| Icon |  |
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| Name of gadget | Text Displayer |
| Section | Movers & Outputs |
| Number of Tweak pages | 8 |
| Author | LadylexUK, QuietlyWrong |
| Last updated | 1 April 2020 [v2.07] |
Description
This gadget is used to display text. You can show the text in a box or without one and with a selection of different fonts. The text can display on the display layer, like a HUD or status bar (2D) or within the scene itself, like a poster on a wall (3D).
It is a simple gadget in what it can do – make text appear – but has many options for tweaking the appearance of the text that allow it to be used for everything from on-screen health readouts to speech bubbles to in-game computer displays.
As well as the gadget and its tweak menus, the box itself appears on screen at its target location, exactly as it would appear, where you can resize it (and thereby resize the text), move it around and see the effects of your tweaks.
The text “display” is made of four different components, each of which is tweakable: the text itself, the “text box” (a resizeable and hideable background panel on which the text is printed), the “border” (a line that can be drawn around the outside of the text box) and the “shadow” (a drop-shadow that can be used to make the text or text box stand out a little from the background; it has nothing to do with any light sources in the scene).
If you expect the player to interact with the text at all – to choose from a number of dialogue options, say, or merely close the text box with the press of a button – you should probably be using a Dialogue Text Displayer instead, which adds pages of extra tweaks for player interaction.
Example Tutorial (adapted from Media Molecule)
- Stamp a cube
- Stamp a text displayer
- Stamp a timer
- Tweak the text displayer and type “Hello World” into the Enter text box
- Use the slider to choose a font you like
- Go to text box properties and pick a tail shape.
- Drag the tail over to the cube so it looks like a speech bubble and the cube is speaking
- Turn the curviness of the text box up to 100%
- Turn off autofit and use the handles to alter the shape.
- Go to settings and set animation speed to 10.
- Connect the timer finished signal to start text on the text displayer
- Hit start time.
Tweak Menus
Click on arrows to reveal
Tweak Menu 1: Text Properties
[image v2.07]
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- Menu page indicator
- Enter Text
Type the text you want to display here. - Text Colour
Choose the colour of the text displayed. - Text Brightness
Choose the brightness of the text displayed (a little can go a long way). - Text Opacity
Choose the opacity of the text itself – a lower value means it’s more see-through. - Font
This slider provides a selection of font styles to choose from. You can even dynamically change the font style by wiring a value into the input port. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 2: Text Box Properties
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- Menu page indicator
- Show Text Box
This toggles whether you can see a background box behind the text or not. - Text Box Colour
Choose the colour of the text box. - Tail shape
Choose a tail type (if any) for the text box – such as for a speech bubble, thought bubble, etc. A draggable handle will allow you to choose its target position below the text box. - Text Box Brightness
Choose the level of brightness of the text box. - Text Box Opacity
Choose the degree of opacity of the text box, from invisible to completely opaque. The ability to set this to a very low value and create a near-invisible but reflective surface means it’s a popular choice for making windows and still water surfaces. - Text Box Curviness
Choose how curvy the corners of the text box are, allowing you to make the box an ellipse or a rectangle or anything in between. - Circular Curviness
Adjust the shape of the curve text box’s corners – has no effect if the Text Box Curviness is set to 0%. - Taper
Change the shape of the text box such that one side is taller than the other. Note that this does not affect the text itself. - Wonkiness
Skew the text box from upright to a pronounced slant. Note that this does not affect the text itself. - Padding
Increasing the value of Padding increases the blank space on all sides of the text. - Autofit
Toggle this to determine whether the text box will automatically change size to accommodate the text inside it. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 3: Texture Properties
[image v2.07] |
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- Menu page indicator
- Texture Mode
Choose between three texture modes:-
- None
- Painterly
- Standard
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- Texture
Pick the fleck type to be used to texture the box. - Texture Strength
Choose how much the texture’s own shape plays a part in the appearance of the box. - Texture Scale
Choose the size of the flecks being used to provide texture. - Fade Amount
[Standard mode only] Choose the how close to the centre of the box that the texture begins to fade to transparent. - Painterly Fade
[Painterly mode only] Increasing this value causes the flecks to fade out further and more erratically from the edges of the text box. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 4: Border Properties
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- Menu page indicator
- Show Border
This is a toggle on whether you can see a border around the box or not. - Border Colour
Choose the colour of the border around the box. - Border Brightness
Choose the brightness of the border around the box. - Border Opacity
Choose how opaque the text box border is. - Border Width
Choose the width of the text box border. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 5: Shadow Properties
[image v2.07] |
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Note: this menu tab is not available (not shown) if the Texture Properties are set to Painterly Mode.
