[x3d-public] X3D Text/FontStyle nodes for glTF and OpenUSD

[John Carlson]

After a research session, I see support in Three.js especially, Babylon,
and WebGL.  FXyz seems like the way to go for JavaFX, but I’m not sure who
is doing maintenance, if any.  Some problems have to be addressed by
putting spaces between characters.

Python, C++, and Rust have solutions, but I don’t plan to use the latter
two for much.

It seems like OpenGL or WebGL is the base of some of these.

Of course, if you choose to use a modeling tool, your options are wider.

I haven’t heard of morphing 3D text, or recall seeing that effect anywhere.

>From your semi-friendly researcher.

John

On Fri, Nov 29, 2024 at 1:34 AM John Carlson <yottzumm at gmail.com> wrote:

> This should be read a bit like The Onion.  I believe I posted on this
> subject a while back.
>
> Are there X3D Text/FontStyle nodes for glTF and OpenUSD?  Surely Apple has
> something for their VisionPro?
>
> If not, how the heck is Google or any AI company going to scrape the
> Metaverse for data?  Video?  Metadata?  Cars with cameras and LiDAR in the
> Metaverse?
>
> Maybe Spatial Intelligence will swoop in and save the day?  Or just plain
> OCR?
>
> Maybe NVIDIA/AMD didn’t think of this when doing 3D acceleration and
> omitting symbols?  Is this why Khronos is pushing an OpenVG standard?  Oh,
> OpenVG is supported on my graphics card.  Cool!  How do I use it???  Oh,
>
> #include <VG/openvg.h>
>
> Cool!
>
> Does any X3D browser use this? For Layers or Layout?
>
> “
> OpenVG 1.1 Lite Provisional was released in May 2020, and relaxed the
> accuracy requirements of stroke path rasterization and normalizes the
> stencil/blending modes of OpenVG 1.1 so the API can be fully accelerated by
> any OpenGL® ES 2.0-compatible 3D GPU for the first time, while maintaining
> high rendering quality.
> “
>
> So how do I do the equivalent of OpenVG with OpenGL?  Or should I even
> worry about it?
>
> Here’s some historical information.  Apparently OpenVG was abandoned in
> 2011????
>
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6287650/rendering-svg-with-opengl-and-opengl-es
>
> Anyone know the state of textual information for Vulkan or WGSL?  I only
> know OpenGL fragment and vertex shaders a bit, and I just hear about
> texture atlases for text.  Maybe Metal and D3D are better?
>
> https://youtu.be/mGQRV32Nk3s?si=pdL0qLZ43t9KZpso
>
> (Julia says Windows might have a solution—she wanted something
> cross-platform)
>
> Travis has 3 videos, starting here:
> https://youtu.be/zvGIp-S2mxA?si=yJy9W4x076vKK1v_
>
> So it looks like some heroic programmers are figuring out how to do this,
> maybe cross-platform in Vulkan.
>
> Here’s the secret: text made from dots = raster, text made from symbols =
> character (typewriter),  text made from curves = vector.
>
> Apparently, we’ve forgotten how to make typewriters.  Remember the
> printing press?
>
> Someone get a big stamp and put “DUMMY” on my forehead.
>
> Don’t even get me started about curved 3D text.
>
> Why can’t NVIDIA spend some of their money on cross-platform 3D text APIs
> and make all of our lives easier? Are they afraid of competing with Apple
> and Microsoft?
>
> Surely Warnock thought of this before PostScript for his 3D language? And
> we still don’t have good cross-platform APIs for 3D text?  It’s been, like
> 60 years!
>
> Yes, I’ve seen the X3DOM demos, how about text along a 3D curve?
>
> Anyone?  An API? A start with new X3D nodes?  I know we can’t standardize
> without implementation.  How about starting with doing SVG extrusions?
>
> Maybe take inspiration from Java3D?
>
> https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E17802_01/j2se/javase/technologies/desktop/java3d/forDevelopers/J3D_1_3_API/j3dapi/javax/media/j3d/Text3D.html
>
> Or, more modern:
>
>
> https://github.com/Birdasaur/FXyz-DeepSpaceBranch/blob/master/FXyz-Core/src/main/java/org/fxyz3d/shapes/primitives/Text3DMesh.java
>
> Here’s the FXyz-Core LICENSE:
>
> https://github.com/Birdasaur/FXyz-DeepSpaceBranch/blob/master/FXyz-Core/LICENSE
>
> Maybe I’ll add these to my 3D asset manager/contacts app!
>
>
> John
>
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