is the following the best way to display text i.e high score and number of lives etc on my screen? i have a 3d game viewed from a fixed perspective so really its 2d but with 3d models and i need to display high score: glMatrixMode( GL_PROJECTION ); glLoadIdentity(); glOrtho( 0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f ); glMatrixMode( GL_MODELVIEW ); glBindTexture( GL_TEXTURE_2D, radarIDTexture ); glEnable( GL_TEXTURE_2D ); //enable your bitmaps texture glDisable( GL_LIGHTING ); // disable lighting glDisable( GL_DEPTH_TEST ); // disable depth testing // White is a great color for material to texture glColor3f( 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 ); // draw a quad to texture with glBegin( GL_QUADS ); glTexCoord2f( 0.0, 0.0 ); glVertex2f( 0.0, 0.0 ); glTexCoord2f( 1.0, 0.0 ); glVertex2f( 0.3, 0.0 ); glTexCoord2f( 1.0, 1.0 ); glVertex2f( 0.3, 0.2 ); glTexCoord2f( 0.0, 1.0 ); glVertex2f( 0.0, 0.2 ); glEnd( ); Then.....destroy the ortho projection similar to lazork357' s approach and disable glBlend Also, in your init() function set up for blending : glEnable(GL_BLEND); // give blending translucensy to your bitmaps by calling this function glBlendFunc(GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA); is this the best way to do it and does this just get done within a method? where should i call the method from? also is there anywhere i could find for instance a texture for the radar? are there code examples of games where something similar has been done? thanks, sorry for all the questions but i am a newbie

Hi,

I would push the projection matrix before you go to ortho. That way all you have to do to switch back to projection is pop the matrix. Check out the font system I implemented on this thread:

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=290348

You're going to have to do a bit of digging to find the source tree ect (proly on page 7). There are also a few other subsystems that you might be interested in like:

- texture loading
- 3d sound
- model loading

Cheers,
- llvllatrix