Dynamic Text

01Premium only

• Premium: up to 10 texts per server.
• Free: you can open Dynamic Text and see a preview of everything it does, but nothing can be saved, spawned or changed until the server has Premium.

02What it does

You type some text, pick a colour and a spot on the map, and Surge draws it in game. Every letter is built from square (box) zones. The bot never uses sphere zones for text.

The text stands upright like a sign. You choose where it stands, which way it faces and what colour it is, and Surge remembers all of it so you can spawn it again any time.

03How the letters are made

Surge has its own pixel font that is built for zones. Each letter sits on a grid of 0.1 metre blocks:

• Every zone is 0.1 metres thick, so letters look crisp from the front and the side.
• Straight lines are joined into one long bar instead of many small blocks. Letters look clean and use as few zones as possible.
• Diagonals (in letters like K, V, X and Z) are made of small 0.1 blocks that only touch at their corners.
• Capital letters are 0.7 metres tall. Most letters plus the gap after them take about 0.5 to 0.6 metres of width.
• Lowercase letters like g, j, p, q and y hang below the line like real handwriting, so the text sits 0.2 metres above your position to keep them out of the ground.
• Spacing is tuned per letter pair. Pairs like To, LT or r. tuck in closer so words look even, but letters never touch each other. A space between words is three blocks wide.

04Adding text

Open Features > Dynamic Text and click +Text. The form has a live preview at the top that shows exactly how the zones will look in game, including the colours. Then fill in:

1. 1Text: up to 48 characters over at most 3 lines (press Enter for a new line). Letters A–Z and a–z, numbers 0–9, and . , ! ? : ; ' " - + = _ / \ | ( ) [ ] < > # * % & @ $ ^ ♥ all work. Anything else is flagged in red before you save. Under the box you can see how many zones the text needs.
2. 2Colour: pick Solid for one colour or Gradient to blend colours (see below).
3. 3Coordinates: type X, Y and Z, paste a whole position like -1576.47,4.68,-848.61, or stand where you want the text in game and click Use my location. The coordinates are the bottom centre of the text, and Surge remembers them.
4. 4Rotation: which way the sign faces (see below).

Then click Save & spawn text to draw it in game straight away, or Save without spawning to keep it for later.

05Colours and gradients

Every colour is set in R, G, B (each 0 to 255). You can drag the sliders, type the numbers, or click the colour box to use your browser's colour picker. The default is cyan (0, 229, 255).

• Solid: the whole text is one colour. Quick picks are Cyan, Lime, Gold, Orange, Red, Pink, Purple and White.
• Gradient: blend 2 to 5 colours. Click a colour on the bar or in the list to edit it, use Add colour for another one, or the × to remove one.
• Left → Right blends across the text, and Top → Bottom blends from the top of the letters down. Top → Bottom gives every row of the letters its own colour, so it uses more zones.
• Flip colours reverses the gradient.
• Ready-made gradients are Surge, Neon, Sunset, Fire, Ocean, Toxic, Ice and Rainbow. Pick one and change it from there.

06Rotation

Rotation is in degrees and turns clockwise when seen from above, the same way Rust's zone rotation works. The whole sign turns around its bottom centre.

• Drag the round dial, type a number, or use the −15, −1, +1 and +15 buttons. N, E, S and W jump straight to a direction.
• Hold Shift while dragging the dial to snap to 15° steps. The arrow keys also work when the dial is selected.
• The gold arrow on the dial, and the line under it, show which way players have to look to read the text.

07Fine-tuning a live text

Open a text card to find the Fine-tune section. Changes here apply straight away, without needing to save.

• +1 Millimetre and −1 Millimetre move the text by 0.01 on the Z coordinate. Click as many times as you like; quick clicks are sent together once you stop.
• +1 always moves Z further away from 0 and −1 brings it back towards 0. For example, at -1576.47, 4.68, -848.61, +1 gives -848.62 and −1 gives -848.60. With a positive Z like 848.61, +1 gives 848.62.
• The new coordinates are shown between the two buttons as you click.
• Rotation here turns the text in game straight away, without drawing it again.

08Managing your texts

Every text gets a card with a small preview. Click it to open the full settings, change anything and save.

• Spawn (or Respawn if it's already live) draws the text in game. A progress bar shows how far along it is.
• Despawn removes the zones from the game but keeps the text saved.
• Delete removes it from the game (if it was live) and from your list for good.
• Saving a live text only changes the zones that need it. A new colour or position is quick, and only new or removed letters add or remove zones.

Each card shows a status:

• Drawing / Redrawing / Updating / Moving / Rotating / Removing with a percentage: Surge is working on it right now.
• Not spawned: saved, but not in game.
• Live in game: in game and every zone is there.
• Missing … zones: some zones are gone in game. Click Respawn to fix it.
• Needs a redraw: the last change did not finish. Click Respawn.
• Changes waiting for your server: you made changes while the server was offline. They go in as soon as it reconnects.

09Restarts and the bot being offline

Server restarts can wipe zones, but you don't need to worry about that. Whenever the bot reconnects to your server, it checks which texts should be live, redraws anything that is missing and puts in any changes you saved while it was offline.

10Good to know

• Longer texts need more zones. One text can use up to 400 zones, and the form tells you if yours is over.
• In game the zones are named DT-<number>-<part>. Leave them alone so Surge can keep track of them. If one is removed by hand, the card shows it as missing.
• Dynamic Text zones are visual only: PvP, NPC damage, building and building damage stay allowed inside them, and they have no radiation or chat messages.