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Gmax text

M

minula

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8
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ca-ontario
HI everyone,

I am new to this so forgive the simple questions.
Is it possible in Gmax to add text to a curved surface? I am working on building the city of Guelph Ontario Canada and want to put the town name on water towers. Do I have to do this with textures or can text be a seperate object wrapped to the surface?
:scratchch
 
Hi,

There is an object in GMax to draw text if I remember correctly, but in general that uses a lot of polygons. So I think it is better (and easier) to use a texture with the name written on it.
 
Text Splines

Just for reference, text can be made from the create tab and selecting the shapes button, then the text button. These are made as slpines but can be extruded to 3d shapes by selecting extrude from the modifier drop down list.

Arno is right, the extruded splines would be high poly objects, but if you really wanted to use it, many of the letters will contain unnecessary edges which can be deleted, then the holes capped thus reducing the number of polygon a little.

And to curve the text around a curved object, select the text object, collapse the stack then in the modifier drop down list under parametric modifiers, select bend. You may have to play with which axis it bends along and the angle to get the right curve.

I've attached a pic of the curved text below.

In this example, I bent it along the x-axis at 45deg angle.
 

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I discovered a way to quickly make the text very low poly... Convert to spline, then select all vertices, right click on one and turn them all to corners, not smooth. The text will become rather jagged, but at a distance it's not that noticeable!
 
Of course, you can create LODs, and only the highest will use the nicely curved (polynightmare) shaping. LOD2 will be the jagged one, ie 3D aswell but less detailed, LOD3 a curved planar textured surface with alpha transparency in the texture itself, and maybe a last LOD with less curves for even less polygons.

3D text are eye candy which improve "immersion", and that's the kind of "feature" that can make the difference. But you should ask yourself which part of the overall scene will attract the eyes most, and concentrate details, accuracy and quality there. Otherwise, performance should come first (To get it straight : will simmers focus on water towers ?)
 
If you want your text to be a 'texture' rather then an object, you can map a round object with a texture with a 'cylinder' style Planar. When you go to apply a UVW Map for an object, use the cylinder option, map it, apply material, then adjust till it looks right on the object.
 
Yeah, on water towers it's a bit extreme, the initial post was 10 years ago! But my fire-station has text and it needs to have a nice bake!

how does one generate LODs? It can't be done in GMAX?

11141366_514726942013669_5412337993030093950_o.jpg
 
If frame rates are a problem, you can just use drop shadow text on the texture instead of true 3D lettering.

LOD's can be created by selecting a "master object" for each LOD, and naming it something like Building_LOD_100 for the most detailed LOD (this can also be 200 or even 400 for large objects). Then Link all other objects at this LOD to that master object. Create another master object called something like Building_LOD_040 and Link all other LOD 40 objects to that one. Continue for as many LOD's as you need.
 
You can create lettering signage or anything you can think of in Max then either create an image or bake to texture then just use the texture and toss the model. It's a nice way to make gauge faces among other things.
 
That's a good idea.

But that model's only 3,700 verts and 1,700 faces. And I'll have an LOD without the 3D text.

I usually export LODs as separate models and configure them in MCX, need to do it the proper way though. Cheers.
 
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