[SDL] Texture mapping fonts using SDL_tff

[Ryan C. Gordon]

>      // Copy pixel data from the SDL surface into the texture
>      glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, surface->w, surface->h, 0, GL_BGRA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, surface->pixels);

Naturally, this only works if surface->w and surface->h are powers of 
two (or you have the GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two extension)...this 
can be difficult to promise when SDL_ttf hands back an arbitrary glyph's 
bitmap, so you'll probably need to manually scale it or pad it with 
empty pixels before uploading it to a texture.

Specifically for text, you might be able to put FTGL to work for you 
better, though...it'll take a .ttf file, like SDL_ttf, but it can render 
it via OpenGL primitives, so it will scale cleanly and probably take 
less resources than building a surface, then building a texture. It can 
use GL display lists or just immediate mode, so it should work on 
anything that can legitimately call itself OpenGL.

It uses FreeType like SDL_ttf, so you really are just replacing the 
SDL_ttf dependency with something else.

    http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/henryj/code/#FTGL

Although I've used it with OpenGL too, SDL_ttf is really meant for 2D 
display.

--ryan.