Geometry Nodes: String to Curves Node

This commit adds a node that generates a text paragraph as curve
instances. The inputs on the node control the overall shape of the
paragraph, and other nodes can be used to move the individual instances
afterwards. To output more than one line, the "Special Characters" node
can be used.

The node outputs instances instead of real geometry so that it doesn't
have to duplicate work for every character afterwards. This is much
more efficient, because all of the curve evaluation and nodes like fill
curve don't have to repeat the same calculation for every instance of
the same character.

In the future, the instances component will support attributes, and the
node can output attribute fields like "Word Index" and "Line Index".

Differential Revision: https://developer.blender.org/D11522

1 files changed, 7 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/source/blender/blenlib/BLI_float4x4.hh b/source/blender/blenlib/BLI_float4x4.hh
index 347ce2caa34..14e61d53845 100644
--- a/source/blender/blenlib/BLI_float4x4.hh
+++ b/source/blender/blenlib/BLI_float4x4.hh
@@ -45,6 +45,13 @@ struct float4x4 {
     return mat;
   }
 
+  static float4x4 from_location(const float3 location)
+  {
+    float4x4 mat = float4x4::identity();
+    copy_v3_v3(mat.values[3], location);
+    return mat;
+  }
+
   static float4x4 from_normalized_axis_data(const float3 location,
                                             const float3 forward,
                                             const float3 up)