Why is my TextMesh always on top?

Question

I have a 2-d game that I am making, using 3-d assets, including TextMeshes for text. I have decided that in some instances, I would like to have the TextMesh appear behind objects in the foreground. The below is one such example.

It seems that the TextMesh is always in front. I have tried a number of things to get the text between the map and object layers, with no success. These include:

• Moving the text between the map and object.
• Changing the SortingLayers and SortingOrder. The map, objects, and labels are on 3 different layers, with the Objects being the highest layer, the map the lowest, and default and label in between.
• Using a perspective camera, not orthographic.

Any ideas as to what else could be going on? Thanks!

How can I make the TextMesh appear that isn't on the top layer? Thanks!

Answer 1

In Text Mesh Pro, you can use overlay shader to render alway on top.

And for normal rendering, you can use Distance Field Shader.

Here is the demo.

Answer 2

The answer is fairly complex, and involves 2 key things. Note that I used this reference to help me.

1. Create a custom text shader. There are two examples given, I chose this one, which is for one sided text, which I believe is more common.

   Shader "GUI/3D Text Shader - Cull Back" {
       Properties{
           _MainTex("Font Texture", 2D) = "white" {}
       _Color("Text Color", Color) = (1,1,1,1)
       }
   
   
       SubShader{
           Tags{ "Queue" = "Transparent" "IgnoreProjector" = "True" "RenderType" = "Transparent" }
           Lighting Off Cull Back ZWrite Off Fog{ Mode Off }
   
           Blend SrcAlpha OneMinusSrcAlpha
           Pass{
               Color[_Color]
               ColorMaterial AmbientAndDiffuse
               SetTexture[_MainTex]{
                   combine primary, texture * primary
               }
           }
       }
   }
   

2. This shader should be applied to a material. The texture should be the texture of the font (Must download a font).

This allowed me to do this (Still working on what text to use exactly)