TextMesh Pro - Advanced Text Rendering for Unity - Beta now available in Asset Store

I am at GDC showing TextMesh Pro on Unity 5.0. So far it is all working fine.

Unless I run into some big issue, I should have the first Beta for Unity 5.0 available over the weekend.

As usual it will be available on the TextMesh Pro user forum.

 

Unity renamed one of the properties related to sorting layers in 5.0.

There is a post relayed to this on the TextMesh Pro user forum with information on how to fix this.

I am at GDC right now so can't easily provide the link to it.

BTW: As pery previous post, I should have the first Unity 5.0 beta release of TextMesh Pro available this weekend.

 

Hi Stephan, just wanted to follow up on this and let you know that upgrading to the latest version, and switching to Mobile Shader seems to have fixed the issues for this user.

Thanks again for the amazing work!

 

Just letter everyone know that the first beta release of TextMesh Pro for Unity 5.0 is now available to all registered users of the product on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

 

I had purchased the TextMesh Pro, how does it used in NGUI widget depth ? I think there are many old project still use NGUI which is not easy to migrate to UGUI.

 

I have several users using it with NGUI so it appears to be working fine for them. I haven't used NGUI myself but I believe they are using sorting layers.

I did create a small script to control UILabel clipping to enable masking for a user. If you are registered to the TextMesh Pro User Forum, you can PM him to get more information on how it is working for him with NGUI.

 

Hi,

I'm using Textmesh pro beta 1.1 in Unity 5 pro with uGUI. I'd like to use Textmesh Pro for my news text which is in a scroll rect & is retrieved dynamically from my website at runtime.. Is there a way I can make the height bounds of the text be resized depending on the text in the field, so I am able to scroll down the text?

Thanks

 

Take a look at the following post / example on the previous page. The height of the buttons increase as text is added.

There is also a post on the TextMes Pro User Forum asking about making a button grow in size as you add more text where I posted the scene setup.

Here is a link to this post

If you need further assistance, simply post in the support section of the TMP user forum or here.

 

Added a new vertical alignment mode which uses the geometry to align the text vertically instead of the standard Ascender / Descender. This isn't proper vertical text alignment but several users were asking for it.



The top left TextMesh Pro object and top right UI Text object show normal vertical text alignment. The 2nd row shows the added Midline vertical alignment mode. The remaining rows show how much of a vertical shift can occur using this mode based on the text.



Using the Ascender and Descender is the correct way but this mode does make text look better aligned inside a button

 

Thanks, that did the trick.

 

Here is a new video showing how setup a scene to Scroll Text Horizontally across the screen in a continuous loop.

 

Hi,

I've used a font in my game as the title and added a bevel and a normal map to it. If i use the same font for other text in my game, they all have bevel and normal maps. If I change the new text my title that I want bevelled changes also. Is this normal behaviour? Seems like it might be a bug as I can't use the same font with different styles.

I'm using Unity 5 with TMP beta 1.1 and the Ugui text component.

Thanks

 

Yup, it is designed like that.
what you want to do is to duplicate the material you're using ( right click on the material area in the inspector -> duplicate material ) and then rename and assign this new material to your new text to get a new "skin". This skin is always associated to its material.

The default material is embedded in the Textmesh Pro text asset so you better have to create new materials at the beginning

 

Thanks, makes perfect sense now

 

TextMeshPro (UGUI) doesn't seems to respect sorting orders when "Screen Space - Camera" is used. Is it a bug or Im missing something? Please check image:

 

There was an issue with the ARIAL SDF Font Asset where the Custom Render Queue (which is visible when inspecting the material using the debug mode in the Inspector) was set to 3001 instead of being set to -1. This was causing a sorting issue.

This can be corrected manually by changing this value. This has also been corrected in the newest beta release on the TMP User Forum.

 

Hello, I've created text model by dynamic using TMP in runtime. I confirmed it working well in unity , then I created .exe file by building with Standalone version. But I can't find the model which I've created with TMP. At that location exists a model but doesnt seem to appear on the screen. Is there a problem I need to check? (PS. I've imported Shader)

 

The Font Asset that you use needs to be contained in a Resources folder as well as the material. Other than that, it is hard to tell without more details. This is basic functionality so it should all be working.

If it isn't the font asset or material, I would suggest you send me a Private Message on the TextMesh Pro User Forum with a repro package of that scene. That will make it much easier to pin point exactly what might be happening.

