I'm looking to create a text-based game via OpenGL/DirectX (or SDL or whatever else), but instead of re-inventing the wheel I'm wondering if any libraries or frameworks exist that have text effects included. For example, I'd like to be able to rotate text, scale it, fade it in/out, and possibly even do crazy stuff like explode the letters into particles, blend text together, and whatever else I could think of. Does anything like this exist?

The best way is probably to write it yourself...
I don't know if there are any text classes/whatever since I've never needed it, and I like to write my own stuff.

Quote:Original post by sofakng
I'd like to be able to rotate text, scale it, fade it in/out

If those are your needs, then you only need to be able to render simple text. You could get a library to create bitmaps from .ttf fonts or something. All the other features can be implemented simply :

Rotating -> glRotate3f on your world matrix
Scaling -> glScalef on your world matrix
Fade in/out -> change alpha component of your letter rects' vertices

Apart from that, I find it a weird idea to create a text game in openGL. Shoudn't text games be for console windows or something? Or maybe your planning a new genre with very dynamic letters and stuff? :S

Good luck

Well, GDI Plus has many text effects. :)
Surely, it is not a cross-platform, open-source solution, but it works...
It can be used from the .Net Framework, too, as it resides under the System.Drawing namespace.