Large quantities of text (and, I need bitmap fonts)

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
#1

I am researching ways to display large quatities of text in the Game engine. As far as I am aware, the only way to display text is to either map it directly to a texture, or set the “Text” option for a face. I have chosen the “Text” option, and a Python script to format and load the text.

Unfortunately, I don’t have many bitmap fonts, and I don’t like the way bitmap fonts look.

So, my question is:

  1. Are bitmapped fonts the way to go? And
  2. Where do I get bitmapped fonts?

Thanks!
Levi

#2

Currently someone on this forum in the Game engine section (here) created a lot of blender bitmap fonts. He has made them available on his website for download, and if you just wait for some days, I release my tutorial about: “create game engine bitmap fonts” It uses ftblender with some command prompt actions in Windows. The only thing I don’t know is how to create them in Linux and Mac osx :-?

#3

on osx it might work using VirtualPC with XP installed as a virtual machine…

marin

#4

Thanks for your replies!

I think the bitmap fonts will work. Part of the reason I posted this was because the last time I looked, I couldn’t find a valid link to download ftblender. I just did a google, however, and found:
http://home.centurytel.net/nt20/ftblender.zip
at
http://download.blender.org/documentation/oldsite/oldsite.blender3d.org/44_Blender%20tutorial%20Building%20bitmap%20fonts.html

With ftblender, I converted the Times New Roman font (which is commonly used in large bodies of text), and actually think it looks decent even at a fairly small size.

I also did a search for that archive you mentioned, and found
http://www.blending-online.co.uk/29501.html

It has some neat fonts, but not the ones I need.

Problem solved, and thanks again!
Levi