DirectX9 - Font with outline ?

[va!n]

I just have a small question regarding drawing DX9 Fonts! I am using D3DXCreateFont() for creating and DrawTextA() to display the string/DXFont. This works without any problems!

The question, how to display the DXFont in color red with a blue outline? Is it still possible with this two commands? I have tried a search on google but i did not really found something usefull. Thanks in advance.

[Jim]

If you can change the colour at all, then you'd need to draw it in blue, then slightly smaller and offset in red.
That doesn't sound like a brilliant solution to me, 'cos you'd probably need 2 fonts at different sizes to do that.
Combine that with the fact that d3dxfont is not a fast API at all.

...later...
Actually, I was looking for a Text3D sample that used to be with DirectX.  It implemented a class called CD3DFont which pre-rendered a font onto a texture, then let you draw it at any size/position/colour/orientation and it was really quick.  Looks like that sample has been dropped in favour of d3dxfont sample, and I wonder why.

I've used CD3DFont before and it was cool, but it needs big textures to look good, and right now I can't find an archive of the sample - it's part of older DirectX9 SDK samples.

Jim

[Jim]

OK, here's your answer, ID3DXFont got a massive speed boost at some point
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=182032

Jim

[va!n]

@jim. ok thanks. i think i will first continue some other parts in my project and then i will spend some time with the outlined font ^^