Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Text in BGE

Text

There are a lot of tutorials that show how to make text for the Blender Game Engine, for example to use in menus. Most involve editors, graphics programs, TGA files, UV mapping, scripting, higher magic and so on. Here is a different approach that takes but a minute.

1. Start Blender.
2. Remove the default cube. (X)
3. Add text. (SPACE → Add → Text)
4. You may want to switch to edit mode (TAB) and use the variety of features that Blender provides for editing, formatting and laying out text. They are described in the Blender Manual Section. For a start just use BACKSPACE to delete the letters "Text" and type your own like "This is simple".
5. When finished editing go back to object mode. (TAB)
6. Convert your text to a mesh. (ALT+C → Mesh)
7. Press P

This is as simple as it gets. Of course you can do all kinds of laying out with your text before the conversion in step 6 (check the Blender Manual) as well as modeling, texturing and dynamically manipulating thereafter (as you have a normal mesh). Simply remember that you need to make sure the text is final before you convert it.

This tutorial has been tested with Blender 2.8 RC1.

"However, it should be pointed out that while this is so incredibly simple, it is not poly-count efficient. Remember, there is more to making a game than making it look good--making it run well. If you need a cut-and-dry menu, this is the best way. If you need to worry about performance, then it might be worth it to check out some UV Mapping and external program usage.

It is also important to note that these fonts can't be dynamic, contrary to bitmap-uvmapped ones...

Links

• How to create Dynamic Text in Blender Game Engine (Youtube)