Table of Contents

Class WorldTextComponent

Namespace
Stride.CommunityToolkit.Rendering.Text
Assembly
Stride.CommunityToolkit.dll

Draws text that lives in the scene: positioned by the entity's transform, scaled by perspective, and occluded by geometry standing in front of it.

[DefaultEntityComponentProcessor(typeof(WorldTextProcessor), ExecutionMode = ExecutionMode.Runtime)]
[AllowMultipleComponents]
[DataContract("WorldTextComponent")]
[Display("World Text (call AddWorldTextRenderer)", null, Expand = ExpandRule.Once)]
[ComponentCategory("Text")]
public class WorldTextComponent : EntityComponent, IIdentifiable
Inheritance
WorldTextComponent
Implements
Inherited Members

Remarks

This is the counterpart to EntityTextComponent, which is screen-space: that one projects an anchor point and draws flat pixels on top of everything, while this one draws the text as part of the world. Use that one for HUDs and labels that must always be readable, and this one when the text should look like it belongs in the scene.

Add WorldTextRenderer to the graphics compositor for anything to appear.

A label standing on the ground, facing the camera: 
entity.Add(new WorldTextComponent
{
    Text = "Spawn",
    Height = 0.4f,
    Anchor = TextAnchor.BottomCenter,
    Billboard = true
});

Constructors

WorldTextComponent()

Initializes a new instance of the WorldTextComponent class.

public WorldTextComponent()

Properties

Alignment

Gets or sets how the lines of a multi-line text sit relative to one another.

public TextAlignment Alignment { get; set; }

Property Value

TextAlignment

Anchor

Gets or sets which point of the text sits on the entity's position. Defaults to MiddleCenter.

public TextAnchor Anchor { get; set; }

Property Value

TextAnchor

Remarks

Centred by default, unlike the screen-space component: world text is usually placed at a thing rather than hung off the corner of one.

AutoScale

Gets or sets whether the rasterisation size follows the display's scale, so text on a 150% display is drawn from glyphs 1.5x the size and stays as sharp as it is on a 100% monitor. Defaults to true.

public bool AutoScale { get; set; }

Property Value

bool

Remarks

Sharpness only: the text is Height tall in the world whatever the display, so nothing moves or resizes. The factor comes from DisplayScale, shared with everything else in the toolkit that follows the display, and only applies when the process is DPI aware. GlowSize is in font pixels and scales along, so the glow keeps its reach.

Billboard

Gets or sets whether the text turns to face the camera. Defaults to true.

public bool Billboard { get; set; }

Property Value

bool

Remarks

When false the text keeps the entity's own orientation, so it can be laid flat on a floor or fixed to a wall and will foreshorten and disappear edge-on like any other surface.

DepthTest

Gets or sets whether scene geometry in front of the text hides it. Defaults to true.

public bool DepthTest { get; set; }

Property Value

bool

Remarks

This is the whole point of world text as opposed to the screen-space kind. Turning it off makes the text draw over everything while still being positioned and scaled in the world.

FadeStartDistance

Gets or sets the distance from the camera at which the text starts fading out, in world units.

public float? FadeStartDistance { get; set; }

Property Value

float?

Font

Gets or sets the font. Leave null to use Stride's default font.

public SpriteFont? Font { get; set; }

Property Value

SpriteFont

FontSize

Gets or sets the size the glyphs are rasterised at, in pixels. Defaults to 32.

public float FontSize { get; set; }

Property Value

float

Remarks

This is sharpness, not size on screen - Height decides how big the text is in the world. Raise it when text is viewed close up and looks soft; it costs glyph cache space. On a scaled display the glyphs are rasterised that much larger while AutoScale is on, because the same world height covers that many more pixels there.

GlowColor

Gets or sets the colour of a soft glow drawn behind the letters. Leave it fully transparent - an alpha of zero, the default - for no glow. Its alpha is the glow's strength.

public Color GlowColor { get; set; }

Property Value

Color

Remarks

A HUD or a neon sign: light text on a glow of a deeper hue reads as lit rather than painted. The glow is the text itself drawn again in this colour, offset in a ring around the letters, so it scales with the text and follows every glyph exactly.

GlowSize

Gets or sets how far the glow reaches from the letters, in font pixels at FontSize. Defaults to 0. A tenth of the font size is a crisp halo; a quarter is a bloom.

public float GlowSize { get; set; }

Property Value

float

Height

Gets or sets the height of the text in world units. Defaults to 1.

public float Height { get; set; }

Property Value

float

Remarks

The text is scaled so the whole block - every line of it - is this tall, then scaled again by the entity's transform. Expressing it this way means changing FontSize for sharpness does not also change how big the text appears.

IsVisible

Gets or sets whether the text is drawn at all. Defaults to true.

public bool IsVisible { get; set; }

Property Value

bool

KeepUpright

Gets or sets whether the text stays upright when billboarding. Defaults to true.

public bool KeepUpright { get; set; }

Property Value

bool

Remarks

Upright text turns about the world Y axis only, so it never rolls when the camera tilts - which is what a label standing in a scene should do. Set to false to face the camera squarely from any angle, including from directly above.

MaxDistance

Gets or sets the distance beyond which the text is not drawn, in world units.

public float? MaxDistance { get; set; }

Property Value

float?

Offset

Gets or sets a local-space offset applied before the entity's rotation.

public Vector3 Offset { get; set; }

Property Value

Vector3

Opacity

Gets or sets an overall opacity from 0 to 1. Defaults to 1.

public float Opacity { get; set; }

Property Value

float

Remarks

A dimmer over everything the component draws: the letters, at TextColor's own alpha, and the GlowColor behind them. Distance fading drives this same dimmer.

Text

Gets or sets the text to draw.

public required string Text { get; set; }

Property Value

string

TextColor

Gets or sets the text colour. Defaults to White.

public Color TextColor { get; set; }

Property Value

Color

Remarks

Its alpha counts: it is how transparent this text is by nature, and it multiplies with Opacity and any distance fade. Set it when a label is meant to sit faintly in the scene; use Opacity to fade the whole thing - glow included - from code.

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