| Microsoft DirectX 8.1 (C++) |
The Text3D sample shows how to draw 2-D text in a 3-D scene. This is useful for displaying statistics or game menus, and so on.
Source: (SDK root)\Samples\Multimedia\Direct3D\Text3D
Executable: (SDK root)\Samples\Multimedia\Direct3D\Bin
The following table lists the keys that are implemented. You can use menu commands for the same controls.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| ENTER | Starts and stops the scene. |
| SPACEBAR | Advances the scene by a small increment. |
| F2 | Prompts the user to select a new rendering device or display mode. |
| ALT+ENTER | Toggles between full-screen and windowed modes. |
| ESC | Exits the application. |
This sample uses the common class, CD3DFont, to display 2-D text in a 3-D scene. The source code for the class is of most interest to this sample. The class uses GDI to load a font and output each letter to a bitmap. That bitmap, in turn, is used to create a texture.
When the CD3DFont class's DrawText function is called, a vertex buffer is filled with polygons that are textured using the font texture created as mentioned above. The polygons may be drawn as a 2-D overlay—useful, for example, for printing statistics—or truly integrated in the 3-D scene.
This sample uses common Microsoft® DirectX® code that consists programming elements such as helper functions. This code is shared with other samples in the DirectX SDK. You can find the common headers and source code in (SDK root)\Samples\Multimedia\Common.