 

The TMP object does exist in the right place although it is not visible. It can be checked by executing the program built by us (it is possible to retrieve information by selecting the object because it is the simulation program).
I believe it is the RenderQueue problem. There are two questions I would like to ask from this point.
1. Does TMP support the RenderQueue control?
2. If not, is there any other way to have access?
Based on the other similar cases, problems arise when it is not registered to the project included shader, but I have included the “TMPro/Distance Field” shader that is used for TMP.
I really appreciate your taking time to go over this, and feel free to give me any feedback on this problem. Please find the attached photos (In Unity and In Standalone).

 

The RenderQueue is controlled by accessing the Material.renderQueue. By default it is set to -1 on the material embedded with each font asset.

See previous comment.

I don't see any attached image. Make sure to post an image of the text object selected in the inspector so I can see the properties of it and the material as well as debug panel of the material.

In terms of the issue, even if the RenderQueue was set wrong, I don't see how this would result in a different behavior in the editor vs. build.

EDIT: Just got your email. Looking at the images.

 

Is it possible to rescale text if does not fit in size label? Like in nGUI. It's very suitable in during localization.

 

Yes. You just enable text auto sizing and set the min / max point size.

 

Sorry, but i cann't find it. Where is it?

 

The image didn't come through but I suspect you are not using the latest beta release of TextMesh Pro.

Please go register on the TextMesh Pro User Forum where you will find the latest beta releases of the product which includes new features as well as support for the New UI and Unity 5.0.

Here is an image showing the Inspector Panel for the UI TextMesh Pro Component and where the Text Auto Size feature is located.

 

Thank you very much for explanation

 

New Beta Releases of TextMesh Pro for Unity 4.6 as well as Unity 5.0 are ready. Unless new issues are reported, these will be release by the end of day Monday.

As usual, these releases will be available to all registered users of the product and available on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

 

Hi, I'm interested in getting TextMesh Pro so that I can add icons/graphics in my texts.
I've quite a bit of text done using Unity's new UI, and was wondering how easy it'll be to replace all of them with TextMesh Pro's? Will it be a straightforward process?

Thanks

 

Process should be pretty straightforward as you will be replacing the UI.Text Components by TextMeshPro UI Text Components. The TextMeshPro UI Text is located next to the UI Text in the Create Menu.

If you are using some ttf font, you'll need to create a Font Asset. The following video should help you through this process and also give you some insight on how to create material presets. There are also lots of videos and information on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

Make sure as soon as your purchase the product that you register to the TextMesh Pro User Forum and download the latest beta release for Unity 4.6 or for Unity 5.0 as they are different due to the 64 bit client.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me any time as I am here to help

 

Thank you! I've made the purchase and registered to your forum. Looking forward to play with TextMesh Pro this weekend

 

I just approved your registration.

Thank you for choosing TextMesh Pro and once again feel free to reach out to me should you have any questions

 

Hello, I'm having a strange problem I'm sure is on my side somewhere. It gives me an "API Updater" message when I import the asset (I'm up to date as far as I know), and puts the new Text asset into a "Create Other" option. I also seem to have a smaller set of options than listed in the videos. If there is any other information I can supply to solve this let me know .

Edit: Nevermind, I see it is available through the forum. On the way over!

Edit 2: I'm already activated, thank you for the quick service!

 

Hi Stephan,

Looks like there is a bug on IOS in Unity 5.0.0p1 to p3 and also 5.0.1 that causes my project to crash when using Text Mesh Pro.

I am creating a new GameObject, adding a TextMeshPro component and I can set it up OK in Start, however as soon as that completes my game crashes. When building to GLES 3.0 I get EXC_BAD_ACCESS within GetBuffer, after SetVertexStateGLES. Building to Metal fails with SIGABRT within GetBuffer with the following error:

/SourceCache/AcceleratorKit/AcceleratorKit-14.10/Framework/MTLVertexDescriptor.mm:633: failed assertion `Vertex attribute at index 0 references a buffer at index 1 that has no stride.'

This is the thread that goes into more detail http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ios-crash-after-applying-patch-p3-unity-5.314139/#post-2051842

It looks as though the fix is to ensure the Mesh has Vertex Colors. I have tried setting <TextMeshPro>().color = Color.white and have even tried adding a MeshFilter and setting color to all vertices, however my script always shows the number of vertices to be 0.

At present I'm unable to fix this, so I'm forced to disable TextMeshPro for now.

Thanks, Andrew

 

I just tried building a few scene on iOS using OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 3.0 as well as Metal and all worked fine. I did test a scene where I create new games objects and add the component to them and that also worked fine.

