Possible to use UILabel (no Panel) instead of TextMesh on in game 3D-objects?

[ett.ufo]

Is there any way to use UILabels without a UIPanel for ingame texts instead of a normal TextMesh?
I'm doing a math game and have text on moving 3d-objects.

Since I have already created a custom font used in the GUI I would like to reuse it in the game.
If I place UILabels w panel on 3d-gameobjects they wont be batched since they belong to different panels and the draw call number will rise. And since they are plentiful the UIpanel scripting overhead is also a bit to high.

I'm having a hard time recreating the font (with a good looking result) with Unitys horrible custom font support.

I know this is not really the intended use of NGUI, but it would make my day...

[ArenMook]

UIPanel is what draws widgets. You can't have widgets without it. This is like asking if it's possible to put a Mesh into your world without a Renderer to draw it.

You can put NGUI widgets into your world just fine as long as they are children of a UIPanel. UIPanel doesn't need to be under UIRoot. It can be on any game object.