Adding shadow and other effects on a spritefont Monogame

Question

Is there a way that I can add shadow effect on text drawn in monogame? Because you cannot add shadow effect when creating a new spritefont file in Monogame Content Pipeline.

Thanks.

Answer 1

One way to do this, is to draw your text 2 times in a different color at specific offsets.

For example:

    public static void DrawText(SpriteBatch spritebatch, SpriteFont font, string text, Color backColor, Color frontColor, float scale, Vector2 position)
    {
        Vector2 origin = Vector2.Zero;

        spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, position + new Vector2(1 * scale, 1 * scale), backColor, 0, origin, scale, SpriteEffects.None, 1f);
        spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, position + new Vector2(-1 * scale, 1 * scale), backColor, 0, origin, scale, SpriteEffects.None, 1f);
        //spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, position + new Vector2(-1 * scale, -1 * scale), backColor, 0, origin, scale, SpriteEffects.None, 1f);
        //spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, position + new Vector2(1 * scale, -1 * scale), backColor, 0, origin, scale, SpriteEffects.None, 1f);          

        spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, position, frontColor, 0, origin, scale, SpriteEffects.None, 0f);
    }

Might be good enough for what you are trying to do.