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

@Stephan-B Should a TextMeshPro object always have a canvas Renderer and Mesh filter component? I'm not using the TextMeshPro UI component, just the regular one. When I make the object a prefab, unity automatically adds a canvas renderer and mesh filter, and won't let me remove them. I don't remember this happening before. (recently updated to unity 5.5.2).

 

Including all the characters from a font when you might be using a small subset of them is wasteful.

You will need to create a Primary SDF Font Asset and associated Fallback Font Assets per language or groups of languages as described in the following post http://digitalnativestudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=1319.msg9872#msg9872

Although creating your font assets requires more work up front, it is the most efficient way of handling this from a run time performance point of view as well as ensuring that your fonts and material presets will look exactly as you want them.

 

Yes. You will be using the normal TextMesh Pro component to replace the NGUI Label. You will also need to use the modified world space shader from the post above.

The following post on the TMP user forum also contains a script at the end which should automatically handling the clipping (although I have not looked at this script in a while) .

 

Since both TMP objects inherit from Graphic, they are forced to have those components. When using the normal TextMeshPro component found in 3D Object - TextMesh Pro - Text, it will still have a hidden Canvas Renderer but it isn't being used so doesn't impact anything.

The Mesh Filter is required to work with the Mesh Renderer.

 

Ok, great, thanks for clarifying. So just to double check- when I add a "TextMeshPro - Text" component in the inspector, a Canvas Renderer and Mesh Filter component are also added to the object but are hidden in the inspector? Is that why I don't usually see them, but when I make the object a prefab they appear?

 

updated my 5.4 project to unity 5.5.2. I also updated TM Pro. Im getting these errors.

Assets/Plugins/_TOOLS/TextMesh Pro/Scripts/TMP_Text.cs(2364,59): error CS0121: The call is ambiguous between the following methods or properties: `TMPro.TMPro_ExtensionMethods.CompareRGB(this UnityEngine.Color32, UnityEngine.Color32)' and `TMPro.TMPro_ExtensionMethods.CompareRGB(this UnityEngine.Color32, UnityEngine.Color32)'

Assets/Plugins/_TOOLS/TextMesh Pro/Scripts/TMPro_UGUI_Private.cs(3103,64): error CS0121: The call is ambiguous between the following methods or properties: `TMPro.TMPro_ExtensionMethods.Multiply(this UnityEngine.Color32, UnityEngine.Color32)' and `TMPro.TMPro_ExtensionMethods.Multiply(this UnityEngine.Color32, UnityEngine.Color32)'

 

Hi!

I have this error on a clean installation (only importing textmesh pro) on unity 5.4.5:

Unhandled Exception: System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type 'TMPro.TMP_InputField' from assembly 'TextMeshPro, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

Thanks

 

Hello, I have noticed that the alpha of the shadow is not depending on the letters' alpha. For example, I am using the GameObject with shadows turn on. I have this into the box: <color=#C1000000> H</color>ello. The H character is not visible, but the shadow does. Is there a way to make the shadow per character depending on the letters alpha?

 

When upgrading to a different version of Unity or TextMesh Pro, you need to remove the previous version of TextMesh Pro first and then import the updated version of TextMesh Pro or the version appropriate for the version of Unity you are using. Also be sure to read the release notes which provides this information as well as other important information.

 

Yes.

 

I would suggest deleting the current "TextMesh Pro" package / folder and re-importing from the Asset Store. It is possible that you ran into some import issue.

Please let me know how this turns out.

 

Just to make sure I understand, you are using one of the Surface version of the TMP shaders where the text / characters using the color tag with zero alpha are still casting a shadow in the scene?

 

This totally works, thanks!

 

Yes, exactly. I have uploaded a screenshot of the situation

 

The problem is if I delete TM from my project when i reimport it all the components are broken. "missing mono script".
I retried without deleting it and eventually it worked, however I then had issues Dotween. I had to update dotween and then I get errors relating to TM with Dotween. So I have no choice but to delete TM pro and lose all references and "missing mono script" issues.

So now I have to choose to stick with Unity 5.4... or take a long time doing it all again. My project is a desktop game with many gigs of data so this sort of issues cost me a lot of time and therefore money. I really wish you would focus on stability instead of features.

Years ago I had simular issues with TMP and Dotween. I remember spending many hours reimporting and deleting again and again and again .... until it eventually worked. I'm not looking forward to this process again. and all other issues with updating TM components.

I seriously considering rebuilding my project in Unreal engine. I'm not sure this is all worth it... just so I dont have crappy fonts I have to deal with this.

 

Pretty sure it's somehow possible to write a simple program in c# that modifies all the .meta/prefab/scene files to update all the references.

I'll check to see if something can be done about that

Sure its not a good situation, but cheap "threats" like that only guarantee that people won't take you seriously.
Obviously rebuilding everything in a different engine will take a ton of time, rewriting all your scripts, etc... so either you're not serious or your project isn't that big yet anyway...


edit:
From the "outside" it will be harder, but from inside unity we could easily write a thing that saves all the object paths/names to all component instances of a TMP object.
A lot of reflection will be involved, but nobody gives a crap if an "conversion" operation that runs one time only takes 10seconds or maybe 20 because of reflection

Things to look out for:
all scenes + all prefabs + all the public or [Serializable] members of the tmp object, as well as all the serializable members on all other objects because they may contain a reference to a tmp component.

