Hi Justin, > 3.Creating flat text. The FontExtrusion basically implies geometry that > has thickness. There's nothing to say how the shape is defined to > describe such a situation. In fact, I'm not really sure what limitations > are on the Shape instance. The docs seem to imply a single > straight-line, but it doesn't say what happens when I pass in, say a > Rectangle or GeneralPath instance.
Try Text2D. Not properly documented but features in the Java3d tutorial and in the examples. I believe it is implemented as a texture on a rectangle but that might be nonsense. Regards Mike Goldwater Auric Hydrates Ltd [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > -----Original Message----- > From: Discussion list for Java 3D API [mailto:JAVA3D- > [EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Justin Couch > Sent: 17 March 2002 07:04 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [JAVA3D] Text3D texturing and performance > > I'm looking at the implementation of the VRML Text node in Xj3D. I have > a few of questions, which relate to performance, and hence how I'll > implement it. Any insights as to the best way of implementing this would > greatly appreciated. > > The VRML spec states that Text is a "two-sided flat text-string object". > This object has a status somewhere between true 3D geometry and > effectively just a string written as a texture. The interesting > statement though is that the text "geometry" object is still effected by > textures and material/lighting. The texturing bit is the worry. Without > that, it would be a simple choice to just use a texture. It becomes more > of a pain with texturing because then I have to do either multitexturing > or some sort of manual composition process. So, some questions: > > 1. The Text3D class does not state how or whether it is effected by > textures. Does it? > > 2. Performance of Text3D in changing the text string. A very typical use > of Text nodes in VRML is to implement HUD-type readouts of information. > That means high-speed text modification. As it appears that Text3D > internally tesselates geometry to create a 3D object. That has me > concerned about the performance impacts of high-speed text changing. Any > way of making this into something that will not be the major bottleneck? > > > > Points to note. > > - I've never seen, in real life, VRML content that uses textures on text > nodes. If we have to cop a performance penalty or architecture change to > accommodate this, then that's acceptable. > > - The "best" solution is defined in terms of frame-rate performance. It > is mostly expected that the string(s) will change every frame, not doing > things like colour cycling or texturing. VRML allows a single Text node > to describe many strings (ie like a paragraph), which would result in > needing to update multiple Text3D instances every frame if that was the > chosen solution. > > -- > Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/~justin/ > Java Architect & Bit Twiddler http://www.yumetech.com/ > Author, Java 3D FAQ Maintainer http://www.j3d.org/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > "Humanism is dead. Animals think, feel; so do machines now. > Neither man nor woman is the measure of all things. Every organism > processes data according to its domain, its environment; you, with > all your brains, would be useless in a mouse's universe..." > - Greg Bear, Slant > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ======================================================================== == > = > To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the > body > of the message "signoff JAVA3D-INTEREST". For general help, send email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help". =========================================================================== To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "signoff JAVA3D-INTEREST". For general help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and include in the body of the message "help".
