How to do OpenGL live text-rendering for a GUI?

Question

I\'m implementing a GUI built on top of OpenGL. I came to the problem that each GUI will have -- text rendering. I know of several methods of rendering text in OpenGL, howev

Answer 1

Per quad character handled thought a display list (updated only when text changes) is quite enough for most cases.

I used it with X11 fonts using the XLoadQueryFont, glGenLists, glXUseXFont, glCallLists you have an array of display lists describing each character.

the glCallLists function accepts a char * argument for your text and it can be embedded inside a display list.

So you end up with a single call to display blocks text.

The font texture suggested by G. Pakosz is similar, but you compute your own "by character" display lists.

Your first options will be quite slower as it will require processor based rendering at each text change.