- Menu page indicator
- Show Shadow
This is a toggle on whether the text box has a small drop-shadow effect to make it stand out a little from anything behind it. - Shadow Softness
If the shadow is visible, choose how sharp or blurry its edges are. - Shadow Opacity
Choose how opaque the text box’s drop-shadow is. - Shadow Angle
Choose the angle from which the shadow is cast – any angle around the text box is possible. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 6: Alignment
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- Menu page indicator
- Horizontal Alignment
Choose the horizontal alignment of the text within the confines of the text box (left, centre, right). - Vertical Alignment
Choose the vertical alignment of the text within the confines of the text box (top, centre, bottom). - Horizontal Alignment (Screen)
Chooses the horizontal position of the text box itself on the screen (left, centre, right, custom). Select “custom” if you want to move the text box freely to any horizontal position. - Vertical Alignment (Screen)
Chooses the vertical position of the text box itself on the screen (left, centre, right, custom). Select “custom” if you want to move the text box freely to any vertical position. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 7: Settings
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- Menu page indicator
- In Scene
This is a toggle to place the text display within the scene (as a 3D object) or directly onto the screen, regardless of where the player is (2D). You might use the 3D option for posters on walls, for example, while the 2D option is good for status displays, menus, inventory, etc. - Big Gadget
The gadget itself has two possible appearances in edit mode; this option is used to toggle between the compact display and the “big gadget” version which shows some of the text in the gadget itself. It has no effect on the behaviour of the text box in Play mode, when all gadgets are invisible. - Face Camera
If this is selected (it’s only available if “In Scene” is activated) it will rotate the text box so it is always facing the player. - Always on Top
If this is selected (it’s only available if “In Scene” is activated) it will draw the text box in front of any other elements in the scene, even if they are closer to you than the text display. - Sort Order
Use this to determine what order the text box will appear on screen if two or more boxes overlap. The higher the number, the higher the priority (i.e. where two boxes overlap, the highest sort order number will be shown in full, with lower priority boxes behind). - Allow Rotation
This is a toggle to determine whether to allow a text box to be rotated, or whether it must always remain upright. - Animation Speed
Choose how quickly the text appears in display when it is activated. By default, this is “infinitely fast” (∞), i.e. the whole text appears instantaneously. You can use the slider or an input value to change this to any “characters per second” value from 1 upwards. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Tweak Menu 8: Inputs & Outputs
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- Menu page indicator
- Start Text
You can connect an input wire here to send a signal to a text display gadget that will activate its text display whenever you want. If nothing is connected here, the text will appear as long as the gadget is powered on. - Text Active
This outputs a signal while the text is being displayed – whether or not the player can actually see it. - Text Animation Finished
This outputs a signal to indicate that the whole text has been displayed, that you might use to trigger the next piece of logic. If you want the player to indicate that they have read the text by pressing a button, however, it’s better to use the Dialogue Text Displayer gadget which has more options for player interaction. - Text Animating
This outputs a signal to indicate that the text is currently being animated. You might for example use this to drive the jabbering nonsense speech of a character as the text appears in a speech bubble. - Text Animation Progress
This outputs a signal to indicate what percentage of the text has so far been drawn into its text box. An input also (presumably? TBA) allows direct control over the progress of the text. - Power
This is where you turn the gadget on/off.
Lex Tips
Useful Tutorials
Beginners guide to the Text Displayer gadget
Version Updates
v2.03: New “painterly” texture effect added, plus options for taper and “wonkiness” of the text box; menu tabs rearranged and added to in order to make room for these additions; “Big gadget” mode added to allow for a new compact version of the gadget; “Text Finished” output removed.
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