Mesh Writer

Generate letters in BABYLON meshes.

Basic-Usage

Writer = BABYLON.MeshWriter(scene, { scale: scale });
text1 = new Writer("ABC", {
  anchor: "center",
  "letter-height": 50,
  color: "#1C3870",
  position: {
    z: 20,
  },
});

PG: Mesh Writer Example 1

Getting the code

Copy https://github.com/BabylonJS/features/extensions/blob/master/MeshWriter/meshwriter.min.js or https://github.com/BabylonJS/features/extensions/blob/master/MeshWriter/meshwriter.js and build it into your load sequence.
Maintenance of Mesh Writer is the responsibility of the author.

If you prefer npm

npm i meshwriter

Import in your React/Angular component:

import { MeshWriter } from "meshwriter";

With meshwriter you can use MeshWriter directly like this:

let Writer = MeshWriter(this.scene, { scale: 0.25, defaultFont: "Arial" });
let textMesh = new Writer("Hello World", {
  "font-family": "Arial",
  "letter-height": 30,
  "letter-thickness": 12,
  color: "#1C3870",
  anchor: "center",
  colors: {
    diffuse: "#F0F0F0",
    specular: "#000000",
    ambient: "#F0F0F0",
    emissive: "#ff00f0",
  },
  position: {
    x: 0,
    y: 10,
    z: 0,
  },
});

Superconstructor - BABYLON.MeshWriter()

After MeshWriter is loaded, BABYLON.MeshWriter is defined. It is called with one or two parameters.

• scene   required

• preferences   optional   The preferences object may specify up to three values

  FIELD DEFAULT default-font Helvetica scale 1 letter-origin "letter-center"

The call to BABYLON.MeshWriter returns a constructor. Call it "Writer".

Constructor - new Writer()

new Writer() is called with a string and an (optional) options parameter.  The options object conforms to normalBabylon.js structures and terminology.

FIELD DEFAULT font-family default-font anchor left letter-height 100 letter-thickness 1 color #808080 # hits emissive only alpha 1 position x 0 y 0 z 0 colors # if you need to control more than just emissive diffuse #F0F0F0 specular #000000 ambient #F0F0F0 emissive color # from option field 'color' above

new Writer() builds a mesh with material that is inserted into the scene.  This is a multi-step process with interim meshes and holes per letter.  These meshes are sucked into an SPS and then disposed.  At the end, one mesh, one material and one SPS have been added to the scene.

new Writer() also returns a writer instance with useful methods.  See below.

Instance

Each writer instance has methods to allow one to retrieve theBabylon.js objects or to get/set attributes of the SPS.

getSPS getMesh getMaterial color # sets or gets color but no change to material alpha # sets or gets alpha but no change to material setColor # set emissive color and change color value setAlpha # change value and material overrideOpac # change material but not value resetOpac # sets material to current value dispose

Usage Hints

If you wish to do extensive things with position, rotation or animation, retrieve the meshes and materials from the instance using the methods shown above.  The output from new Writer() is an SPS with one particle for each character.

Example: PG: Mesh Writer Example 2

const SCALE = 0.25;
const TEXT_SIZE = 35;
const TEXT_THICKNESS = 10;

Writer = BABYLON.MeshWriter(scene, { scale: SCALE, defaultFont: "Arial" });
textMesh = new Writer("BABYLON JS", {
  "font-family": "Arial",
  anchor: "center",
  "letter-height": TEXT_SIZE,
  "letter-thickness": TEXT_THICKNESS,
  color: "#1C3870",
  colors: {
    diffuse: "#F0F0F0",
    specular: "#000000",
    ambient: "#F0F0F0",
    emissive: "#ff00f0",
  },
  position: {
    x: 0,
    y: 5,
    z: 70,
  },
});

//Text Writer create SPS with Particle for each letter
SPS = textMesh.getSPS();

//Update animation
SPS.updateParticle = (particle) => {
  particle.rotation.x -= 0.06;
};

scene.registerBeforeRender(() => {
  SPS.setParticles();
  //sps.mesh.rotation.y = k;
});

Colors:  With most lighting, it is enough just to use the "color" field to specify the letter coloring.  However, programmers may specify all four color types by putting a "colors" object in the options object.

Unless you have a specific need, do not specify a font.  The default font, Helvetica, has the most extensive characters and the fewest faces; it will be the most efficient if you have a lot of text.  Jura was added because the author likes it for numbers.