This article has some inaccurate information since MSDF atlas doesn't have to be baked statically, so the "CJK character means huge atlas" is not really an issue if you can async upload them to the atlas.（Async outline extraction is a bit harder for C libraries, so that's why the pipeline is mostly restricted to atlas upload).
The other thing is MSDF rendering is fairly cheap and can be done on the CPU quite easily without GPU shaders, the atlas generation/upload is the expensive part, but it's a one-time cost per character per font as the atlas is just a normal bitmap texture file, MSDF text have sharp edges at most zoom resolutions, and the small size text is better handled with simple CPU raster anyways.
I really failed to see significant benefit of using Slug over MSDF + raster fallback for small fonts, it's definitely more exact, but I'm not sure if the marginal resolution benefit is worth it over much more complicated GPU dependent rendering, so I'd really want to test it out myself when I have the time over taking the word of an obviously AI written article for it.
Yes, there is at least one downside to MSDF among a set of possible downsides (huge atlas, or dynamic rebaking, or limited glyph set), and the article is written as though they all apply, which is a bit misleading. Slug is cool, glad it exists, but it isn't the right fit for my rendering project either.
YuechenLi · · focus · HN ↗
The other thing is MSDF rendering is fairly cheap and can be done on the CPU quite easily without GPU shaders, the atlas generation/upload is the expensive part, but it's a one-time cost per character per font as the atlas is just a normal bitmap texture file, MSDF text have sharp edges at most zoom resolutions, and the small size text is better handled with simple CPU raster anyways.
I really failed to see significant benefit of using Slug over MSDF + raster fallback for small fonts, it's definitely more exact, but I'm not sure if the marginal resolution benefit is worth it over much more complicated GPU dependent rendering, so I'd really want to test it out myself when I have the time over taking the word of an obviously AI written article for it.
decoding · · focus · HN ↗