pygame_gui

[gabriel-v]

When trying to install and run pygame_gui, more specifically with this fork i found here, I run into this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/data/data/interfatza-pygame-gui/assets/pygame_gui/core/utility.py", line 405, in load
    self.loaded_font = Font(self.location, self.size, resolution=72)
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RuntimeError: The FreeType 2 library hasn't been initialized

I can reproduce this in the #debug terminal in the browser:

>>> import pygame.freetype
>>> pygame.freetype.init()
>>> pygame.freetype.get_init()
True
>>> pygame.freetype.Font('pygame_gui_data/FiraCode-Regular.ttf')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<console>", line 1, in <module>
RuntimeError: The FreeType 2 library hasn't been initialized
>>> 

I also see this problem was reached in the "penguins can't fly" demo here, very poetically explained:
https://github.com/pmp-p/pygame-PenguinsCantFly-wasm/blob/4072114d6d625d453e8d9786fcca0f7483d54c35/main.py#L154-L170

After a quick check, the problem seems to be a reality check in this C header that seems to be caused by threading issues - so it seems that async io is interfering with the C library bindings?

I tried moving the import / initialize around, in the top level, in the async main - same outcome.

I also tried wrapping the new pygame.freetype.Font class using the old pygame.font.Font class, but I'm not smart enough to do it correctly, so the text is not showing up.

Questions

• did you manage to get the fork running?
• do you think the existing freetype bindings could be used with asyncio in pygbag?
• do you have any tips for trying to implement the new pygame.freetype.Font using the old pygame.font.Font and trick pygame_gui that way?
• what if instead of of keeping the freetype2 state in the python module state memory, we could return it to Python, where we would feed it in every time we want to construct a new Font? Or even better, hack it to re-initialize itself instead of crashing....

Thanks!

---

edit pmp-p/ added more content from further comment :

I also found some theoretical discussions about freetype 2 thread safety and this email thread from 2003 - freetype 2 is not reentrant, and they suggest using one instance per thread.

I guess the next step here is to edit ft_wrap.c and ft_wrap.h to initialize the library and store it in the Font python object instead of the static python module memory

[pmp-p]

no, i tried but i did not get it running but it was at the tech demo time so maybe i could have a fresh look
But not so soon as i tend to spend time on modules i know that can be fixed very quickly and if they can demonstrate a usefull feature.

There are numerous GUI around and if i would have to choose one it would probably be https://lvgl.io which is small, written in C, really made for framebuffers, with RTL/LTR support, backed by an org. and have bindings for MicroPython, WaPy and soon Nim. I don't think games need guis but editors instead ( like nodezator ).

freetype both old and new have already some open issues anyway.
most likely due to all of them relying on OS for building a font map like on issue referenced here pygame-web/pygbag#60

[gabriel-v]

Nodezator specifically looks like the thing I really needed in the stack but didn't know about - thanks! I'll check LVGL suggestion too.

There are numerous GUI around

Yes, I managed to port older thorpy and pgu GUI libs with virtually no effort (vendorize dependencies, identify main loop, put async def and run it with asyncio).

freetype both old and new have already some open issues anyway

I agree, so many alternatives here - I'll leave freetype for the videogame code archeologists

Thanks again!

[pmp-p]

pygame_gui with some brute force patching on rwops fonts operation is ready to test.

changes made
pygame-ce : pygame-community/pygame-ce#1967
pygame_gui : pmp-p/pygame-gui-wasm#1

[DasBlackfur]

How would one test this out? Do I need to modify my pygbag in any way?