's better to keep a reference to the Text obj rather than search client.screen for it. O(1) vs O(n). You could even reuse it instead of remaking it every time.
May 13 2019, 10:44 am
Right on, thanks for the assist, Kaiochao.