Text on signs?

[bunnylions]

I'm making a town map and would like to put "WELCOME TO TUNDRA TOWN" on a sign, so it feels more welcoming. How do I do it?

[Kuri]

So draw a small picture (128x128 pixels is ok, 256x256 has better detail) and put in folder "objects/my_objects"   Make a material file like this

Recycling another material file (open with notepad or similar) and renaming it (save as a .material file not a notepad ect file) makes it easy.
Open object maker, Mesh tab, type "flatplane.mesh" without the " symbols and press "add new".
Should find a tiny little postcard thing appears, enter the "MyMaterialNameHere" name (whatever you called it, probably "welcometotundratown" in your case) in the material text thingy in the object creator and it should change to what you drew in the small picture, scale it to suit your tastes.

You may need to distribute the material file with the map to people who visit it, i haven't quite figured out how to package everything into one neat little file yet.

[Kynvuu]

Moving this over to game help c:

[bunnylions]

So draw a small picture (128x128 pixels is ok, 256x256 has better detail) and put in folder "objects/my_objects"   Make a material file like this

Recycling another material file (open with notepad or similar) and renaming it (save as a .material file not a notepad ect file) makes it easy.
Open object maker, Mesh tab, type "flatplane.mesh" without the " symbols and press "add new".
Should find a tiny little postcard thing appears, enter the "MyMaterialNameHere" name (whatever you called it, probably "welcometotundratown" in your case) in the material text thingy in the object creator and it should change to what you drew in the small picture, scale it to suit your tastes.

You may need to distribute the material file with the map to people who visit it, i haven't quite figured out how to package everything into one neat little file yet.

What kind of picture?

[Bloo.]

You could also download a pre-made sign mesh and edit the texture file in GIMP or any other art program!

[bunnylions]

You could also download a pre-made sign mesh and edit the texture file in GIMP or any other art program!

I am unable to download GIMP due to the evil monster called password protection.

[Bloo.]

You could also download a pre-made sign mesh and edit the texture file in GIMP or any other art program!

I am unable to download GIMP due to the evil monster called password protection.

No problem! You can edit the texture in any art program, even MS Paint!

[Kuri]

So draw a small picture (128x128 pixels is ok, 256x256 has better detail) and put in folder "objects/my_objects"   Make a material file like this

Recycling another material file (open with notepad or similar) and renaming it (save as a .material file not a notepad ect file) makes it easy.
Open object maker, Mesh tab, type "flatplane.mesh" without the " symbols and press "add new".
Should find a tiny little postcard thing appears, enter the "MyMaterialNameHere" name (whatever you called it, probably "welcometotundratown" in your case) in the material text thingy in the object creator and it should change to what you drew in the small picture, scale it to suit your tastes.

You may need to distribute the material file with the map to people who visit it, i haven't quite figured out how to package everything into one neat little file yet.

What kind of picture?

Oh, like...

Start with those as a base, you may have seen them in lonelycave?

[Bawfle]

Here's a tutorial on how to make text for a sign, as well as some things provided which you will need in order to create what you're looking to create.

What you will need.
You will need the following files/documents, which you can download here. The download contains; textfield.material, textfield.mesh and ENTERIMAGENAMEHERE.png, as you can see highlighted in the image below.




Step 1.
Download all the resources in the download link I provided to you, and place all the files/documents that are in that download folder into Local Disk \\ Feral Heart \\ Media \\ Objects \\ My Objects.

Step 2.
Once you have placed the resources where they should be, launch the Feral Heart game and go to Creative Den \\ Object Maker.

Step 3.
Load the Rock object, which can be found in Group \\ Default then Object \\ Rock. Be sure to keep the rock highlighted as shown by either pressing the bab key on your keyboard, or by clicking on the object itself.



Step 4.
Once the above step is complete, select the 'Mesh' tab and rename the text in the Mesh box/field from rock.mesh to textfield.mesh, and then rename the text in the Material box/field from rockMat to textfieldMat then click on the 'Update' button afterwards, as shown below.

