billboarding vertices in the vertex shader

Question

Code demonstrating issue (comment/uncomment out the gl_Position lines in the vertex shader)

Answer 1

I think you want

gl_Position = projectionMatrix * 
              (modelViewMatrix * vec4(labelpos, 1) +
               vec4(position.xy, 0, 0));

and you need to not add in the position to the vertices

geo.vertices.push(
  new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 0.05, ln * oneDotOne + 0.05, 0),
  new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 1.05, ln * oneDotOne + 0.05, 0),
  new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 1.05, ln * oneDotOne + 1.05, 0),
  new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 0.05, ln * oneDotOne + 1.05, 0));

Otherwise you'd be putting in the position twice.

Because all your labels are in the same mesh then there's only 1 draw call which means you won't get a different location for each label unless you pass it in (which you were in labelpos but you weren't using it)

In which case modelViewMatrix * vec4(0,0,0,1) is the same as just saying modelViewMatrix[3] All you're doing is getting the translation of the model that contains all the labels. That would work if each label was a separate mesh and had its own matrix but since you've put them all in one mesh it won't work.

Your fix was the pass in the location of each label in a separate attribute which you had already included, you just needed to use it.

modelViewMatrix * vec4(labelpos, 1)

gets you the root of the label

vec4(position.x, position.y, 0.0, 0.0)

adds in the corners in view space

var scene;
    var book;
    var shaderMaterial;

    var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer({
        antialias: true
    });
    renderer.setClearColor(0x000000);
    document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

    var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(55, 1, 0.1, 40000);


    window.onresize = function () {
        renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
        camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight;
        camera.updateProjectionMatrix();
    };
    window.onresize();

    scene = new THREE.Scene();

    camera.position.z = 25;
    camera.position.y = 15;
    scene.add(camera);


    var grid = new THREE.GridHelper(100, 10);
    scene.add(grid);


    var controls = new THREE.OrbitControls(camera);
    controls.damping = 0.2;
    var lettersPerSide = 16;

    function createGlpyhSheet() {

        var fontSize = 64;

        var c = document.createElement('canvas');
        c.width = c.height = fontSize * lettersPerSide;
        var ctx = c.getContext('2d');
        ctx.font = fontSize + 'px Monospace';
        var i = 0;

        for (var y = 0; y < lettersPerSide; y++) {
            for (var x = 0; x < lettersPerSide; x++, i++) {
                var ch = String.fromCharCode(i);
                ctx.fillText(ch, x * fontSize, -(8 / 32) * fontSize + (y + 1) * fontSize);
            }
        }

        var tex = new THREE.Texture(c);
        tex.flipY = false;
        tex.needsUpdate = true;

        return tex;
    }


    function createLabels(textArrays, positions) {
        //console.log(textArrays, positions);

        var master_geometry = new THREE.Geometry();


        for (var k = 0; k < textArrays.length; k++) {

            var geo = new THREE.Geometry();
            geo.dynamic = true;

            var str = textArrays[k];
            var vec = positions[k];
            //console.log(shaderMaterial);

            //console.log('str is', str, 'vec is', vec);


            var j = 0,
                ln = 0;

            for (i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {

                //console.log('creating glyph', str[i]);

                var code = str.charCodeAt(i);
                var cx = code % lettersPerSide;
                var cy = Math.floor(code / lettersPerSide);
                var oneDotOne = .55;

                geo.vertices.push(
                new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 0.05, ln * oneDotOne + 0.05, 0),
                new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 1.05, ln * oneDotOne + 0.05, 0),
                new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 1.05, ln * oneDotOne + 1.05, 0),
                new THREE.Vector3(j * oneDotOne + 0.05, ln * oneDotOne + 1.05, 0));
                shaderMaterial.attributes.labelpos.value.push(vec);
                shaderMaterial.attributes.labelpos.value.push(vec);
                shaderMaterial.attributes.labelpos.value.push(vec);
                shaderMaterial.attributes.labelpos.value.push(vec);

                var face = new THREE.Face3(i * 4 + 0, i * 4 + 1, i * 4 + 2);
                geo.faces.push(face);
                face = new THREE.Face3(i * 4 + 0, i * 4 + 2, i * 4 + 3);
                geo.faces.push(face);

                var ox = (cx + 0.05) / lettersPerSide;
                var oy = (cy + 0.05) / lettersPerSide;
                var off = 0.9 / lettersPerSide;

                geo.faceVertexUvs[0].push([
                new THREE.Vector2(ox, oy + off),
                new THREE.Vector2(ox + off, oy + off),
                new THREE.Vector2(ox + off, oy)]);
                geo.faceVertexUvs[0].push([
                new THREE.Vector2(ox, oy + off),
                new THREE.Vector2(ox + off, oy),
                new THREE.Vector2(ox, oy)]);
                if (code == 10) {
                    ln--;
                    j = 0;
                } else {
                    j++;
                }
            }

            // i can only get this working with merge.
            // Building one giant geometry doesn't work for some reason
            master_geometry.merge(geo);

        }

        console.log(shaderMaterial);
        shaderMaterial.attributes.labelpos.needsUpdate = true;

        book = new THREE.Mesh(
        master_geometry,
        shaderMaterial);

        //book.doubleSided = true;
        scene.add(book);

    }


    var uniforms = {
        map: {
            type: "t",
            value: createGlpyhSheet()
        }
    };

    var attributes = {
        labelpos: {
            type: 'v3',
            value: []
        }
    };

    shaderMaterial = new THREE.ShaderMaterial({
        attributes: attributes,
        uniforms: uniforms,
        vertexShader: document.querySelector('#vertex').textContent,
        fragmentShader: document.querySelector('#fragment').textContent
    });
    shaderMaterial.transparent = true;
    shaderMaterial.depthTest = false;


    strings = [];
    vectors = [];
    var sizeOfWorld = 100;
    var halfSize = sizeOfWorld * 0.5;

    for (var i = 0; i < 500; i++) {

        strings.push('test' + i);
        var vector = new THREE.Vector3();
        vector.x = Math.random() * sizeOfWorld - halfSize;
        vector.y = Math.random() * sizeOfWorld - halfSize;
        vector.z = Math.random() * sizeOfWorld - halfSize;
        vectors.push(vector);

    }

    console.log('creating labels');
    createLabels(strings, vectors);

    function animate() {
        controls.update();
        renderer.render(scene, camera);
        requestAnimationFrame(animate, renderer.domElement);
    }

    animate();

html {
            background-color: #ffffff;
        }
        * {
            margin: 0;
            padding: 0;
        }