3D Text

Code Snippets
1

Hi,

since i couldn´t find find functionality to render real 3-dimensional text. I wrote a small class that gives this posibility. If there is already functionality like thi simplemented within panda, please tell me, so u must not use my probably slow class.

Since my script needs 3d models for every character they need to be generated with this blender-script first

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#############################################################
import Blender
import string
from Blender import Curve, Object, Scene, Text3d

scene = Scene.GetCurrent()
for character in string.printable:
    txt = Text3d.New(character) 
    txt.setText(character)
    txt.setName(character)
    txt.setExtrudeDepth(0.2)
    ob = scene.objects.new(txt) 
    ob.makeDisplayList()

After the models got converted to an egg-file the Text3D-class can be used to create 3dimensional text.

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from pandac.PandaModules import *


class Text3D(object):
    '''
    Creates a 3D-Object out of a string
    '''
    def __init__(self, string, pos = Vec3(0,0,0), hpr = Vec3(0,90,0), color = Vec4(1,1,0,0), spacing = 1):
        '''
        '''
        if type(string) != str:
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(str,type(string)))
        if type(pos) != type(Vec3()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(Vec3()),type(pos)))
        if type(hpr) != type(Vec3()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(Vec3()),type(hpr)))
        if type(color) != type(Vec4()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(Vec4()),type(color)))
        if type(spacing) != int:
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(int,type(spacing)))
        
        self._string = string
        self._position = pos
        self._hpr = hpr
        self._color = color
        self._spacing = spacing
        self._spacing_count = 0
        self._font = loader.loadModel("data/models/3dfont/letters")
        self._node = render.attachNewNode("3DText")
        self._node.setTwoSided(True)
        self._node.setColor(self._color)
        self._node.setHpr(self._hpr)

        for letter in self._string:
            letter3d = self._font.find("*/%s"%(letter))
            placeholder = self._node.attachNewNode("letter")
            placeholder.setPos(self._spacing_count,0,0)
            letter3d.instanceTo(placeholder)
            self._spacing_count += self._spacing

    # -----------------------------------------------------------------
    
    def setString(self, string):
        if type(string) != str:
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(str,type(string)))        
        self._node.stash()
        self._spacing_count = 0
        self._string = string
        
        self._node = render.attachNewNode("3DText")
        self._node.setTwoSided(True)
        self._node.setColor(self._color)
        self._node.setHpr(self._hpr)

        for letter in self._string:
            letter3d = self.font.find("*/%s"%(letter))
            placeholder = self._node.attachNewNode("letter")
            placeholder.setPos(self._spacing_count,0,0)
            letter3d.instanceTo(placeholder)
            self._spacing_count += self._spacing
        
    def getString(self):
        return self._string
        
    string = property(fget = getString, fset = setString)
    
    # ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
    
    def setPosition(self, pos):
        if type(pos) != type(Vec3()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(Vec3()),type(pos)))
        self._position = pos
        self._node.setPos(self._position)
        
    def getPosition(self):
        return self._position
        
    position = property(fget = getPosition, fset = setPosition)
    
    # ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
    
    def setHpr(self, hpr):
        if type(hpr) != type(Vec3()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(Vec3()),type(hpr)))
        self._hpr = hpr
        self._node.setHpr(self._hpr)
        
    def getHpr(self):
        return self._hpr
        
    hpr = property(fget = getHpr, fset = setHpr)
    
    # ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
    
    def setColor(self, color):
        if type(color) != type(Vec4()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(Vec4()),type(color)))
        self._color = color
        self._node.setColor(self._color)
        
    def getColor(self):
        return self._color
        
    color = property(fget = getColor, fset = setColor)
    
    # ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
    
    def showText(self):
        self._node.show()
    
    # -----------------------------------------------------------------
     
    def hideText(self):
        self._node.hide()
        
    # -----------------------------------------------------------------
     
    def reparentTo(self, nodepath):
        if type(nodepath) != type(NodePath()):
            raise TypeError("Type should be %s not %s"%(type(NodePath()),type(nodepath)))
        self._node.reparentTo(nodepath)
    
    # -----------------------------------------------------------------
    def __del__(self):
        try:self._node.stash()
        except:pass

greetz

blaz

2

Panda’s text system can render dimensional fonts. You can call:

font.setRenderMode(TextFont.RMSolid)

as described in the manual. But there are some problems with this; it only works with certain fonts, due to a few bugs in the algorithm that Panda uses to generate a triangulation.

Pre-generating your fonts with Blender is a fine idea. You could even write the entire font to an egg file, similar to the egg file produced by egg-mkfont–with each letter placed within its own group named for the unicode value of the letter–and you could then load that egg file with loader.loadFont() and use it with panda’s TextNode system.

David

3

I tried font.setRenderMode(TextFont.RMSolid) and it works fine.

thanx alot