OpenGL - 2d text in 3d game

hi, im using OpenGL with C++ to make basically a 3d pool game, but i need to get text on the screen and have no idea how, i read something about switching to glOrtho and then switching back after the text is printed, this way the text always stays in the same place on the game screen regardless of what camera angle the player is using. can anyone enlighten me. thanks very much

-mike

There's a library called glut which includes that function. For the following code to work you got to include gl/glut.h and link glut32.lib. If you don't have those, just google around a little bit ;)

Here's the code:

Code:

---

void writeString(char* string, int x, int y, void* font)
{
        glRasterPos2i(x, y);
        int len = strlen(string);
        for (int i=0; i < len; i++)
        {
                glutBitmapCharacter(font, string[i]);
        }
}
void setOrthographicProjection() {

        glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
        glPushMatrix();
        glLoadIdentity();
        gluOrtho2D(0, SCREEN_WIDTH, 0, SCREEN_HEIGHT);
        glScalef(1, -1, 1);
        glTranslatef(0, -SCREEN_HEIGHT, 0);
        glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
}

void resetPerspectiveProjection() {
        glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION);
        glPopMatrix();
        glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW);
}

---

I have not written all of this code though, most is taken from a tutorial but I cant remember where :-/ . If you want to use other ways; try Nehe: http://nehe.gamedev.net hes got a lot of great tutorials.

Good luck

Daniel