Unite 14
Just getting some demo content ready for Unite next week in Seattle.
Here is a revised version of the “Amazing Quality” text used in the sign for the show.
Now here is a close up of the text to fully appreciate the quality.
This is using the TMPro - Distance Field Surface Shader which 3 lights (Orange / Blue Point light + Directional) + Textures on the Face and Outline.
What did the text looked like prior to changing some of the TextMesh Pro material properties?
This text (title) is just plain Impact font. I adjusted character spacing and tweaked the kerning a bit. You can still see the orange and blue point lights affecting the text but otherwise, this is just plain text. It is amazing how much of a difference adding a few textures, bevel and glow can make.
Now just for fun, let’s take a look at how this text using the same Impact font looks like using Unity’s Text Mesh.
As you can see, Bitmap Text Rendering simply doesn’t stand a chance against Signed Distance Field. When you factor in the improved text formatting options of TextMesh Pro and all the real-time visual tweaks we can do to the text and real-time lighting, comparing Text Mesh to TextMesh Pro is simply unfair.
Too often, I am tempted to create crazy looking text using all the bells and whistles in TextMesh Pro but I tend to forget how much better just plain text in TextMesh Pro looks over the other Unity text options.
Hey, I do love this asset and I’m very tempted to buy it but one thing is holding me back which I’m unsure if Text mesh pro is capable of.
I have been using Photoshop to create my text and its not something I want to keep doing when adding new text which is why this caught my interest, did some research but I couldn’t see if its possible to bevel the face of the text like you have shown with the outline. Wanted to see if this was indeed possible or if its in the works. If that does become possible then I will buy this asset without a doubt!
here is an example of what I use and want to check if it can be created almost the same in this asset.
P.S sorry only just noticed i posted this in the WIP thread and not the other, honest mistake!
Can you post a close up of one of the letters so I can see the effect you are looking for in better details?
Posting here is totally fine and thank you for taking the time inquire about this 
P.S. I am at Unite this week in Seattle so my response time is a bit slower than usual but once I can see a close up of your image and can break away from the demos, I’ll let you know.
Hey Stephan,
Here is the requested close up, i went a bit further and cut out some of the extra details so you can get a better idea. quality is a little pixelated up close since they weren’t converted to vector images ( another thing I love about TMPro is clear quality regardless of resolution/size )
So I know I can achieve most effects except I don’t know about the Bevel ( bottom middle)
Hope that image give you better insight
Cheers for the support much appreciated
Here are two images with Bevel on the face. Since I am at Unite in Seattle, I have limited access to content (textures)
And here is the last one which features an inner & outer bevel. There is a trick to this last one but I’ll let everyone guess as to how this is done.
excellent! OK now I’m sold on it, thanks again really appreciate it!
You are welcome. Should you need any assistance, feel free to ask.
Please be sure to register / visit the TextMesh pro user forum where you’ll find lots of videos and information.
Gradients using Vertex Colors
At the request of a few users, I added support for doing gradients using vertex colors. Since a Texture can be applied to the face and outline of the characters, these two things can now be combined to create some pretty weird gradients / patterns
LaText or MathML supported? We want something to add mathematical equation in our project. If supported then you got a customer
That is one of the things on my list of features to look into. No promises as to when I’ll be able to add such functionality but it is definitely something I’ll be looking into
I will buy it once you add that feature. and I promise for that.
Stephan,
Problems with Right Alignment:
I’m really enjoying TextMeshPro and have been using it for the last few months in my game.
I noticed in your recent videos on this forum that you incorporated the alignment options from Unity 4.6 into the TextMeshPro Font Settings. I’m glad you did this because I’ve been unable to figure out how to do a simple right alignment for a Timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen. As the Timer fills with digits I want it to fill from right to left so it always stays in view but the Line Justification and Anchor Position options don’t seem to provide a simple right alignment. I tested this in Unity 4.6 by creating a Canvas, Text object, setup my Timer script and clicked the Alignment, Right Align button and the Timer text aligns to the right side of the text box and fills from right to left as expected.
My questions are:
Thanks
Allan
@chaneya
I knew I should have cross posted this
P.S. This applies to 0.1.45 as well.
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.
I’m thinking of buying, but I have two questions, and I’m fairly new to Unity:
In the script API, it shows bounds as being read only. I’m guessing this is the boundary box where the text shows up. Is it possible for us to change boundaries in another way with scripts only?
Is it possible to change the position of the text box with scripts?
In version 0.1.44 which is currently available on the asset store, the text doesn’t live inside a container so the bounds are simply the bounds of the mesh.
In version 0.1.45 of TextMesh Pro a new Text Container is introduce which defines the area where the text lives. As a result, you then have control over this container and ultimately can have the text fit this container by using the new text auto-sizing feature also part of this new version.
The Text Container can be controlled via scripting. Here is a video going over this Text Container and some scripting examples.
As per my post above, you can get access to these version after you purchase TextMesh Pro and Register to the TextMesh Pro User Forum. Beta 0.1.45 is available as well as Alpha 0.1.46 with support for Unity 4.6.
Absolutely. The text container still uses a transform like all other objects in Unity. Moving this transform moves the text object around. In addition, the relevant properties of the TextMesh Pro object as well as material properties can all be controlled via scripting.
Take a look at this new video which is sort of a recreation of the demo I was giving at Unite in Seattle about two weeks ago. This should give you a better overall understanding of TextMesh Pro.
Should you have any further questions, please feel free to ask
We just purchased this asset and its great! We would love to have the ability to use it for other things as well such as general shapes (rounded rectangles, triangles etc.). We would like to replace a lot of the hud with this method as it gives a much sharper result than using a bitmap.
For monchrome vector art, the best way is to make your own ‘windings’ type font.
In my UI prototype I use a bunch of the unicode defined characters, this makes it very convenient to get dynamic resolution support. Check " Symbols and Punctuation" at uniocode.org , its a tresure trove of vector art.
Unicode 15.1 Character Code Charts
PS: my avatar is a TTF character, screen grabbed from Unity (rendered in by TMPro)
Here is another (resolution independent) one from the same TTF
If you are looking for a way to add those shapes ‘windings’, here is a link to a post from another TextMesh Pro user which references one of those tools.
