Patch: Variable-Width Small Font for Longer Names

Hi tachiweasel, just took the new build for a spin. Once again, very admirable work. This could be a real game-changer in the long term.

A few more issues to note (some you may already know):

• The text at the top and bottom of the pre- final battle menu is missing.
  
• In the Lineup menu, if you open someone's status screen and then return, some of the text from the status screen "ic Evade Sp" gets thrown up into the top right corner.
  
• Paging up/down in the field menu displays incorrect text for a few frames. It is not usually noticeable. But it does stick out when there are two columns, like the Magic menu, and when moving between the "Use" and "Key" screens of the Item menu. Question: Would there be enough VRAM space to have some kind of alternating buffer? (This would also apply to the glitched text when exiting out of battle submenus.)
  
• Opening the spells list is a bit awkward. This could potentially be solvable as above.
  
• GBA's text for the equipment details screen has "x can be equipped by:" ...and now you have the space for it, too
  
• For some equipment, the item's details screen has the first 8x8 pixel block of Terra's name missing. Weird.
  
• In the battle magic menu, the cursor for the right column ought to be shifted 8 pixels to the right. (Did not find the relevant offset in my notes, unfortunately.)
  

Known issues:

• Multi-targeting spells in the menu causes portraits to blink for a bit.
  
• There is some minor glitchy text during the cutscenes in the Vargas fight.
  
• Page up/page down in menus is slower than it could be.
  
• The window closing animation during encounters can cause the wrong text to be displayed for a few frames.
  
• Portraits blink when changing the order of party members in the menu.
  

A few questions/comments:

• I am surprised that the blinking portraits issue is a thing. None of the VRAM text graphics pool really need to be refreshed, right? I wonder if the game is rerunning that routine unnecessarily.
  
• Have you had the chance to test other special battle scenes beyond the Vargas fight?
  
• Overall, the load times are quite a bit better than I expected.
  
• In spite of the complexity of the task and the remaining issues, the hack already feels well on its way toward stability.
  
• The custom font is well designed on its own, but does feel out of place against the larger text and original window sizes. One solution, of course, is to reduce the size of the large font. But I wonder how the performance might be impacted by using a wider small font, something like FF2 Origins on PS1.
  

I've posted an update to the patch as an edit to the first post, possibly the final one for a while as I won't have as much time to work on it going forward.

If you think you might end up stepping away permanently, would you be willing to publish any additional technical insight you have on the remaining issues?
I would definitely like to see this go prime time sooner or later, including if that means someone else picking it up someday.

Kudos!