TextComponent

Text drawn in the world — a floating damage number, a sign, a score counter. (UI text uses the same component inside a canvas; see the UI guide.)

public class ScoreLabel : GameEntity
{
    private TextComponent? m_Label;
    private int m_Score;

    protected override void OnCreate()
    {
        m_Label = GetComponent<TextComponent>();
    }

    protected override void OnUpdate(float ts)
    {
        m_Label?.SetInt(m_Score);
    }
}

Text

The string to display. Read and write.

m_Label.Text = "Game Over";

SetInt(int value)

Shows an integer without allocating anything. Use this, not Text = $"{score}", for anything that updates every frame.

m_Label.SetInt(m_Score);

SetFloat(float value, int digits = 1)

Shows a float with digits decimal places (clamped to 0–9), also allocation-free.

m_TimerLabel.SetFloat(m_TimeLeft, digits: 1);

This is the single most common cause of stutter on phones

Text = $"{m_Score}" builds a fresh string every time it runs. One score counter at 60 fps is 60 short-lived strings a second, and the garbage collection that follows is a visible hitch on a Mono/AOT device.

SetInt/SetFloat pass the number across and let the engine format it, so the C# side allocates nothing at all. Same for SetFloat versus $"{time:0.0}".

Text = "Game Over" is fine — a literal allocates nothing, and a one-off assignment when state changes is not a per-frame path. It's the interpolation in OnUpdate that costs you. See Performance.

LocalizationKey

A key from your localization catalogs, like "menu.play". When it's non-empty, Text is re-resolved from the current language every frame — so a language switch updates the label with no code and no subscription.

m_Label.LocalizationKey = "menu.play";

Set it to an empty string to go back to plain, untranslated text. See Loc and the Localization guide.

Color

A Vector4 of red, green, blue and alpha, each 0 to 1. Read and write.

m_Label.Color = new Vector4(1, 0.2f, 0.2f, 1);   // red

Kerning

Extra space between characters. Read and write.

LineSpacing

Space between lines. Read and write.

See also

• Loc — translating text a script builds itself
• UI — canvases, buttons, and HUD layout
• Performance — why SetInt exists