Sockets Colors for int, boolean #82689

New Issue

Testing this in the shader nodes, I find these changes as a whole worse than before. I approved changing the shader socket color to red, but it needs to fit together as a whole.

To me it looks too colorful, I think having bool/float/int/string as white/grey helps to keep things readable and not too distracting. Looking at a complex node graph now I find it hard to focus. I think especially geometry/object/shader sockets should stand out.
In shader nodes, the shader category and shader socket were both green by design. Now only the shader node is red, I'd prefer these to remain consistent and the header to also get the same color red. I would rather see the input/output categories change to green, they basically represent geometry in the shader nodes anyway.
I would like to see more coordination between the socket colors, they don't look compatible now. For example varying hue and keeping value/saturation the same is a way to do this. Which sockets colors are saturated and which are not seems arbitrary now.

Testing this in the shader nodes, I find these changes as a whole worse than before. I approved changing the shader socket color to red, but it needs to fit together as a whole. * To me it looks too colorful, I think having bool/float/int/string as white/grey helps to keep things readable and not too distracting. Looking at a complex node graph now I find it hard to focus. I think especially geometry/object/shader sockets should stand out. * In shader nodes, the shader category and shader socket were both green by design. Now only the shader node is red, I'd prefer these to remain consistent and the header to also get the same color red. I would rather see the input/output categories change to green, they basically represent geometry in the shader nodes anyway. * I would like to see more coordination between the socket colors, they don't look compatible now. For example varying hue and keeping value/saturation the same is a way to do this. Which sockets colors are saturated and which are not seems arbitrary now.

Julian Eisel commented

2020-12-07 15:13:47 +01:00

Added subscriber: @JulianEisel

Julian Eisel commented

2020-12-07 15:13:47 +01:00

Was color-blindness considered for these tweaks? Whenever we use colors to communicate meaning we should keep that in mind. There are various (online) tools available to simulate color-blindness.

Jacques Lucke commented

2020-12-09 14:39:53 +01:00

Added subscriber: @JacquesLucke

Robert Guetzkow commented

2021-01-07 16:28:44 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Erindale

Erindale commented

2021-01-07 18:27:19 +01:00

I'm not really sure why the decision to change to red - the input and output nodes are already Red? The shader nodes are a specific type of node within shaders and (at least for NPR) entire shaders can be created without them at all.
My biggest concern is the yellow RGB socket and the now also yellow scalar socket.
Considering that RGB and XYZ vectors are converted to Scalar differently with RGB - Scalar being the non-intuitive transfer it seems especially risky putting those sockets so close in colour.
It is very common in a shader to use a MixRGB to affect coordinates so having someone connect a yellow to a slightly different yellow socket is going to break the whole shader.
They look close enough that a beginner could reasonably assume that they can be joined together.

Accessibility point of view: They look identical for anyone with Blue-Blind/Tritanopia.

I'm not really sure why the decision to change to red - the input and output nodes are already Red? The shader nodes are a specific type of node within shaders and (at least for NPR) entire shaders can be created without them at all. My biggest concern is the yellow RGB socket and the now also yellow scalar socket. Considering that RGB and XYZ vectors are converted to Scalar differently with RGB - Scalar being the non-intuitive transfer it seems especially risky putting those sockets so close in colour. It is very common in a shader to use a MixRGB to affect coordinates so having someone connect a yellow to a slightly different yellow socket is going to break the whole shader. They look close enough that a beginner could reasonably assume that they can be joined together. Accessibility point of view: They look *identical* for anyone with Blue-Blind/Tritanopia.

Brecht Van Lommel commented

2021-01-11 15:56:13 +01:00

Is there an intent to address the issues I raised for 2.92? If not I propose we revert this change for the most part, as to me this looks like a regression for shading nodes at least.

blender-admin commented

2021-01-13 12:25:31 +01:00

This issue was referenced by 09fe0e8aa9

This issue was referenced by 09fe0e8aa94c10aa941cb09ab6eb80b8fbb097b4

Pablo Vazquez commented

2021-01-13 14:32:27 +01:00

In #82689#1091189, @brecht wrote:
Is there an intent to address the issues I raised for 2.92? If not I propose we revert this change for the most part, as to me this looks like a regression for shading nodes at least.

Yes I'm preparing a patch to address some of these issues based on feedback.

> In #82689#1091189, @brecht wrote: > Is there an intent to address the issues I raised for 2.92? If not I propose we revert this change for the most part, as to me this looks like a regression for shading nodes at least. Yes I'm preparing a patch to address some of these issues based on feedback.

Brecht Van Lommel commented

2021-01-13 18:08:16 +01:00

I also changed the shader sockets and node headers back to green now in 09fe0e8aa9, since we're in bcon3 and this was still not in a good state in my opinion.

I also changed the shader sockets and node headers back to green now in 09fe0e8aa9, since we're in bcon3 and this was still not in a good state in my opinion.

Pablo Vazquez commented

2021-01-14 17:22:52 +01:00

In #82689#1092905, @brecht wrote:
I also changed the shader sockets and node headers back to green now in 09fe0e8aa9, since we're in bcon3 and this was still not in a good state in my opinion.

Thanks! Hopefully we can revisit this topic more carefully for 3.0 if we get the new node design without the header background (which limits the color choices because of the node label).

> In #82689#1092905, @brecht wrote: > I also changed the shader sockets and node headers back to green now in 09fe0e8aa9, since we're in bcon3 and this was still not in a good state in my opinion. Thanks! Hopefully we can revisit this topic more carefully for 3.0 if we get the new node design without the header background (which limits the color choices because of the node label).

Sign in to join this conversation.

No Label

Download

What's New

Blender Studio

Manual

Developers Blog

Documentation

Benchmark

Blender Conference

Development Fund

One-time Donations

Sockets Colors for int, boolean #82689