Programmatic Textures

Summary

Programmatic Texture generation is a similar technology to Dynamic Web Textures, except the client generates the texture from programmatic instructions rather than downloading it from a script on a web server.

RenderText

Argent Stonecutter has suggested:

llRenderText(integer face, string text, integer font, integer color);

This would render text on a face, similar to llSetText, except on a face. The client would generate a raster image and place it on the face.

• Pro: Solves a very common problem.
• Con: Limited in scope, only useful for text.
• Con: Font selection may be limited.
• Con: Windows platforms, Mac platforms, and Linux Platforms all have different default fonts.

Rendered Vector 2D Lines

llPlotLine(integer face, float width, integer color, list coords);

Coords to draw a square:
[ <0,   0,    0>, 
  <0,   0.1,  0>,
  <0.1, 0.1,  0>,
  <0.1, 0,    0>,
  <0,   0,    0>
]

The vectors here are really only used cartesian X/Y values.

• Pro: Can be used to draw text, simple fonts can be created.
• Pro: Can draw anything.
• Pro: Can be used to create dynamic raster images by using very small lines that form "pixels".
• Con: Could require a lot of bandwidth to send the client a complex image.
• Con: Fonts created this way would look ugly.