I presume since you just registered to the TextMesh Pro user forum that you are using the version from the Asset Store and not the latest beta release for Unity 5.0. There have been some changes to the shaders since that version.

I suggest you get the latest beta release and try that in a simple project to see if you still get this issue. I know Unity made lots of changes related to how they handle opengl es now.

 

Thanks Stephan, I've tested with the latest beta and it does still crashes every time in my project. However, I have created a new project with just TextMeshPro and a stripped down test version of my code and it does work OK.

I will keep going to try to figure out why it is crashing.

EDIT: I have figured out it is crashing when adding my component at run-time. If I add the component to my prefab beforehand it works OK. Now to work out why this is happening....

EDIT2: I have rewritten my code to Instantiate a TextMeshPro prefab, rather than creating a GameObject and adding a TextMeshPro component. This works fine so I will just use this workflow for anything run-time in the future, I don't really have time to figure out why it was crashing using the other method.

 

Thanks for taking the time to test this.

I'll do more test on my end. If I understand correctly, the steps are:

Create object in start for instance. Add TextMesh Pro Component (normal one using the Mesh Renderer) and build for iOS using OpenGL ES 3.0?

 

Basically in my project where it crashes I am instantiating a car (prefab) and then adding my own TextMeshProPlayer component to this GameObject. That component then creates a new GameObject and adds a TextMeshPro component to it. It then crashes on IOS every time (using GLES 2/3 or Metal). If I do not add the TextMeshPro component it doesn't crash.

I've tried to reproduce this again in a new project where the only difference is I've already added the TextMeshProPlayer component to a GameObject saved in the scene (rather than instantiating it from a prefab) and it doesn't crash. Seems hard to reproduce outside of my other project.

 

hi,, this plugin is amazing,, but i've got error like this,,

but there is no error in the screen,
and i still can play,

 

I suggest you register and get the latest release of TextMesh Pro which is available on the User Forum. The new releases include new features as well as support for the New UI as well as Unity 5.0.

The latest releases are found in the TMPro - Alpha & Beta Release section of the user forum. There is a release for Unity 4.6 as well as one for Unity 5.0.

 

Beta Release 0.1.5 Beta 1.4 for Unity 5.0 is now available.
This release is available to all Registered users of the product and available on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

P.S. New beta release for Unity 4.6 should be out within a day or so.

Important Note for Windows Users: If you are NOT using Visual Studio, you will need to install the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013. Please download and install "vcredist_x64.exe". These dll's are required by the Font Asset Creator and sadly no longer included in Unity 5.0.

TextMeshPro 0.1.5 Beta x.x Release Notes

• The native plugin(s) used by the Font Asset Creator are now located in the "TextMesh Pro/Plugins/..." folder. Since both the Personal and Professional Edition of Unity 5.0 include support for native plugins, it is no longer necessary for these files to be copied to the root of the project.
• Renamed the native plugin .dylib to .bundle as the dylib was not found in the Plugins folder. [Beta 1.1]
• The custom material editor for the TextMesh Pro Shaders has been updated as a result of the change to the material RangeProperty function.
• The package has been updated as to no longer require the Automatic script conversion. This includes lots of minor changes.
• The Surface shaders have been updated to use the alpha:blend revised implementation in Unity 5.0.
• Added a few extra example scenes showing a few more of the recently added Rich Text Tags.
• Added the ability to define Tab Size in the Font Asset Editor panel. [03/15]
• Vertex Color Alpha now also affects Glow Alpha. [03/15]
• Added a new vertical alignment mode (Midline) where text is aligned vertically based on the character's geometry instead of font metrics. [03/15]
• Added the ability to create font assets as large as 8192 X 8192. Those take a while to produce even at Distance Field 16. [03/23]
• Vertex Colors and text alignment should now be maintained when migrating from version 0.1.44 of TextMesh Pro. [04/26]
• The TextMeshProUGUI Component now inherit from Graphics to improve compatibility with Layout Components. [04/26]

