Done a bunch of maths and scripting to revise this mesh design to optimise it.
It'll feature a rectangular panel to display 3 digits at once using a texture that has numbers from 0-999. There will be three of these digit panels each with a separate material.
Between the digit panels will be locations for separators such as commas or points.
I also want to be able to support negative numbers. After a lot of thought, the best way to approach this would be to slide a minus character left/right depending on how many digits the number has visible. So there would have to be a long thin rectangle going through all digit panels as well as extending out so that I can place the minus when the display has all 9 digits occupied.
In terms of relative sizes to reference for the geometry (via pixels in the font texture):
- digit panels are 75x48 each (so a digit is 25x48),
- the minus character is 25 wide.
- Commas/periods are 11 wide, so the separators/gaps between the digit panels should be 11 wide as well
- Note that unlike the sketch below we'll have the separators and panels bunched up rather than overlapping
- Adding it all up (3 panels, 2 gaps), the long thin rectangle for minus should be (
75*3 + 11*2 =) 247 wide.- Note that the minus rectangle is shifted left by one digit (25).
Here is how it might look like with all the numbers, commas and minus:
You can use this as a reference for figuring out the relative vertical heights/placement of things.