Text Mesh Pro - The Ultimate Text Solution for Unity - Powerful & Flexible - Advanced Text Rendering

The challenge is that we have 4 vertex colors that we can use per character. Right now I use either 1 for the face or 4 to setup the Gradient. We could use 2 for the face and 2 for outline but the challenge is telling the shader which mode we are using. Additional shader keywords could be used or some conditional but that just adds complexity to the shader. I'll have to think about this to figure out the best option and UI implementation.

As a side note: Here is an example of combining a Texture on the Face + Vertex Color Gradient.

 

Yep, I understand that. I know it's a special case. I just happen to have need for many different colors of outlines and no need for gradients in my specific projects. I also agree with wanting to keep the shader lean. I'm wondering if there were options to use different shaders? You have the default one that you're using now, then there could be one that is all about specifying the face color and outline color.

 

Since I am still out of the country, my development resources are limited but once I get back next week, I could certainly look at revising one of the shaders to have vertex colors change outline color instead of face color.

P.S. I'll still see if there isn't a nice way to implement all of that in the current shaders but worst case, a specialized shader is certainly possible.

 

Sounds great and would be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

Hello Everyone,

After a few emails to Stephan about getting the latest beta, he commented that someone at Unite had asked him about something similar to the example I'd shown him. At his suggestion I'm doing a post to describe what I've done, perhaps someone will find it useful.

Anyway, mostly I'm using TextMesh Pro in pretty standard ways, just replacing (and vastly improving) normal Unity text objects for player labels, etc. The one interesting thing I'm doing is on my game's title screen:

Essentially the text is being used as a mask for a second camera. What it really boils down to is using a render texture as the texture for the TMP object. Really you could use this to put any sort of live animated texture there.

The scene is set up with two cameras. The main camera ignores one particular layer:




Meanwhile the secondary camera ignores everything but that layer, and draws to a render texture:


The objects the background camera sees are just some various planet/asteroid objects. The camera simply follows a iTween path in an endless loop.

On the text object, the face texture is, instead of being set to some imported texture, set to the render texture written to by the secondary camera:


That's really all there is to it. There are a few gotcha's around the UV mapping, though. I've found that Paragraph / MatchAspect works the best (at least for single line objects, obviously).

This stretches the texture across the whole line and matches the aspect ratio of the rendertexture (2048x2048). I never could quite get the aspect ratio quite right using multiple lines, though (I expect I probably could, maybe monkeying around with the render texture size. I really only wanted one line, though). ...Whoops, I've reached the attachment limit. In any case this would probably be fine enough if you weren't doing a scene with a bunch of objects that were spheres. If it were say, flames or something like that you probably wouldn't notice the slight distortion. Spheres... not so much.

There's some additional scripting that makes the title text resize based on the viewport size, but that's pretty trivial. So, hopefully this is a good demonstration of how to get this sort of effect. I'm really please that it works as well as it does, and was pretty easy to boot.

 

Thank you for sharing

 

I guess if we're doing show and tell, I'm currently using TextMeshPro for my work porting Japanese adventure games into English. While I don't use a lot of the advanced functionality, the rich text features, colors, and the absurdly good looking scaleable text is why I use TMP. I just haven't found another asset, SDF or not, that I can use as flexibly. As a visual novel game, making the on screen text look good is my primary concern, and it definitely does that job well.

 

Thank you for sharing and that looks really good as well

I love to see what you guys / gals are doing with TextMesh Pro so please do share here as well as in the Showcase section of the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

 

TextMesh Pro - Early Beta Access & Unity 4.6 (uGUI)
Over the past few days, I have had several TextMesh Pro users inquiring about support for Unity 4.6 / uGUI and when such version would be available. Although I still have a fair amount of work to do on version 0.1.46 of TextMesh Pro, I have made available the version of TextMesh Pro I was using at Unite to Registered Users of TextMesh Pro.

If you have already purchased TextMesh Pro and wish to take part / gain access to this alpha release of TextMesh Pro and help me in the testing process (ie. act as guinea pigs ) then make sure you register to the TextMesh Pro User Forum. Once your registration has been approved, send me a PM on the TextMesh Pro User Forum requesting access to this alpha release of TextMesh Pro.

