How I know the Width off a XMesh

I am working on a text scroller for the Rico’s club.

I found the Node Text (EX9.Geometry) to be very nice, although I have some questions.

I use a transform Node to translate the X position to make it scroll.

How can I automaticly know the width off my text, so the scrolling is always correct, regardless the lenght off the text???

I also wonder wich off the EX9.effect nodes is best to use (I am a newbee in the whole Xmesh thing).

Thanks for your time.

ScrollingTextWithXmesh.v4p (7.7 kB)

Ah, you don’t know BoundingBox (EX9.Geometry) Mesh.

BoundingBox (EX9.Geometry) Mesh should give you the size of the text. the effect depends on your graphics card how your text should look. short list:

plain color Constant
3D ps 1.4 card Gouraud
3D ps 2.0 card Phong
and many more… :)

Ahh… thnx for the Boundingbox (it has no helpfile), used a vector (3D split) to get the X location needed.

I am just sratching the surface off what one can do with Xmesh/DX9 etc… I haven’t even yet used te 3th dimension.

Those .fx files are shader based on DX9? (not that I willever make one, just nice to know)

thnx Kalle und Tonfilm :)

Hmzz… the Boundingbox doesn’t update when I change the text.

The Mesh shows the changed text, only nothing happens with the boudingsbox. It did change when I re-connected, so I add a Switch (Node) Input. Is this a bug or a feature?

ScrollingTextWithXmesh2.v4p (12.3 kB)

Hi West
“Is this a bug or a feature?” :) funny
I think it´s a bug.
becarefull with the Text (EX9.Geometry) it´s very time consuming , for a word that´s ok ,but for a sentence that´s often very slow.
It really depends on the font that you are using , try to use the most simple font and maybe you can have good performance…
the .fx are pixel/vertex shader , i recomand phong for nice result .I always use a black color as ambient , white for specular , and a color for diffuse.
If you want something a bit faster / and a less plastic look use gouraud , use the directionnal for a basic lighting , and point for a spot shading.
Use the constant shader if you don´t want any lighting effect just a color.

Sanch! Long time no read :)

Thank you for the fast explenation off what .fx does what!!

I understand now why you went the GDI -> Texture way, for the first text scroller.

Now, I realy wonder what a ‘simple’ font should look like, is it the (file) size?? Or perhaps a font with a limited ammount off characters??

when you use the Text (EX9.Geometry) thats create a 3d mesh out of the text , if you use a font like the one from the meso logo (no curve ) there will be not to much polygon in the mesh . If you use a gothic font full of curve and detail , that´s will be full of polygon , and time consuming…

Hi West,

what VVVV-Version are you working with ?

I stumbled over the same problem some time ago here my post.

This was in Beta10 and the problem is no longer existing in Beta11.1 for me !?

even stranger:
Your patch with the switch is working here with beta10 but not with beta11.1. In beta 11.1 it seems like Switch(Node Input) is not working for “Mesh”.

Can you perhaps confirm this ?

BTW: I used Text(EX9.Geometry) succesfully for for a Scroller - but you really need a fast machine that it works fluidly.

Markus

Me again …

@ West:
Achtung: Text(EX9.Geometry) is only working when the created Mesh has a VertexCount of less than 65536, so larger texts must be split into smaller pieces.
Put an IOBox(Node) inbetween Text(EX9.Geometry) and Count(EX9.Geometry Mesh) as Count(EX9.Geometry Mesh) still seems to have the “Update Problem”

Markus

Yes, using the older version, because that is what we use in Rico’s. Hmzz… not so happy to hear that it is powerconsuming, because the patch I am going to impliment it in this is very BIG as it is already.

The count (EX9.Geomery Mesh) node is goood to know, as is the ViewFrustumCulling.

I cannot figure out what optimize does, or what it does in the helpfile, but that could be my old GF5700 graphic card.

Edit: ahh… the trick in the your other post with a IOBox (node) in between, works nicer than my switch :)

Currently running a funny one-liner textsroller :)