Text Gizmo

Is there any way of drawing text in the scene view other than rendering text dynamically into textures and using Gizmos.DrawIcon()?

I really miss this feature for debugging purposes.

~ce

 

I successfully created a singleton script that can render text gizmos in the scene view. It's not pretty. I use readymade character textures and call Gizmos.DrawIcon() for each character.

Now, I can't get the transparency working. Can anyone please help me with this?

The script and textures can be downloaded here:
http://sixthsensor.dk/temp/unityforum/TextGizmo.zip

Place the TextGizmo folder in "Assets/Gizmos/". Then call TextGizmo.Draw( Vector3 position, string text ) from OnGizmos() in any MonoBehaviour.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. /*
3. *   TextGizmo.cs
4. *   August 2009
5. *   Carl Emil Carlsen
6. *   sixthsensor.dk
7. */
8.  
9. using UnityEngine;
10. using System.Collections.Generic;
11.  
12.  
13. public class TextGizmo
14. {
15.     private static TextGizmo tg = null;
16.     private Dictionary<char,string> texturePathLookup;
17.     private Camera editorCamera = null;
18.     private const int CHAR_TEXTURE_HEIGHT = 8; // todo: line breaks
19.     private const int CHAR_TEXTURE_WIDTH = 6;
20.     private const string characters = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
21.    
22.    
23.     public static void Init()
24.     {
25.         tg = new TextGizmo();
26.     }
27.    
28.    
29.     /* singleton constructor */
30.     private TextGizmo()
31.     {
32.         editorCamera = Camera.current;
33.         texturePathLookup = new Dictionary<char,string>();
34.         for( int c=0; c<characters.Length; c++ ){
35.             texturePathLookup.Add( characters[c], "TextGizmo/text_" + characters[c] + ".tif" );
36.         }
37.     }
38.    
39.    
40.     /* only call this method from a OnGizmos() method */
41.     public static void Draw( Vector3 position, string text )
42.     {
43.         if( tg == null ) Init();
44.        
45.         string lowerText = text.ToLower();
46.         Vector3 screenPoint = tg.editorCamera.WorldToScreenPoint( position );
47.         int offset = 20;
48.         for( int c=0; c<lowerText.Length; c++ )
49.         {  
50.             if( tg.texturePathLookup.ContainsKey( lowerText[c] ) )
51.             {
52.                 Vector3 worldPoint = tg.editorCamera.ScreenToWorldPoint( new Vector3( screenPoint.x + offset, screenPoint.y, screenPoint.z ) );
53.                
54.                 Gizmos.DrawIcon( worldPoint, tg.texturePathLookup[ lowerText[c] ] );
55.                
56.                 offset += CHAR_TEXTURE_WIDTH;
57.             }
58.         }
59.     }
60. }

 

What's the format of the image I should use for the gizmos icons ?

I tried a generic 256 x 128 tga with alpha and dint worked.

Only TIFF ?

Any other restrictions ?

 

I haven't checked, but I assume the image format restrictions (if any) are described in the documentation for Gizmos.DrawIcon() which is the method I use to display the letters. I generated the letters using Processing, but I suppose you could do that in Unity as well.

~ce


This is all you need to generate the letters.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. PFont font;
3. String alphabet = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå0123456789.,;:+-(){}/!#%= ";
4.  
5.  
6. void setup()
7. {
8.  size( 6, 10 );
9.  noLoop();
10.  
11.  
12.  font = createFont( "DroidSansMono", 10 );
13.  textFont( font, 10 );
14.  
15.   stroke( 255 );
16.   noFill();
17.  
18.   for( int s=0; s<alphabet.length(); s++)
19.   {
20.     background( 0 );
21.     text( alphabet.charAt(s), 0, 8 );
22.     saveFrame( "alphabet/text_" + alphabet.charAt(s) + ".tif" );
23.   }
24. }

 

Gizmos icon i think must be in a Gizmo(s) folder if i remeber right.

 

This is a bit old, but just wanted to say thanks for this script! Helped me out loads...

 

Hey. Thanks for the great script! I extended it a little:
added line break support and a couple of special characters + changed the textures to transparent PNGs (by hand )

http://www.vivivi.mmf.at/unitypackage/TextGizmo.unitypackage

 

Your package didn't include the updated script. It would be great to get that line break support instead of me coding it again.