 

TextMesh Pro Hits (30) 5 Star Reviews
I just wanted to thank you all for your support and the amazing reviews thus far. It is pretty satisfying to know that your work is appreciated.

 

Unite 14 Demo of TextMesh Pro
This video is a kind of a recreation of the demo of TextMesh Pro I was giving at Unite in Seattle about two weeks ago.

 

TextMesh Pro Hits #8 in Editor Extensions
Just wanted to share the good news and take this moment to thank you for your support and for using TextMesh Pro

 

You've also been on the "few favourites" section on the front page of the asset store for a couple of days

I was wondering - the asset store page says a third off during the beta period. Does this mean it's going up to $100 at some point? Do you know when?
Thanks!

 

Once TextMesh Pro is out of Beta which I anticipate might be in the next 30 to 60 days as there are a few more key features I would like to add, it will be priced at $95.00.

P.S. Sorry about the delay in response. I don't know why the Forum Alert System on threads you are watching isn't alerting you consistently. We also used to get emails about posts in thread we are watching but that has stopped as well.

 

Heyho, is the Text Container Update already available?

 

As per post #259 just above, it is available to registered users as well as the Alpha version for Unity 4.6.

If you haven't registered to the TextMesh Pro User Forum follow this link to register. Once you have been approved, please request access to the Alpha / Beta section where you will be able to get the latest beta.

 

Afaik I'm already registered, yes. Does this update work on 4.3.1, too, since we'd like to work on PS Vita/ PSM with TextMeshPro and till now it worked on the device

 

I added you to the private beta group which will give you access to the Beta for version 0.1.45.

Right now, I am using serializedProperty.vector4 which was introduced in Unity 4.5. This is used to defined the margin offset so let me see if there is an easy way around this to make it work with Unity 4.3.

 

This looks like a really fantastic asset. I was just wondering what the options are for customizing the shader. If I wanted to, say, render the text with a PBR shader like Alloy's, would I be able to do that? Even if it required me combining the relevant bits of both shaders into one?

 

When I get a chance I'll have to take a look at the PBR shaders and see if one could be implemented in addition to the TextMesh Pro SDF Surface shaders.

The source is included with the shaders so you are more than welcome to take a shot at this.

 

That would be great! It would really help enabling a cohesive look throughout everything.

 

The Surface Shader can already enable you to make the text look well integrated within the scene. The image below shows nicely how the different lights affect the lighting on the text.

 

Indeed! But currently the surface shader uses something like a standard Bumped Specular type of shader? So the lighting would not quite match that of a similar PBR shader.

But with the shader source, it should be doable.

 

Vertex Color Gradient
This video provides a short overview of TextMesh Pro as well as showing the latest implementation and support for Vertex Color Gradients in TextMesh Pro.

Note that you will be able to animate the (4) vertex colors independently of each other using Unity's Animation component.

 

Here is another great example of how great text can look in Unity using TextMesh Pro.

 

Animated Overlay FX
Short animated gif showing how you can add and animated an EnvMap tp create cool looking FX.

 

Animated Overlay FX - Part II
Here is a short video showing some more examples of this new features. The font is Impact SDF with some bevel, soft shadow, gradient vertex color and some bump mapping and of course an Overlay map.

 

Hi,

I bought your package, but I did not find any Text Container Properties inside. Also thee is no information for it in documentation. Could you help?

Dev

 

First Thank you for your support and for using TextMesh Pro

The Text Container hasn't been released yet and will be part of version 0.1.45. However, an early release of that version is currently available to registered TextMesh Pro Users who wish to help in testing these versions for general release.

To register and take part of the beta testing process, please visit the TextMesh Pro User Forum. You will need to provide proof of purchase (the invoice # from the Unity Asset Store purchase). Once registered, send me a PM and I'll add you to the Private Alpha / Beta group where you'll be able to access these early releases of TextMesh Pro.

