SDL_ttf, Ubuntu 18.4, rendering gobbledygook

boz · October 11, 2019, 5:41am

I have my first attempt using SDL2 in a thing I call “lame-game”:

All the SDL_ttf related code is in a class Calle Score:

christoferjennings/lame-game/blob/master/src/Score.cpp

#include <SDL_keyboard.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <SDL_ttf.h>
#include "Score.h"

using std::cout;
using std::endl;

static int SCORE_RECT_WIDTH = 100;

Score::Score(SDL_Renderer *renderer)
: GameObject(renderer) {
    //cout << "Score ctor" << endl;

    destRect.x = 5;
    destRect.y = 5;

    // Score always starts at zero.
    score = 0;

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Note that this runs in a game loop so Score::Update() is called before Score::Render() each cycle.

It all builds and runs fine in macOS but on Ubuntu 18.4 LTS the font doesn’t render. I get a “text is zero width” error and the app either crashes with a segmentation fault, or just displays gobbledygook in place of the text.

I’m running macOS Catalina 10.15 and Ubuntu 18.4 LTS on Virtualbox.

confused,
-chris

Charles_Huber · October 11, 2019, 4:36pm

Why aren’t you verifying that TTF_OpenFont() returns a non-NULL pointer before using it in TTF_RenderUTF8_Solid()?

boz · October 11, 2019, 5:23pm

Uh. Because I’m learning?

Thanks. I’ll try that

boz · October 11, 2019, 8:25pm

I added a null check as @Charles_Huber suggested. Apparently TTF_OpenFont() doesn’t return NULL. So it’s the same… Thanks for the review though!