Multi-colored float text?

[Robster Rau]

I have seen some people somehow able to make floattext with more than one color in the same floattext.

Can someone share how this is done?

 

Thanks!

[Darkie Minotaur]

You could make it appear like a mlticolor floating text by actually using several prims each of which has text in a different color and the texts arranged so it looks as if was one text.

[Rolig Loon]

I tried that once, Darkie.  The font used in floating text is not mono-spaced, so getting anything more complicated than a couple of words in different colors is a real bear.  If you try to interleave colored letters, they get all crammed together and look awful.  Still, it's the only way I know of to get more than one color in floating text.

[Robster Rau]

I know there is a way to do it, as I have seen a couple of products using it.

ANd the text comes from a single prim it appears to me.

Maybe it is two prims in the exacte same location?

[Rolig Loon]

They would have to be in exactly the same location or else you'd NEVER be able to get the two floating text strings to line up.

[Darkie Minotaur]

Well, yes - same size at the same location - but as Rolig said, it's not a nice way - but with some fiddling, you can get it to look ok - with static text, at least.

[Jennifer Boyle]

How about mimicing the appearance by using a texture with a transparent background on a prim?

[Darkie Minotaur]

A texture would look diferent - floating text always faces you.

[Rolig Loon]

True, although you could get really tricky and script the thing to turn to face the closest avatar.  THAT would be a valuable use of script time and memory.  :smileyvery-happy:

[Ceera Murakami]

Texture on a particle, perhaps?

I've seen an "NPC generator" that used a single prim that would generate one particle floating above it, with an image of an avatar. Looks fine if your possible angle of view is constrained so you can't look down on it from above. No reason a sign with a transparent background couldn't be done the same way.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

The problems with spacing hovertext are as described.  Note that using a different colour per line of hovertext (from separate prims) is quite possible and easy to align.  The only thing to remember if you do this is that blank leading/trailing lines are suppressed.  That is, "\nSecond Line\n" will not work.  The cure is simply to use a space in otherwise blank lines (" \nSecond Line\n " is fine).  There is some variation in how hovertext is handled by different TPV and LL viewer versions.

Using a particle sign is easy and attractive - IF you don't need dynamic text. as everything has to be pre-generated as a texture.  Particles always face the viewer, as hovertext does.  Note especially that using particle signs allows you to set the size, which hovertext does not, using PSYS_PART_START_SCALE.  This setting also has another use - setting the Z value to 0.0 keeps it vertical so that it does not appear to 'tilt' with changes in the viewer's relative altitude (as mentioned in the post above)

[/me waves to the regulars in passing.  I'm not back but I've been messing around with just this functionality recently so it caught my attention]

[Rolig Loon]

/me waves back to Peter  :smileywink:

[Innula Zenovka]

/me waves back to Peter.

Thanks for the tip about how to use the linebreak -- I knew spaces were important but could never remember quite how it worked.   Now I know for sure.

I second the suggestion about using particles in preference to hovertext if it's possible.   I've recently started doing that; it's so much more attractive and also doesn't show through nearby walls in the way hovertext does.

[Lucinda Bulloch]

Yes , all my combat meters have 2 colors, one color for the race and another color for the health stats that changes with the level, lol, see most here have guessed how to do it, you MUST have 2 or more prims exactly the same same size in exactly the same place, then you just add a new line and space to the text above.