WIP: Node Editor: Improve readability of dashed node links #114716

Leon Schittek · 2023-11-10T18:19:07+01:00

Leon Schittek commented

2023-11-10 18:19:07 +01:00

This PR attempts to make nodelinks more readable:

Links are about 25% wider, when zoomed out.
The size of the dashes stays approximately constant in screen space
to keep the dash pattern readable even on lower zoom levels.

Issue

There is a report about the readability of dashed node links: #102919.
The issue was somewhat improved by 899d723da8 but the dash pattern of field links scaling with the view makes it inevitable that it becomes hard to read at some point.

To help with that this PR makes it so the dash pattern blends between differently scales keeping it from getting too small - similarly to how it's done for the dot grid in the node editor's background.

Comparison

It's best to open the two "overview" screenshots in separate tabs and view them at 100% to really see the difference.
You should notice that with the PR the dash pattern is still readable when being zoomed out.

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This PR attempts to make nodelinks more readable: 1. Links are about 25% wider, when zoomed out. 2. The size of the dashes stays approximately constant in screen space to keep the dash pattern readable even on lower zoom levels. --- ### Issue There is a report about the readability of dashed node links: https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/102919. The issue was somewhat improved by https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/commit/899d723da8bbdac4947e0efae531af1f510ed813 but the dash pattern of field links scaling with the view makes it inevitable that it becomes hard to read at some point. To help with that this PR makes it so the dash pattern blends between differently scales keeping it from getting too small - similarly to how it's done for the dot grid in the node editor's background. ### Comparison It's best to open the two "overview" screenshots in separate tabs and view them at 100% to really see the difference. You should notice that with the PR the dash pattern is still readable when being zoomed out. |zoom|main|pull request| |---|---|---| |overview|![nodelinks_main.png](/attachments/2422d02b-d44b-42ed-a6d2-8af47df05f59)|![nodelinks_pr.png](/attachments/2561f8ca-7f80-4eed-ae2c-1192e9537b90)| |far|![main_detail-1.png](/attachments/d2717dfb-070f-4157-a7ac-99364c1397fd)|![pr_detail-1.png](/attachments/b151eb7d-8f3d-48b1-ac51-8dad415a20ba)| |medium|![main_detail-2.png](/attachments/ab5f436a-9fbe-4736-8c57-c7c5636fa31e)|![pr_detail-2.png](/attachments/d283cbb8-c2fe-4a00-a8d2-990b344cca93)| |close|![main_detail-3.png](/attachments/b8b409e8-0100-442f-9458-5db8a61f5ff9)|![pr_detail-3.png](/attachments/a585ec23-9be3-4a77-961c-079bc6058c5c)|

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