How can I make text run through this hallway scene more clearly?

[novel schooner]

TW: example video contains text and voice clips of thoughts of depression and suicide

I am making a hallway scene in a horror game I am making where the player will see bloody texts that move around the wall.
Right now I am using a Path3d with a Decal node that rotates around a PathFollow3d node. However this causes issues when it hits a corner.

Trying to think of ways that could make this look better and not cause the image to distort when rotation around a corner.

PS: I know for the textures I should adjust it to include an outline, and the audio you hear is currently a placeholder and AI generated till I can get a VC for it.

I am thinking something like this. If you see when the text crosses a corner, the text is still there and readable and doesn't discord no what what direction it is in.

But have no idea how to implement it

[viral bobcat]

Just throwing this out there without knowing if it works, yet alone is better than decals, but did you consider messing around with lights and projector textures? https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/classes/class_light3d.html#class-light3d-property-light-projector

Lights can emit negative light, too, so if you don't want illuminated text like in the image, you might be able to pull off dark text this way, not sure.

[viral bobcat]

I just tried it out and I think it works quite nicely.

[novel schooner]

Just tried it myself as well.

Might work, but is there a way to make sure the texture isn't cut off or do I need adjust my texture

[novel schooner]

Do you know of a way to prevent the texture on the edges from fading of or am I going to add margins to my images?

[viral bobcat]

Fiddle around with the values... Attenuation and angular attenuation specifically

[novel schooner]

Looks better. I think. However the texture size varies the size of the Spot Light and causing some to be stretch out. Any idea for that? Do I dyanmic change the size of the font or light or something?

[viral bobcat]

You mean the texture gets distorted as it gets closer? I think that's just perspective distortion, quite normal, but obviously a problem with text. I don't know how to correct for that, but I'd wager there are 2-3 routes you can try out:

1. Accept distortion and optimise textures for a certain range where they must be clearly legible. Then stretch the texture as much as needed, fade them out when they get too close and live with the result
2. Write a spatial shader for the walls/floor/ceiling that corrects distortion and outputs multiple textures to emission, moving them over time.
3. Play around with the spotlight positioning/animation, e. g. move it closer to the wall as it approaches the player. Changing the geometry might also help (maybe a funnel shape instead of a straight corridor)