TextMesh Pro Unwanted SubMesh text persistence

I am using fallback fonts for multi-language support. When I set an object's text such that a fallback font is used, a TMP_SubMeshUI object is created. When I change the text at runtime to characters that use only the main font, the old text in the SubMesh remains. Is there a way I can clear the submesh text so only the new text remains, using TextMesh Pro APIs? Or is there another way I should be switching an object's text back and forth between different languages/fonts?

 

I'm not concerned with the cost of them existing. When changing the text from a fallback character set to a primary character set as described above, the new text and old text are displayed on top of each other (see attached image).

 

Looks like it is caused by a curved UI system I am using. I will follow up with it's author, but if you could still provide some insight it would be appreciated.
What functions are supposed to run to clear / hide the sub-mesh text in the above situation?

 

Hey @Stephan_B

This seems related so posting here. I've built a tool for previewing our game in the different languages we support. If I switch to a language that requires a font fallback, it creates sub meshes as expected. But then those sub mesh objects hang around after switching to other languages.

Is there a convenient way at edit time to 'clean up' sub meshes that were created when switching to a different font asset if the current font asset doesn't require them? Not worried about runtime, but in the editor it would be very welcome.

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the reply Stephan - It must be insane having to answer everyone's questions on here!

When you say "no longer serialized" - in what sense? The sub objects created in my test are serialized and save with the scene. But is that not what you mean?

I'm happy to write my own extension to go through and remove them. Is there a way to determine if any are actually being used?

Thanks!

 

I see - you mean you've made a change in a new version to stop them being serialised, but not the current version available in the package manager?

Using the materialCount sounds good - although when I inspect the TMP_Text object in the debug mode of the inspector, I can see a number of empty sub text objects in the list along with the sub objects that are visible in the scene.

In one TMP_Text object there are 8 sub mesh objects in the list. 6 of them are empty. textInfo.materialCount = 1.

 

Hi, I am having the issue described at the top of this thread where I get submeshes from a fallback font that don't clear out when I change the text - using the latest (I think) CurvedUI and Unity 2019.2.12. Was there any resolution for that original issue? Thanks.

 

Thanks Stephan - I just tried upgrading the package to the latest preview version and get a flood of errors ending with "Material doesn't have a float or range property '_CullMode'". I found your advice on another forum to try deleting the original package before reinstalling the new one - tried that but I still get the errors. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

Hi @Stephan_B ,

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but it seems relevant to an issue we are seeing at runtime where fonts are not being unloaded.

As with the OP, we are using a fallback font as part of our multi language support. We are using the latest TMPro (3.0.6) available in Unity 2021.3.17.

When we change to Arabic for instance, a submesh is created with a reference to the Arabic font material. When returning to English, it would appear that these now unused submesh objects retain references to the Arabic font material which in turn prevents the underlying textures etc from being unloaded.

Screenshot below shows the issue after switching from Arabic to English.

Text object now using English font:


TMP SubMeshUI [NotoSansArabic-Medium Atlas Material + FUTURA_MD_BT Atlas] - (debug inspector mode)


Hopefully you can help.

Thanks a lot,

Niall