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where preferredHeight was incorrect when using \n or when spaces were at the beginning of a line.
• Fixed an issue affecting word wrapping for East Asian languages.
• Fixed a bug where the save button was not working in the Font Asset Creator when Smooth or Raster modes were used.
• Fixed a calculation issue with text auto sizing which caused unnecessary iterations. [03/15]
• Fixed an minor issue with text auto sizing. Sizing is now at increments of 0.05 point size.
• Fixed an issue related to sorting order based on scene hierarchy when using the new UI TMP Component. [03/15]
• Fixed an issue where truncating and ellipsis where not handled correctly. [03/15]
• Changed the Render Queue for ARIAL SDF which was set incorrectly. [03/15]
• Fixed an issue with Depth sorting when using the Canvas Renderer Mode Worldspace. [03/23]
• Fixed a minor GUIStyle issue with the Font Asset Creator. [03/23]
• Fixed an issue where multi-object selection was resetting alignment on the objects. [03/23]
• Fixed an issue related to prefab editing where a new TextMeshProUI Component is added to an object in the prefab. [03/23]
• Fixed an issue where object scale of zero would cause the text to not render. [03/24]
• Fixed an issue where the TextContainer.pivot would not match the TextContainer.anchorPosition. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where underline would not be applied correctly. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where the child Inline Graphic object would not be aligned propertly. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where Dynamic Batching was causing the text object to be fuzzy at small scales. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where textInfo.lineCount was inaccurate when word wrapping was no longer possible and character breaking was used. [04/26]
• Fixed several issues when Layout Components were used. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where character UV coordinates were wrong when the Font Asset Size (Height) was larger than the Width. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where destroying text objects could cause Masking Material references to be lost on other objects sharing this material. [04/26]
• Fixed an issue where Material instancing would misbehave when Masking is used. [04/26]
• Fixed a few issues that occur when Canvas Scale is being modified via scripting. [04/26]

Changes

• Updated the examples scenes using a Canvas to all use Render Mode - Screen Space - Overlay.
• Improved how scaling is handled where the text object no longer needs to be regenerated when translation and scaling of the transform occurs. [03/15]
• Changed how the Canvas Render modes and Canvas Scaler are handled in relations to Distance Field Font Scaling. This was resulting potentially fuzzy looking text. [03/15]
• The color of the underline will be that of the first character where underline begins. [03/15]
• GUI Skins and Textures are now managed by a separate script which ensure they are only loaded once. [03/15]
• Changed how pixel size is computed by the shaders as a result of Unity's 5.0 using a different method to render the scene view. [03/15]
• Text auto sizing point size accuracy is now 0.05 point size. [03/23]
• Color tags are now nested. This means </color> will clear to the previous color as opposed to back to default color. [04/26]
• The <indent=xx.x> tag is now relative to font size and its value is now consistent with the <pos=xx.x> and <space=xx.x> tags. [04/26]
• The Ellipsis (Char 8230) is now included in the Font Asset Creator - ASCII Set since it is needed for the Overflow Mode - Ellipsis.[04/26]

NOTE: Due to Unity not setting the "_ScreenParams" shader built-in value correctly when multiple cameras are used or when the Canvas is set to Screen Space Overlay or when the Canvas Scaler is used, the text in the SceneView render incorrectly (fuzzy or too sharp). However, it should render correctly in the GameView. I have filed a bug report on this issue and awaiting feedback from Unity.

NOTE: There are several shader related warnings due to some changes to custom material editor in Unity 5.0. These will only be visible the first time the package is imported. I'll be updating the custom material editor in the next few days to make these go away.


03/09/2015 Release 0.1.5 Beta 1.1 - Addressed an issue with the native plugin on OSX. See notes above.
03/15/2015 Release 0.1.5 Beta 1.2 - See notes above.
03/23/2015 Release 0.1.5 Beta 1.3 - See notes above.
03/24/2015 Release 0.1.5 Beta 1.3.1 - See notes above. Minor quick fix.
04/26/2015 Release 0.1.5 Beta 1.4 - Release contains mostly bug fixes related to recent changes Unity made to the Auto Layout System. See release notes above.

 

I install beta version from forum. When i try to create sprite collection - nothing happiness.

Use Unity 4.6.1

 

Hi, any eta for Arabic language support?

 

Can you provide me with more details on this? You are trying to create a sprite asset and it is not working for you?

Here is a video which describes the <sprite> tag feature and how to create the Sprite Asset.

 

No ETA yet.

What level of support for Arabic are you looking for (feature wise)?

 

The Arabic language is not based on single characters on its own, but each character change shape based on its position in the word (start, middle, end). So there are some problems to address.

The first one is how to create an atlas with all combinations? I tried but if I give a unicode range (and I'm not even sure what range I should use), I have a lot of empty characters in the atlas. Would be nice to skip them, instead of adding a squares.

The second one is the RTL text.