 

Just in case someone else need that new-line feature, I hacked something quick:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. #if UNITY_EDITOR
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using System.Collections.Generic;
5.  
6. public class TextGizmo
7. {
8.     #region Singleton
9.     private class Singleton
10.     {
11.         static Singleton()
12.         {
13.             if (instance == null)
14.             {
15.                 instance = new TextGizmo();
16.             }
17.         }
18.        
19.         internal static readonly TextGizmo instance;
20.     }
21.    
22.     public static TextGizmo Instance { get { return Singleton.instance; } }
23.    
24.     #endregion
25.    
26.     private const int CHAR_TEXTURE_HEIGHT = 11;
27.     private const int CHAR_TEXTURE_WIDTH = 8;
28.     private const string characters = " !#%'()+,-.0123456789;=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_{}~\\?\":/*";
29.  
30.     private Dictionary<char,string> texturePathLookup;
31.     private Dictionary<char, string> specialChars;
32.  
33.     private TextGizmo()
34.     {
35.         specialChars = new Dictionary<char, string>();
36.         specialChars.Add('\\', "backslash");
37.         specialChars.Add('?', "questionmark");
38.         specialChars.Add('"', "quotes");
39.         specialChars.Add(':', "colon");
40.         specialChars.Add('/', "slash");
41.         specialChars.Add('*', "star");
42.        
43.         texturePathLookup = new Dictionary<char,string>();
44.         for( int c=0; c<characters.Length; c++ )
45.         {
46.             string charName = specialChars.ContainsKey(characters[c]) ? specialChars[characters[c]] : characters[c].ToString();
47.             texturePathLookup.Add(characters[c], "TextGizmo/text_" + charName + ".png");
48.         }
49.     }
50.    
51.     public void DrawText(Camera camera, Vector3 position, object message) { DrawText(camera, position, message != null ? message.ToString() : "(null)"); }
52.     public void DrawText(Camera camera, Vector3 position, string format, params object[] args) { DrawText(camera, position, string.Format(format, args)); }
53.  
54.     private void DrawText(Camera camera, Vector3 position, string text)
55.     {  
56.         string lowerText = text.ToLower();
57.         Vector3 screenPoint = camera.WorldToScreenPoint(position);
58.        
59.         Vector3 offset = Vector3.zero;
60.         for(int c = 0, n = lowerText.Length; c < n; ++c)
61.         {  
62.             if ('\n'.Equals(lowerText[c]))
63.             {
64.                 offset.y += CHAR_TEXTURE_HEIGHT + 2;
65.                 offset.x = 0;
66.                 continue;
67.             }
68.             else if(texturePathLookup.ContainsKey(lowerText[c]))
69.             {
70.                 Gizmos.DrawIcon(camera.ScreenToWorldPoint(screenPoint + offset), texturePathLookup[lowerText[c]]);
71.                 offset.x += CHAR_TEXTURE_WIDTH;
72.             }
73.         }
74.     }
75. }
76. #endif
77.  

In order to use that script you'll need the unity package posted previously.

 

thumbs up! really helpful

 

Really helpful, thanks for the feature!

 

Why would you need this when you can simply call GUI.TextField inside OnDrawGizmos() ?

 

just tried it... that doesn't seem to draw anything

 

Hi,

The package + the last source code posted doesn't draw anything for me Could someone send a full package with a working sample scene please ?

 

Little late, but I figured I would post it here for people still looking at this thread:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/60ffjzx27agrgr0/TextGizmo.unitypackage

 

Thanks!

 

Was looking for something similar to the above and found the Handles class http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/Handles.html works nicely:

Code (csharp):

1. function OnDrawGizmos() {
2.     Handles.Label(transform.position, transform.name);
3. }
4.  

Easy to only label objects of a certain type.

 

The Unity built-in icons / labels might be enough for some people
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/GizmoandIconVisibility.html

If you pick an oblong icon, it will put the object name in the gizmo icon.

This feature may not have been around when the thread was started.

 

Updated version included all characters in the folder

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B95VyJVyNUHqVnBmSVd2aFFWSmc/view?usp=sharing

 

hey, this works! Thanks! Just make sure to wrap on #if UNITY_EDITOR.