P.S. I am also working on the release 0.1.46 which will be the version with support for Unity 4.6 which is also available but as an Alpha.

 

Since I'm registered in the forums I got to download the beta with the TextContainer and it's working great!
We're working on a small Cutscene-System with Speechbubbles and TextMeshPro and it suits our needs perfectly!

It would be great though if it would work with Unity 4.3 since we're working on a PS Vita Version, too!

 

Please share some pictures of that when you are ready. I love seeing what you guys / gals do with TextMesh Pro

Ask and you shall receive Well, I actually made that change a few days ago so it will work in Unity 4.3. Can you post a request for that in the Feedback & Bug Report section of the User Forum? When I wake up tomorrow, I'll reply and post the code changes for you.

 

I just had a look in the forums. Isn't there already a topic and the solution for that?
It's called: "Beta 0.1.45 - Using with Unity 4.3 and Older"

 

I guess I had already posted it

Now the fact that I forgot that I did isn't as cool

 

Uh sorry, it wasn't my intention to show you up! I was just a little bit confused.

I'll just update the script and I guess I'm good to go. Thanks so much for your great support. Outstanding!

 

I am glad you pointed it out or I might have created a duplicate post

 

Text Overflow Controls
Here is a preview of the new Text Overflow controls in TextMeshPro. These controls now include Overflow, Truncate, Ellipsis and Masking.

 

TextMeshPro Title Creation Process
In this video, I demonstrate how I created this nice looking title and caption text using TextMesh Pro.

 

This is pretty sweet. I had a question though, is there any change in what happens with regards to wordwrapping if a line doesn't contain a space but is wider than the box? At the moment TMPro doesn't really seem to like that.

 

I re-worked the word wrapping to add support for CKJ and other languages which in some cases don't use spaces between words. As a result of that, TextMesh Pro is now able to break up lines by first using spacing between words and then when that is no longer possible between characters following some rules.

These changes are in version 0.1.45 and 0.1.46 which are both still in Beta but if that is functionality you absolutely need now, just send me a PM on the TextMesh Pro User Forum and I can get you access to those versions.

 

Animated Environmental Map
Here's another example of this new feature that will be in the next release of TextMesh Pro.



Now see it animated

 

There's a typo in the screenshot
(or is it on purpose?)

 

I like your asset a lot but what hold me back to buy it is that now that unity has it´s new ugui out i have to choose again on what i use to make a gui at least what the font/text denpends.

I would buy it in a second if i can use it within unity´s new gui and do not have to learn two things again like before (the ngui and other gui fight in my brain). It should be completly integrated then nobody has an excuse to not buy

 

What typo

Good catch as it was not intentional.

 

I currently have an Alpha release of TextMesh Pro with support for UGUI and should have an even better release available in a few days.

If you take a look at this video, you can see the early implementation for the support for the ILayoutElements in Unity 4.6.

 

Have you had time to add drop cap support? That would be really nice.

 

I updated and was about to start working on my UI but then I noticed that the 4.6 UGUI support hasn't been released yet. T_T

 

The Unity 4.6 support is still under development however, there is an early release available to registered users of TextMesh Pro. To gain access to this early release, register to the TextMesh Pro User Forum (in case you haven't done so already). Once registered, PM me asking for access.

 

Hi! I found a bug which could be reproduced on some projects.
Sometimes it happens that the asset folder begins withs small a - dunno why, it happens.
I would recomend to fix your code in TMPro_FontAssetCreatowWindows.cs

void Save_SDF_FontAsset(string filePath)
{
filePath = filePath.Substring(0, filePath.Length - 6); // Trim file extension from filePath.

int index = filePath.LastIndexOf("Assets"); // test also with small a please...

 

Also I found another bug, when you create font Atlas and assign the size of the atlas from 512x512 to 256x256 and set it to distance field 16 and set font size to autosizing it will of course reduce the font size, but when you resize the atlas to greater number back to 512x512 the font size is still small as before and it does not fit to the greater texture.

 

I'll take a look at it in the morning and make sure it works with upper and lower case "Assets" ... I have never seen it as lower case since it is created by Unity but I'll check