Use of fonts and text in 3D

[Klaus Nordby]

Does anyone have any ideas and/or demo projects (Delphi) showing some really snazzy, sparkling use of text and fonts in TV3D?   The tutorial "B07 - RenderToSurface for text" is rather lame (and I'm bothered by the very fuzzy text).  I would have liked to see how the user could interact with text, how 3D text could function in an application UI, etc.  Will text-related stuff be improved in the new 6.5 version?

I'm very much a newbie both with 3D and with Delphi, I am afraid, so any and all clear tips are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[seer]

the demo's and samples that come with the SDK are often not the very best the engine can do, they just are simple programs that show the basics.

you can also generate 3D text mesh from the TVMesh class..

or you can create any sort of custom font of any size using bitmap parts
or increase the size of the texture fonts when they are created so that you dont have fuzzy edges..  Theres really a lot you can do already

[Klaus Nordby]

"the demo's and samples that come with the SDK are often not the very best the engine can do, they just are simple programs that show the basics."

That's VERY bad marketing: us newbies look at the samples to see what can be done.

"Theres really a lot you can do already"

Oh, I'm sure there's a lot YOU can do - but as for me, I'm a newbie in desperate need of actual code samples. :-)

[darqSHADOW]

That's VERY bad marketing: us newbies look at the samples to see what can be done.

Unfortunately, as a small development team devoted to providing a cheap end-user solution for 3D development, we did not have the time to devote to samples and tutorials.  I don't expect you to understand, or know about, our history but in the past year I've focused a lot of my efforts on our marketing.  This is why there is a full techdemo, with source code, a completly redesigned website with much more information, the TVDN (documentation), and much more.  With 6.5 we are working to ship more samples, but there is no way we'll be able to ship hundreds of samples and tutorials for every language we support, since we are the ONLY 3D engine that supports VB, VB.Net, C#, C++, Delphi, and all ATL/COM/.Net languages.  We will, however, strive to provide the simple "getting started" samples as we have in the past, but the rest is left up to the user.

We have customers who've never touched a sample, never emailed support, or posted on the forums, yet they have completed commercial applications in a few months.  It just takes a bit of dedication, and the forums are a wonderful resource of knowledge.

Shortly we will be launching our Resource library, where we wil begin posting more in-depth articles on how to get started with TV3D, but most of these will be language independent articles, or geared around the VB, VB.Net community.

DS

[Klaus Nordby]

OK, darqSHADOW, thanks! No, I'm a total newbie- only discovered you less than a week ago - so I don't know your history at all. But as a graphics designer I _do_ know web design, and you have a fine web! So keep up the good work, and rest assured I'll be watching your stuff closely! :-)

[AriusMyst]

I don't think its bad marketing. Samples are there to teach, or at least demonstrate the very basics. If they were over-complex they would be useless at their task. The tech demo is all very well an good, but its in vb( an iirc there is no binary, so you need vb in order to run it ). I'm hoping that when 6.5 is made public theres a wider range of tech demos in different languages. This community seems to be built on its huge vb user base. Which is good, but it does sometimes leave us non-vb'ers out in the cold somewhat. As for the samples, i learnt by converting the vb samples that don't have delphi equivalents.

I seem to remember there being tech demo's in other languages, but i can't find them on the new site, so my statement above might be wrong, apologies if it is.

[seer]

I'm sure there  are many in the community that are willing to donate the little samples they have made in learning the engine themself..  I'm sure i have  a few things laying around my hard drive i could clean up, comment and donate as a sample, as i'm sure many others in this loyal community would.  

but the truth is, the engine is a pretty simple one to use compared to other engines on the market.  the existing samples do show just about all the features it has one at a time..  i think its up to you to figure out how to combine them to make something more complex. thats the art of programming..

most of us have gotten through the learning curve and the rest is just imagination