Adding bevel, or TextGeometry

[qqdarren]

I experimented with a single 3D letter in Blender, then exported to the .babylon format. It was a 214KB file! I then removed the bevel, and that reduced it to 67KB. But the version with bevel is nicer. So, that got me wondering if the bevel is something I can add back in once the model has been loaded? Whether something text-specific, or a more generic algorithm that can smooth out the hard edges in a model?

 

But I suppose what I really want is the Babylon version of the Three.js TextGeometry module: http://threejs.org/docs/#Reference/Extras.Geometries/TextGeometry

 

Is there already something like this?

 

(Actually TextGeometry is just a thin layer around ExtrudeGeometry ( http://threejs.org/docs/#Reference/Extras.Geometries/ExtrudeGeometry ), which would be even more useful, if I could, say, take a png file or the contents of a 2D canvas, and turn it into a 3D bevelled object.)

 

[jerome]

No, this kind of 3D Text doesn't exist in BJS.

But I think you could get it in this extension : https://github.com/BabylonJS/Extensions/tree/master/Dialog/fonts

[GameMonetize]

You can also think about using binary babylon file format to reduce the size drastically

[qqdarren]

Thanks for the ideas. I don't see any mention of the binary format in the docs for the blender exporter ( http://doc.babylonjs.com/page.php?p=24821 ). There was mention in the release notes, but it goes to a dead link: http://www.babylonjs.com/binary

 

The Dialog/fonts, is quite mysterious, with no Readme or documentation, nor even inline comments. But it doesn't look like an extruder, more like data-as-code for one hard-coded font, perhaps?

 

I was thinking the CreateGroundFromHeightMap() is not so far from an extruder; can it be easily hacked into one?

[gryff]

Hi qqdarren. You might want to take a look at this video by Jonathan Williamson, of cgcookie, about creating text in Blender:

 

Creating 3D Typography

 

The part that might interest you is at around 8-11.00 minutes in - his use of "limited dissolve" and "remove doubles".

 

I used this methodology to create this:

 

Babylon.js

 

It contains 9 letter + a ".", the globe and of course the animation data - the total file size is 199kb. That is roughly 19kb per letter.

 

Now, I have not tried it with a bevel applied to the text.

 

cheers, gryff

 

[GameMonetize]

Here is it:

http://www.babylonjs.com/converterbinary.html

[qqdarren]

David, thanks, I just gave it (the binary converter) a go. Interesting results:

 

Plain text version: 214,356.

binary version: 1786, plus 148,244 meshdata.

 

But, a web server is likely to deliver the files gzipped:

 

Plain text, gzipped: 53,887 bytes

Binary, gzipped: 586 + 54,142 bytes (+ extra overhead of 2 requests)

 

Not all bad, though, as I imagine the binary version is parsed more quickly once the browser receives it?

[GameMonetize]

Yes as there is no parsing for binary data. they are directly copied as it to the GPU

[qqdarren]

(Continuing from comment #4) I just found this topic, from February 2015:

  http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/12178-3d-text-generation/

 

Some mention of the Dialog extension, but still not quite enough to know how to use it, or what it is for. And some experiments using CreateGroundFromHeightMap (which are still a bit rough: the glyphs have no thickness, and then there is a plane getting left behind).

[GameMonetize]

JCPalmer is the father of Dialog extension

[JCPalmer]

Hey,

Let's go back to the beginning.  I was making Letter meshes into individual Javascript classes, so that they could be strung together to make labels.  See fontgen.blend in extensions repository.  I needed it as inline javascript, since it must load real fast to build strings on the fly.  A .babylon needs to parse the whole file every import (There are 96 letters in either font2d.js or font3d.js), and a .babylon can only build originals, not clones if an original already exists.  I use the Tower of Babel exporter to generate source code.

 

The exported javascript files are very big, partly because TOB puts in a lot of spacing to make it human readable. Font3d.js uglifies down to 962.2kb (10 kb per letter). I just went into fontgen.blend and changed bevel depth to 0.01, and ran the built in script in the .blend to generate my meshes, then exported & uglified.  File is now 2.1 mb ( 22 kb per letter).

 

Before we go any farther, what was the letter you generating?  Are you using the default font for Blender? Blender "Text" objects are not meshes, you need a process or script to convert one to a mesh.  Is your process similar to fontgen.blend?  A 64kb letter seems kind of big.