We would gather all the information of all objects and their properties, save them to some file, then remove the old TMP installation, add the new one, then restore all the information based on the names and values we've saved.

Would work for sure, I'm doing something vaguely similar for generating AnimationOverrideController assets.

However I have no need to convert anything, just letting you guys know that it's possible and not even that hard to do it if you really want to

 

It's better you learn what a threat is.
Also it's better you dont speak for someone else. It was clear I was taking to Stephan_B and not you. Or are you steven? if not then you're confused and you better learn how to not get confused.

ps theres no such thing as a cheap threat.

 

@Stephan_B

No need to waste your time with my issue. We have decided to close all projects using unity and start rebuilding in unreal engine.

Good luck in your new job.

 

I am using a fresh install of textmesh pro, just downloaded from the asset store, and unity 5.5.0f3.

I am unable to set textmesh.text = "some text" at runtime via script. The component continues to display the original value. Maybe this is an issue related to recent updates in the package, and/or engine integration?

*edit - further information:

When I switch back to a standard unity Text component, it updates properly. Here is a sample of the code I'm using:

Code (CSharp):

1.         var tm = go.GetComponent<TextMesh>();
2.         //var tm = go.GetComponent<Text>();
3.         tm.text = "some text";
4.         tm.color = new Color(1, 0, 0);
5.  

When using the TextMesh component, neither the .text nor the .color is changing anything, but no error is generated, and the TextMesh definitely exists in the scene and is being found by this code.

 

Unless that's a typo, if you're using a TextMeshPro component you don't want to use TextMesh (which is the built in component) to access it. You need to use TMP_Text. i.e.

Code (CSharp):

1. var tm = go.GetComponent<TMP_Text>();

 

Not a typo, I didn't realize there was a class called TMP_Text.

I was looking here: http://digitalnativestudios.com/textmeshpro/docs/, but didn't see any mention of it. I guess the docs are out of date, and I should have looked at the included examples instead.

I've tested using TMP_Text and it's working fine now.

Thanks for the tip @flashframe!

 

@Stephan-B Any news for the alpha issue reported in my previous post?

 

Thanks it's help

 

bump

 

For whatever reasons, the Unity forum has not been notifying me of any of these replies... argh!

I am not sure why you are getting these import errors. Thousands of people are using TextMesh Pro and have gone through the upgrade process many times always deleting the previous package first and then importing the new one without issues. Of course there have been random hickups here and there due strange asset corruption issue while downloading or decompressing but this has never been an issue.

So there is something about how you are doing this (process wise) or in your project causing this. The easiest way for me to isolate issues is always to get a Repro project as I can then see exactly what the issue is and provide a solution. Just send me an email and we can figure this out.

 

I will look at this over the weekend.

As per my previous post. I am sorry for not replying earlier. The Unity forum decided not to Alert me of any of these new posts. Argh!

Update
Clipping is used right now to define the shape of the shadow which doesn't make it possible to control the alpha. Since this implementation mirrors how Unity does it in their standard shader, I have reach out to the graphics folks to see if I could handle the shadow differently to get alpha support.

 

Yes. I have several customers like Zynga using TextMesh Pro with NGUI.

I replied to your question above but inadvertently replied to the wrong post. Here is a link to that reply

https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/t...ed-text-rendering.248636/page-31#post-3000725

 

I just got the program for a small project I'm working on and I'm having a few issues...

The first is that I can't edit the text from a script. I'm not sure how to do this but it's essential to my project.

The second is that I can't import a font that I want to use. I've followed tutorials and whatnot but it just doesn't work, seemingly for no reason.

If I could get help with either or both of these that would be fantastic, thanks!

 

Similar to how Unity's UI is contained in the UnityEngine.UI namespace, TextMesh Pro is contained in the TMPro namespace which will require you add this namespace as follows.

Code (csharp):

1. using TMPro;

There are two TextMesh Pro components. Please see the FAQ Question 9 on the TextMesh Pro user forum.

What is the font you are trying to import? What have you tried thus far?

 

Default Textmeshes allow you to use <material> tags like this:

We are <material=2>texturally</material> amused.

An array of materials is passed into the meshRenderer.materials, where the index of the tag is the index of the array.

I saw it's possible to use different material presets for a text, but is it possible to change materials mid-sentence like this (parsed dynamically at runtime)?

 

It is possible to change font and material presets anywhere in the text. See the following documentation http://digitalnativestudios.com/textmeshpro/docs/rich-text/#font

I suggest you take a look at the following videos which explains a lot of this functionality.

Multi font support

Multi font and FontAwesome

 

Thanks for the help!

It's a font called Carlson OS http://www.1001fonts.com/caslon-os-font.html

I've already imported it to unity and it works fine with the built-in stuff, but it doesn't work with the Text Mesh component. I've tried to put it in the Font Asset Creator but the "Generate Font Atlas" button doesn't do anything, I click it and it's grayed in for a bit but nothing else happens.