I found this free plugin that works with standard unity texts: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/2674

I'm also using I2 Localization (https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14884) that support Text Mesh Pro UGUI to switch the SDF at runtime, based on the user language. I2 support also Arabic language, but I suppose in the same way of the "Arabic Support for Unity" plugin. If I could at least create a proper atlas I could try. Currently I keep getting missing chars warnings.

So the only solution that I have now would be to switch between TextMesh and TextMeshPro UGUI at runtime, but this require a lot of additional steps to setup each label in every UI screen.
Maybe TextMeshPro UGUI could have a property to set a standard unity dynamic font that will overrides the SDF assigned. In this way I could tell I2 to use a Dynamic Font for Arabic, and SDFs for other languages.

Of course the best would be to have a full integration of Arabic language using SDF, but I have no idea about the complexity.

 

based on the answer from thr I2 Localization plugin it should be possible to use Arabic language with TMP without any additional implementation: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/i2...solution-for-unity.231226/page-2#post-2093363
I'll try again.

Anyway I'm experiencing Unity crashes while generating an atlas using a file with the list of chars. It happens expecially when there are multiple lines.
Also automatically excluding missing chars from the font would help because the Arabic official range still includes empty slots.

 

These issues were addressed in some of the previous releases of TextMesh Pro. Please head over to the TextMesh Pro User Forum to register and then get the latest release for Unity 4.6 or for Unity 5.0 once approved.

The version of TextMesh Pro on the Asset Store is actually pretty old. Given the state of flux and on-going changes in Unity 4.6 and 5.0 related to the New UI (which greatly affects TextMesh Pro), it is a lot quicker for me to get new releases in the hands of my users via the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

Once things settle down in terms of changes to the New UI, I'll update the Asset Store release. Until then be sure to get the latest releases and report issues on the TextMesh Pro User Forum.

P.S. I'll be looking for your registration to get you approved ASAP on the TMP User forum.

 

Thank you, I'm already registered there and indeed I'm using Beta Release 0.1.45
It was pretty good for me until now and, based on my experience, it's always a risk to upgrade a plugin if not needed.
Too many times it happened that the plugin was not backward compatible and required a lot of changes. And having more than 40 plugins in our project is too hard to stay behind all of them.

Anyway I just tested the last beta 0.1.46 beta 4.6 and the same issues are still present. It crashes using a file, and it generate many squares in the atlas when I use a range.

I attached the file that causes the crash.
Instead the range that I used is 32-172,1536-1791

I'm on Unity 4.6.5f1 on osx

Thanks.

 

Since the Font Asset Creator plugins were changed over time, I would suggest you look at the root of the project (which is where the Assets folder is located) and delete the TMPro_Plugin.dll, TMPro_Plugin.dylib and vcomp120.dll.

Basically, you are still getting those errors because I believe to older versions of the plugin are being used. Another to test this is by creating an empty project just for testing.

Since I have also run into several strange Import issues, I suggest deleting the previous installation / TextMesh Pro folder and importing the new package after. Just make sure you didn't save new Font Asset or Material Presets or any other files inside the TextMesh Pro folder hierarchy.

Both these issue have been addressed in subsequent releases and updates to the Font Asset Creator plugin. The crash used to occur when a space character (32) was not first on the list in the file or when you had duplicates. The multiple squares to indicate missing glyph are now all replaced by a single one.

 

I already upgraded TMPro by deleting the previous installation.
I then imported the new package that contains the dlls.
These are the info:

• TMPro_Plugin.dll Created on Sunday, 29 June 2014 04:29
• TMPro_Plugin.dylib Created on Wednesday, 22 October 2014 11:07
• vcomp120.dll Created on Saturday, 5 October 2013 12:38

The strange thing is that I also tried to delete them and restart Unity. The font asset creator still works. How can be? For what are needed those files?

I still have to try on an empty project, In the meantime can you confirm that the text that I uploaded before it works for you?

 

The files found in "TextMesh Pro/Plugins/..." In Unity 4.6 are copied to the root of the project folder. The root of the project is where the Assets folder is located. That is where these libraries are loaded from. So once they exist there, deleting them from inside the TextMesh Pro/Plugins/... will still allow the Font Asset Creator to work. Once loaded, they cannot be deleted. So you have to close Unity. Navigate to the root of the project and delete those 3 files. Then restart Unity and they correct new files will be copied to replace the older ones.

This is only necessary in Unity 4.6 and not 5.0.

I am out with the family but will try your file as soon as I am back later today.

Update - I created a Font Asset using the text file you provided. Here is an image of a portion of that text.