 

Awesome! I have a small correction for the script though, you forgot to handle the empty space
Just add in the private constructor:

Code (CSharp):

1. m_texturePathLookup.Add(' ', "TextGizmo/text_ .png");

 

This one works nicely as well:

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. public class Debug2Mono : MonoBehaviour
3. {
4.     public class Debug2String
5.     {
6.         public Vector3 pos;
7.         public string text;
8.         public Color? color;
9.     }
10.  
11.     public List<Debug2String> Strings = new List<Debug2String>();
12.  
13.     public void OnDrawGizmos()
14.     {
15.         foreach ( var stringpair in Strings )
16.         {
17.             UnityEditor.Handles.color = stringpair.color.HasValue ? stringpair.color.Value : Color.green;
18.             UnityEditor.Handles.Label (stringpair.pos, stringpair.text);
19.         }
20.     }
21. }

call it via:

Code (CSharp):

1. // ... your class here
2.  
3.  
4.     private static Debug2Mono m_instance;
5.     public static Debug2Mono instance {
6.         get
7.         {
8.             if ( m_instance == null )
9.             {
10.                 m_instance = GameObject.FindObjectOfType<Debug2Mono>();
11.                 if ( m_instance == null )
12.                 {
13.                     var go = new GameObject("DeleteMeLater");
14.                     m_instance = go.AddComponent<Debug2Mono>();
15.                 }
16.             }
17.             return m_instance;
18.         }
19.     }
20.  
21.     public static void DrawText(Vector3 pos, string text, Color? color = null)
22.     {
23.         instance.Strings.Add ( new Debug2Mono.Debug2String() { text = text, color = color, pos = pos} );
24.     }

 

Thank you Xelnath, it does work really well.

Another way to use it would be to have a the script itself attached to a single GameObject.

Just make the Strings list static and you can use a static method form everywhere to add debugObjects to it.

Anyway, thanks a lot, this is really helpful!

 

Except it wont work in build, and require unity editor assembly.

 

Thats right, pointcache. You will get builderrors if you leave this in place when building your project. But for editor debugging it worked well enough. Or do know an option that does work with builds?

 

You could do some additional checking:

public static class UHelper {

public static bool IsEditorEnviromentPlaymode = Application.isEditor && !Application.isPlaying ? true : false;
public static bool IsGameEnviromentPlaymode = !Application.isEditor && Application.isPlaying ? true : false;
}

 

For google time-travellers: version with background behind text

Code (CSharp):

1.     public static void DrawString(string text, Vector3 worldPos, Color? textColor = null, Color? backColor = null)
2.     {
3.         UnityEditor.Handles.BeginGUI();
4.         var restoreTextColor = GUI.color;
5.         var restoreBackColor = GUI.backgroundColor;
6.  
7.         GUI.color = textColor ?? Color.white;
8.         GUI.backgroundColor = backColor ?? Color.black;
9.  
10.         var view = UnityEditor.SceneView.currentDrawingSceneView;
11.         if (view != null && view.camera != null)
12.         {
13.             Vector3 screenPos = view.camera.WorldToScreenPoint(worldPos);
14.             if (screenPos.y < 0 || screenPos.y > Screen.height || screenPos.x < 0 || screenPos.x > Screen.width || screenPos.z < 0)
15.             {
16.                 GUI.color = restoreTextColor;
17.                 UnityEditor.Handles.EndGUI();
18.                 return;
19.             }
20.             Vector2 size = GUI.skin.label.CalcSize(new GUIContent(text));            
21.             var r = new Rect(screenPos.x - (size.x / 2), -screenPos.y + view.position.height + 4, size.x, size.y);
22.             GUI.Box(r, text, EditorStyles.numberField);
23.             GUI.Label(r, text);
24.             GUI.color = restoreTextColor;
25.             GUI.backgroundColor = restoreBackColor;
26.         }
27.         UnityEditor.Handles.EndGUI();
28.     }

 

Ultimate sweet stuff

 

Why is Unity not funding this?!?! thanks guys, extremely useful!

 

I believe tecnically you can create TextMeshes and use Gizmos.DrawMesh or Gizmos.DrawWiredMesh...

haven't tried it though. I have it on my dev list

 

More time traveling after over 3 years...

Didn't Unity update the DrawGizmo class yet?....