What causes "text" in stride3d/stride?

Pass string.Empty instead of null when there is nothing to render

stride3d/stride · error · ArgumentNullException

text

Error message

text

What it means

SpriteBatch.DrawString throws ArgumentNullException when the text argument is null (checked via StringProxy.IsNull). An empty string is allowed; only null is rejected, since the renderer cannot iterate a null text buffer. Fail-fast validation at the public entry point.

Solutions

Pass string.Empty instead of null when there is nothing to render
Guard: if (text != null) spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, ...)
Coalesce at the call site: text ?? string.Empty
Fix the data source so the bound property is initialized to an empty string

Example fix

// before
spriteBatch.DrawString(font, player.Name, pos); // Name may be null
// after
spriteBatch.DrawString(font, player.Name ?? string.Empty, pos);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (text == null) text = string.Empty;
spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, position);

Type guard

static string SafeText(string s) => s ?? string.Empty;

Try / catch

try { spriteBatch.DrawString(font, text, pos); }
catch (ArgumentNullException) { spriteBatch.DrawString(font, string.Empty, pos); }

Prevention

Initialize text properties to string.Empty, not null
Never let localization lookups return null — fall back to key or empty string
Use ?? string.Empty at every DrawString/MeasureString call site

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a C# null string/StringBuilder (or a StringProxy whose internal buffer is null) to any DrawString overload — e.g. building the text from a null result of a lookup or an unset UI property.

Common situations: A UI label bound to a data field that is null until data arrives; concatenation helper returning null on error; deserialized Text property defaulted to null; localization key lookup returning null instead of empty string.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stride3d/stride@96fad776d2 (2026-09-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/032865018b5faec2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sources/engine/Stride.Graphics/SpriteBatch.cs:488

        {
            var proxy = new SpriteFont.StringProxy(text);
            DrawString(spriteFont, ref proxy, fontSize, ref position, ref color, rotation, ref origin, ref scale, effects, layerDepth, alignment);
        }

        private void DrawString(SpriteFont spriteFont, ref SpriteFont.StringProxy text, float fontSize, ref Vector2 position, ref Color4 color, float rotation, Vector2 origin, Vector2 scale, SpriteEffects effects, float layerDepth, TextAlignment alignment)
        {
            DrawString(spriteFont, ref text, fontSize, ref position, ref color, rotation, ref origin, ref scale, effects, layerDepth, alignment);
        }

        private void DrawString(SpriteFont spriteFont, ref SpriteFont.StringProxy text, float fontSize, ref Vector2 position, ref Color4 color, float rotation, ref Vector2 origin, ref Vector2 scale, SpriteEffects effects, float layerDepth, TextAlignment alignment)
        {
            if (spriteFont == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("spriteFont");
            }
            if (text.IsNull)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("text");
            }
            if (fontSize < 0)
                fontSize = spriteFont.Size;

            // calculate the resolution ratio between the screen real size and the virtual resolution
            var commandList = GraphicsContext.CommandList;
            var viewportSize = commandList.Viewport;
            var virtualResolution = GetCurrentResolution(commandList);
            var resolutionRatio = new Vector2(viewportSize.Width / virtualResolution.X, viewportSize.Height / virtualResolution.Y);
            scale.X = scale.X / resolutionRatio.X;
            scale.Y = scale.Y / resolutionRatio.Y;

            var fontSize2 = fontSize * ((spriteFont.FontType == SpriteFontType.Dynamic) ? resolutionRatio : Vector2.One);
            var drawCommand = new SpriteFont.InternalDrawCommand(this, in fontSize2, in position, in color, rotation, in origin, in scale, effects, layerDepth);

            // snap the position the closest 'real' pixel
            Vector2.Modulate(ref drawCommand.Position, ref resolutionRatio, out drawCommand.Position);
            drawCommand.Position.X = MathF.Round(drawCommand.Position.X);

View on GitHub (pinned to 96fad776d2)