Re: PHIL: Why no text in VRML???

Chris Marrin (cmarrin@ariel.engr.sgi.com)
Fri, 24 Feb 1995 14:21:26 -0800

On Feb 24, 9:58am, Randy Stiles wrote:
> Subject: Re: PHIL: Why no text in VRML???
> Hi Everyone,
>
> The presence of text, either as wireframe letters or 3D objects, is
> very important. For situations where it is necessary to specialize
> your scenes, or to specialize objects which have the same geometry but
> different uses/meanings it is necessary to have text labels at the
> very least. It lends your environment a degree of flexibility so that
> you don't have to build models for every case possible, and in these
> varying cases, participants can still understand it.

Another important need for text is in controlling complexity. You can put text
in a VRML scene by using a tool to generate polygons from a text string and
including that as a model. But that way you can't control complexity of the
text except by generating a bunch of versions of varying complexity and then
using an LOD node. With a text node the viewing app can generate as simple a
representation as necessary.

-- 
chris marrin                     ,,.                        
Silicon Graphics, Inc.        ,`` 1$`
(415) 390-5367             ,|`   ,$`
cmarrin@sgi.com           b`    ,P`                           ,,.
                        mP     b"                            , 1$'
        ,.`           ,b`    ,`                              :$$' 
     ,|`             mP    ,`                                             ,mm
   ,b"              b"   ,`                ,mm      m$$    ,m          ,,`P$$
  m$`             ,b`  .` ,mm          ,.`'|$P   ,|"1$`  ,b$P       ,,`   :$1
 b$`             ,$: :,`` |$$       ,:`    $$` ,|` ,$$,,`"$$      .`      :$|
b$|            _m$`,:`    :$1    ,:`      ,$Pm|`    `    :$$,..;"'        |$:
P$b,      _;b$$b$1"       |$$ ,,``       ,$$"             ``'             $$
 ```"```'"    b$P         `""`           ""`                             ,P`
             `"`                                              '$$b,,...-'


"As a general rule, don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell."
		   - excerpt from "A Horror Movie Character's Survival Guide"