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OpenTK Text Renderer

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OpenTK Text Renderer

Contrary to what you might expect, rendering a simple string is quite difficult with a low-level library like OpenGL. But basically, you iterate through the string, rendering a textured quad for each character.

Then, when the application loads, create a VAO for each character, containing the vertex positions (size of the quad) and it's texture co-ordinates. This font is monospaced so the vertex positions are simply:

OpenGL and OpenTK do not support any built-in text rendering. Essentially, they are too "low-level" for that. Nevertheless, many applications, such as yours, require text rendering, and significant work has been done to find efficient ways to render text via OpenGL (and OpenTK as well, of course). One popular technique is based on "distance fields," made famous by a 2007 SIGGRAPH paper, from Chris Green. In my own applications, I have implemented support for text rendering on top of OpenTK using techniques based on distance fields, and have been very pleased by the overall quality, performance, and flexibility of this approach:

One possibility would be to use FreeType library to load a TrueType Font to texture objects.SharpFont provides Cross-platform FreeType bindings for C#.The source can be found at GitHub - Robmaister/SharpFont.(x64 SharpFont.dll and freetype6.dll from MonoGame.Dependencies)

This article shall help to get a quick overview about the text rendering options for OpenGL/OpenTK, espeially for the MONO/.NET programming languages. I want to share my findings and help programmers, which are looking for a solution, that fits their needs.

Let's start with a short discussion about the INNOVATIVE approach: This method requires a powerful GPU and a considerable amout of texture buffer memory on the one hand but it relieves the CPU remarkable on the other hand. Currently there is exactly one known implementation: GLyphy. IMO this will definitively be the approach of the future. Future because GLyphy detected various implementation errors in Mesa, almost all video drivers and pixel shaders it has been tested for. And they have to be fixed before it can be used widely.

On X11 the Mono wrapper for Pango or Cairo's Pango calls could be a good alternative to Mono's System.Drawing.Graphics namespace (Windows GDI replica). Cairo offers Cairo.Context.ShowText() and Cairo.Context.TextExtents() as an equivalent to System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawString() and System.Drawing.Graphics.MeasureString(). But i didn't find code "ready to use" that implements the required functionality for application in the context of OpenTK.

The practice 1.b. (glyphs to intermediate texture bitmap, excerpts to final texture bitmap) is a little bit "reinventing the wheel". Because to render the glyphs of a font to an (intermediate) bitmap is the same thing that Windows GDI or X11 font server already do.

Cons: A lot of effort for creation and management of the (intermediade) font bitmaps. As well as for extraction of glyph texture's excerpts and combination to a string. Program initialization requires font bitmap initialization and consumes runtime.

The practice 1.c. (bitmap-font to intermediate texture bitmap, excerpts to final texture bitmap) is similar to practice 1.b, but it doesn't provide the same fonts as the Windows GDI or X11 font server already do - it provides fonts from specific bitmap font files. This practice is typically used by games.

Cons: A lot of effort for creation and management of the font bitmaps. As well as for extraction of glyph texture's excerpts and combination to a string. Specific font files are required. Program initialization requires font bitmap initialization but is much faster than 1.b.

Description: The creation of font bitmaps can be completely separated (by time, by resources, by location) from their usage. Artificial or texture fonts are easy to achieve. Most of the fonts are monospaced, but proportional fonts are possible - they need the glyph widths in addition to the bitmap prov