   

Step 5.
Once you have hit that update button, you should succesfully be able to see this (front and back examples):





If the image shows a screenshot of a character, all you need to do is rename the Material again in the box/field in the Mesh tab in order for the text to show correctly. The mesh itself will look small at first, so all you'll need to do is re-size it as I have done in the images provided above.


What if I don't want things named as 'textfield'?
If you don't want things named as textfield, then all you need to do is rename the following that are located in Local Disk \\ Feral Heart \\ Media \\ Objects \\ My Objects:

‣  textfield.mesh This is what is used as a base for the text, also known as the object itself.
‣  textfield.material This is the name of the notepad/notepad++ document which holds the coding required for the object/mesh.
‣  Open up textfield.material in notepad or notepad++ and rename the following highlighted to something else.

material textfieldMat This what will be typed into the Material box/field in Object Maker.
{
   transparency_casts_shadows off
   receive_shadows off
   technique
   {
      pass
      {
         //lighting off
         cull_hardware none
         cull_software none
         scene_blend alpha_blend
         alpha_rejection greater_equal 199
         
         texture_unit
         {
            texture ENTERIMAGENAMEHERE.png This is the image/text that will show on the mesh/object.
         }
      }
   }
}

What if I want to make more text like this?
If you're wanting to make more, just open up textfield.material in notepad, or whatever you may have renamed the textfield.material to. Once you have opened it up, all you need to do is copy the first lot of coding, then paste it under the other, or on top. Either should work, as long as you rename the new coding a littl as shown below:

material textfieldMat
{
   transparency_casts_shadows off
   receive_shadows off
   technique
   {
      pass
      {
         //lighting off
         cull_hardware none
         cull_software none
         scene_blend alpha_blend
         alpha_rejection greater_equal 199
         
         texture_unit
         {
            texture ENTERIMAGENAMEHERE.png
         }
      }
   }
}
material textfieldMat2
{
   transparency_casts_shadows off
   receive_shadows off
   technique
   {
      pass
      {
         //lighting off
         cull_hardware none
         cull_software none
         scene_blend alpha_blend
         alpha_rejection greater_equal 199
         
         texture_unit
         {
            texture ENTERIMAGENAMEHERE2.png
         }
      }
   }
}

Once you've done this, be sure to save. Then just follow the steps that were provided above with the new information provided, and you should see this:



Okay, cool. So how do I change the text?
Easiest way is to open a new canvas on either GIMP, Paint Tool SAI or PhotoShop. Though, I recommend GIMP or PhotoShop as they both have text and fonts. If you want to use Paint Tool SAI, let me know and I'll tell you the best way to use it for text. You want to open the new canvas with the size of 512x512px. Alternatively, you could open up the image in either GIMP or PhotoShop and just erase what's already there, then just use your own text by using the text/font tool. I'm sure you can change the size of your canvas, if you have a lot to write, as it will come out in better quality. However, this is just an example, so for now just use 512x512px unless you absolutely need to change the size.


I guess that's it for now? If you need further help in understanding, or help in general, just ask and either I or someone else will have an answer or solution to provide. Please keep note that it is always recommended to rename your .mesh, .material, Mat (located in the .material) and image to something unique. If you don't, then it is likely that your meshes, materials or images/textures will get muddled up with other people's as they would be named the same.

[bunnylions]

So draw a small picture (128x128 pixels is ok, 256x256 has better detail) and put in folder "objects/my_objects"   Make a material file like this

Recycling another material file (open with notepad or similar) and renaming it (save as a .material file not a notepad ect file) makes it easy.
Open object maker, Mesh tab, type "flatplane.mesh" without the " symbols and press "add new".
Should find a tiny little postcard thing appears, enter the "MyMaterialNameHere" name (whatever you called it, probably "welcometotundratown" in your case) in the material text thingy in the object creator and it should change to what you drew in the small picture, scale it to suit your tastes.

You may need to distribute the material file with the map to people who visit it, i haven't quite figured out how to package everything into one neat little file yet.

What kind of picture?

Oh, like...

Start with those as a base, you may have seen them in lonelycave?

Well, I can't do transparency. There's a thing called password protection.