 

I just tested this font and it appears to be working fine. Here is an image with the settings I used to create the SDF Font Asset.



Please be sure to watch the Font Asset Creation video as well as the Working with Material Presets as well as these are two very important aspects of working with TextMesh Pro.

 

If I try to do that nothing happens and it gives me this error message:

DllNotFoundException: Assets/TextMesh Pro/Plugins/64 Bit Plugins/TMPro_Plugin.dll
TMPro.EditorUtilities.TMPro_FontAssetCreatorWindow.DrawControls ()
TMPro.EditorUtilities.TMPro_FontAssetCreatorWindow.OnGUI ()
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

(It doesn't work with any other font, either...)

Thanks for getting back so quick, btw!

 

That is most likely because you are on Windows but don't have the Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio. See Question 6 on the FAQ from the TextMesh Pro user forum.

 

Thanks for the reply. It seems like it's required to use the SDF shaders and so you couldn't just apply a custom shader over the text, is that correct? Seems like I'll need to fall back to regular textmeshes if that's the case.

 

You do have to use the custom TextMesh Pro shaders as they are designed specifically for SDF rendering and to support the dynamic visual styling and material presets.

What type of shader were looking to apply to the text? What functionality were you seeking out of your shaders?

 

Maybe this is something that will get addressed by Unity now that they have Text Mesh Pro under the hood?

 

Once TextMesh Pro (its functionality) is integrated into Unity, the requirement for this Visual C++ SDK will likely change.

Having said that, since most users already have / use Visual Studio on Windows which includes this SDK, most users never have to install it separately. You are most likely running into this because you are on Windows and not using Visual Studio 2013, 2015 or 2017.

 

I downloaded what you linked to but it's still not doing anything, do I have to do anything to the files I downloaded? Should I re-import the program?

 

Did you install the Visual C++ SDK?

Delete the current "TextMesh Pro" folder and re-import the package again.

What version of Windows and Unity are you running?

 

Hi,

For some reason, the background of the text is nontransparent as can be seen here: http://imgur.com/pVkx9PW

After playing with every setting, the only way I found to fix it was to change Debug settings Scale X and Scale Y to 3, but then the borders look jagged. Any idea why this is happening and what else I can try?

In case you need it, here is a screenshot of the settings: http://imgur.com/a/MCJfc

Thank you!

 

The reason you are getting these visual artifacts is because the padding value based on the material settings you are using is too small.

See FAQ Question 2 and Question 11 which explain why you are getting those visual artifacts.

The Ratio of padding to sampling point size is important to understand when creating your SDF Font Assets as it control the effective range of the material properties. See the Font Asset Creation video which covers this topic.

 

Thank you for the quick reply! I saw the video before, but I'm not sure it's the same problem. I set the padding to 30 but looks like it automatically gets reduced to 20. Width/Height are 2048. The point size is 288.

 

Are any of your material properties near their limits of 1.0? If you find yourself using values near the 1.0 maximum then it is a sign that your padding is too small. In this case, you have Dilation set to 1.0 where you are at the limit of the padding.

Like I said, having to use values near their maximum is a sign that you need more padding or in the case of Dilation, you are trying to make that font much thicker than it is by design and thus could consider selecting a different font that is thicker.

The padding value should not be changing. So if you set it to 30, it should remain at 30. A value of 30 is pretty large by the way. Although you are still about 10% in terms of Sampling point size to padding ration (288 / 30), I would suggest reducing that sampling point size / atlas texture. For instance, the LiberationSans has a sampling point size of 85. So you could half the sampling point size.

 

Hi,

I'm having a weird issue. When using a project on the Mac, if I build to Windows (both 32 and 64 bits), I get all TextMesh Pro meshes in pink with an error on the output log stating TextMeshPro/Distance Field has no vertex shader, followed by a "Shader unsupported" warning.

However, if I transfer the whole Unity project to the same Windows machine, and open it up, all text meshes look fine and I can export and it works great.

I've tried playing with the Windows Graphics API settings on the Mac (changing the order, adding OpenGL 2, etc). I've checked and the DLLs are being exported fine.

Any ideas what may be causing the issue?

Thanks!

 

What version of Unity are you using?

 

Right now we have several shaders for things such as wavy and rainbow text (example here: https://gfycat.com/SentimentalAcidicJabiru)

Perhaps by figuring out how the SDF rendering works we could convert the shaders to support SDF rendering. However, even if we do that we'd be facing another problem: We're having trouble displaying pixel perfect text.

Example:
note the difference in width on the L's.

The text has orthographic enabled and uses the TextMeshPro bitmap shader. We tried snapping the text's transform but it still seems to be a problem. Do you have any advice on how to deal with this, if possible?

 

I'm using 5.5.2f1 on Mac OS 10.11.6 El Capitan.

 

@Stephan_B I'm using unity 5.5.0f3 and Windows 10.

I deleted the whole thing and reimported it but still no dice.

https://i.gyazo.com/77f8c827b45bf69ab36f57314fbe6a07.mp4