Perfomance issues with DirectX8 and Text

[singularis]

Is there an alternative to using DirectX8's slow Text Rendering?

OR

Is there a faster way of rendering text?

PS: By faster I mean performance in frames per second

In my main Form:

Dim ListText as string
 
ListText = ""
 
For i = 0 To NoOfShips
ListText = ListText & i & ") HP: " & E(i).Hp & " X: " & E(i).obj.X & " Y:" & E(i).obj.Y & Chr(13)
Next i
 
DrawText 600, 10, ListText, 6, &HFF999999

The DrawText function:

Public Function DrawText(X As Single, Y As Single, text As String, size As Long, ColourWithAlpha As Long)
Dim Reccy As RECT
 
If size > 20 Or size < 1 Then Dread_Support.MsgBx "You must enter a valid text size (between 1 and 20)", True
 
Reccy.Left = X
Reccy.Top = Y
Reccy.bottom = Y + 500
Reccy.Right = X + 500
 
Helper.DrawText Fonty(size), ColourWithAlpha, text, Reccy, DT_TOP Or DT_LEFT
End Function

[BinaryCode]

You could try doing a bitmap font, but I'm not really sure how much faster that would be.

[singularis]

In fact doing a bitmap font e.g. drawing the text in myself had a considerable performance increase.

I played around with a tutorial from Directx4vb.vbgamer.com and tested:

Normal DirectX Text .... FPS: 30/40

For I = 0 To 100
        
        Test.Top = I * 20
        Test.Left = 1
        Test.bottom = 480
        Test.Right = 640
       
        D3DX.DrawText MainFont, &HFFCCCCFF, "SlowSlowSlow", Test, DT_TOP Or DT_CENTER
        Next I

Drawing my own letters (using jack hoaxley's) .... FPS: 60/70

For I = 0 To 100
        RenderStringFromCustomFont_2D "FastFastFast", 1, I * 20, 16, 16
Next I