From: Richard U. <ri...@pa...> - 2011-08-14 21:59:28
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Hi everybody, I'm looking into how to render text with WebGL. By chance I found the ftgl library, and I'm wondering if I can use it with WebGl. I coudn't find anything that could answer my question in the documentation nor the mail archive. I'm fully aware, that I would'nt get the full funtionality, but if I get the texture maps or polygon meshes that I could then use in WebGl, that would already be a hughe help. Or would I use Freetype directly for that? Rgds Richard |
From: Sam H. <sa...@ho...> - 2011-08-17 09:51:22
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On Sun, Aug 14, 2011, Richard Ulrich wrote: > I'm looking into how to render text with WebGL. > By chance I found the ftgl library, and I'm wondering if I can use it > with WebGl. I coudn't find anything that could answer my question in the > documentation nor the mail archive. > I'm fully aware, that I would'nt get the full funtionality, but if I get > the texture maps or polygon meshes that I could then use in WebGl, that > would already be a hughe help. Or would I use Freetype directly for > that? Unfortunately WebGL does not offer the ability to link with native code (unless directly provided by the browser), so FTGL would be of little use. It would be possible to retrieve the font tesselation or the font texture (depending on the chosen rendering method), but that would also require exporting the whole glyph information from FreeType, store all of this in an interchange format, then write a WebGL importer and renderer for it. That's a lot of work and probably far beyond the scope of FTGL. -- Sam. |
From: Richard U. <ri...@pa...> - 2011-08-17 11:27:38
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Hi Sam, Thanks for the quick response. I didn't mention an important detail: I work with WebGL in C++ through the excellent WT library: http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt/doc/reference/html/classWt_1_1WGLWidget.html So, Transferring of the data is no problem. My research prototype is here: http://pointlineweb.ulrichard.ch It is mostly done in C++ with very little JavaScript. I started with the texture mode directly with libfreetype, but I would prefer the tesselated texts because it's probably easier to get the ray picking and editing right. And in the current desktop version of our CAD, we also use tesselated texts from the Windows GDI. Now with the new core we want to make it platform independent, and especially my WebGL prototype runs mainly on linux. So, with the current implementation of ftgl, is it possible to get the tesselation, so I can feed the triangles to WebGL myself? And it yes, could you give me some hints on where to start? Rgds Richard On Wed, 2011-08-17 at 11:33 +0200, Sam Hocevar wrote: > On Sun, Aug 14, 2011, Richard Ulrich wrote: > > > I'm looking into how to render text with WebGL. > > By chance I found the ftgl library, and I'm wondering if I can use it > > with WebGl. I coudn't find anything that could answer my question in the > > documentation nor the mail archive. > > I'm fully aware, that I would'nt get the full funtionality, but if I get > > the texture maps or polygon meshes that I could then use in WebGl, that > > would already be a hughe help. Or would I use Freetype directly for > > that? > > Unfortunately WebGL does not offer the ability to link with native > code (unless directly provided by the browser), so FTGL would be of > little use. > > It would be possible to retrieve the font tesselation or the font > texture (depending on the chosen rendering method), but that would also > require exporting the whole glyph information from FreeType, store > all of this in an interchange format, then write a WebGL importer and > renderer for it. That's a lot of work and probably far beyond the scope > of FTGL. > |
From: Richard U. <ri...@pa...> - 2011-08-25 00:16:38
Attachments:
TriangleExtractor.diff
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Hi Sam, I gave it a go, and added a new render mode to ftgl: FTTriangleExtractorFont(char const *fontFilePath, std::vector<float>& triangles); The vector will receive a triangle strip for processing in whatever rendering system (WebGL, DirectX, Hoops ...) The first impression is not bad in my WebGl app. A diff is attached. Now, how should I proceed? My preferred way would be to have it included in the ftgl library. If you agree, I will clean up things to make it ready for inclusion. Rgds Richard Am Mittwoch, den 17.08.2011, 12:56 +0200 schrieb Richard Ulrich: > Hi Sam, > > Thanks for the quick response. > > I didn't mention an important detail: > I work with WebGL in C++ through the excellent WT library: > http://www.webtoolkit.eu/wt/doc/reference/html/classWt_1_1WGLWidget.html > > So, Transferring of the data is no problem. > > My research prototype is here: > http://pointlineweb.ulrichard.ch > It is mostly done in C++ with very little JavaScript. > > I started with the texture mode directly with libfreetype, but I would > prefer the tesselated texts because it's probably easier to get the ray > picking and editing right. > And in the current desktop version of our CAD, we also use tesselated > texts from the Windows GDI. Now with the new core we want to make it > platform independent, and especially my WebGL prototype runs mainly on > linux. > > So, with the current implementation of ftgl, is it possible to get the > tesselation, so I can feed the triangles to WebGL myself? > And it yes, could you give me some hints on where to start? > > Rgds > Richard > > > On Wed, 2011-08-17 at 11:33 +0200, Sam Hocevar wrote: > > On Sun, Aug 14, 2011, Richard Ulrich wrote: > > > > > I'm looking into how to render text with WebGL. > > > By chance I found the ftgl library, and I'm wondering if I can use it > > > with WebGl. I coudn't find anything that could answer my question in the > > > documentation nor the mail archive. > > > I'm fully aware, that I would'nt get the full funtionality, but if I get > > > the texture maps or polygon meshes that I could then use in WebGl, that > > > would already be a hughe help. Or would I use Freetype directly for > > > that? > > > > Unfortunately WebGL does not offer the ability to link with native > > code (unless directly provided by the browser), so FTGL would be of > > little use. > > > > It would be possible to retrieve the font tesselation or the font > > texture (depending on the chosen rendering method), but that would also > > require exporting the whole glyph information from FreeType, store > > all of this in an interchange format, then write a WebGL importer and > > renderer for it. That's a lot of work and probably far beyond the scope > > of FTGL. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Get a FREE DOWNLOAD! and learn more about uberSVN rich system, > user administration capabilities and model configuration. Take > the hassle out of deploying and managing Subversion and the > tools developers use with it. http://p.sf.net/sfu/wandisco-d2d-2 > _______________________________________________ Ftgl-devel mailing list Ftg...@li... https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ftgl-devel |