UI: Improve node editor dot background

This commit makes the dot grid used as background in the node editor
more visually stable when zooming in and out.

The dot grid now uses a continuously subdividing pattern, where
each level of subdivision divides the previous five times, similar to
the line grid in the 3D viewport.

The maximum for the "Grid Levels" theme setting is changed to 3, since
any further subdivisions are too small to be visible.
The "Grid Levels" value for the default themes "Blender Dark" and
"Blender Light" is therefore changed to 3, as well.

Reviewed By: Hans Goudey, Pablo Vazquez

Differential Revision: http://developer.blender.org/D13302

release/datafiles/userdef/userdef_default_theme.c

@@ -833,7 +833,7 @@ const bTheme U_theme_default = {
     .outline_width = 1,
     .facedot_size = 4,
     .noodle_curving = 4,
-    .grid_levels = 7,
+    .grid_levels = 3,
     .dash_alpha = 0.5f,
     .syntaxl = RGBA(0x303030ff),
     .syntaxs = RGBA(0x973c3cff),

release/scripts/presets/interface_theme/Blender_Light.xml

@@ -955,7 +955,7 @@
         matte_node="#977474"
         distor_node="#749797"
         noodle_curving="4"
-        grid_levels="7"
+        grid_levels="3"
         dash_alpha="0.5"
         input_node="#cb3d4a"
         output_node="#cb3d4a"

source/blender/blenkernel/BKE_blender_version.h

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ extern "C" {
 
 /* Blender file format version. */
 #define BLENDER_FILE_VERSION BLENDER_VERSION
-#define BLENDER_FILE_SUBVERSION 7
+#define BLENDER_FILE_SUBVERSION 8
 
 /* Minimum Blender version that supports reading file written with the current
  * version. Older Blender versions will test this and show a warning if the file

source/blender/blenloader/intern/versioning_userdef.c

@@ -324,6 +324,10 @@ static void do_versions_theme(const UserDef *userdef, bTheme *btheme)
   if (!USER_VERSION_ATLEAST(301, 2)) {
     FROM_DEFAULT_V4_UCHAR(space_sequencer.mask);
   }
+
+  if (!USER_VERSION_ATLEAST(302, 8)) {
+    btheme->space_node.grid_levels = U_theme_default.space_node.grid_levels;
+  }
   /**
    * Versioning code until next subversion bump goes here.
    *

source/blender/editors/include/ED_node.h

@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ typedef enum {
   NODE_RIGHT = 8,
 } NodeBorder;
 
-#define NODE_GRID_STEP_SIZE 10
+#define NODE_GRID_STEP_SIZE U.widget_unit /* Based on the grid nodes snap to. */
 #define NODE_EDGE_PAN_INSIDE_PAD 2
 #define NODE_EDGE_PAN_OUTSIDE_PAD 0 /* Disable clamping for node panning, use whole screen. */
 #define NODE_EDGE_PAN_SPEED_RAMP 1

source/blender/editors/include/UI_view2d.h

@@ -178,12 +178,12 @@ void UI_view2d_multi_grid_draw(
  * \param grid_color_id: The theme color used for the points. Faded dynamically based on zoom.
  * \param min_step: The base size of the grid. At different zoom levels, the visible grid may have
  * a larger step size.
- * \param grid_levels: The maximum grid depth. Larger grid levels will subdivide the grid more.
+ * \param grid_subdivisions: The maximum number of sub-levels drawn at once.
  */
 void UI_view2d_dot_grid_draw(const struct View2D *v2d,
                              int grid_color_id,
                              float min_step,
-                             int grid_levels);
+                             int grid_subdivisions);
 
 void UI_view2d_draw_lines_y__values(const struct View2D *v2d);
 void UI_view2d_draw_lines_x__values(const struct View2D *v2d);

source/blender/editors/interface/view2d.c

@@ -1268,59 +1268,67 @@ static void grid_axis_start_and_count(
   }
 }
 
-typedef struct DotGridLevelInfo {
-  /* The factor applied to the #min_step argument. This could be easily computed in runtime,
-   * but seeing it together with the other values is helpful. */
-  float step_factor;
-  /* The normalized zoom level at which the grid level starts to fade in.
-   * At lower zoom levels, the points will not be visible and the level will be skipped. */
-  float fade_in_start_zoom;
-  /* The normalized zoom level at which the grid finishes fading in.
-   * At higher zoom levels, the points will be opaque. */
-  float fade_in_end_zoom;
-} DotGridLevelInfo;
-
-static const DotGridLevelInfo level_info[9] = {
-    {6.4f, -0.1f, 0.01f},
-    {3.2f, 0.0f, 0.025f},
-    {1.6f, 0.025f, 0.15f},
-    {0.8f, 0.05f, 0.2f},
-    {0.4f, 0.1f, 0.25f},
-    {0.2f, 0.125f, 0.3f},
-    {0.1f, 0.25f, 0.5f},
-    {0.05f, 0.7f, 0.9f},
-    {0.025f, 0.6f, 0.9f},
-};
-
 void UI_view2d_dot_grid_draw(const View2D *v2d,
                              const int grid_color_id,
                              const float min_step,
-                             const int grid_levels)
+                             const int grid_subdivisions)
 {
-  BLI_assert(grid_levels >= 0 && grid_levels < 10);
+  BLI_assert(grid_subdivisions >= 0 && grid_subdivisions < 4);
+  if (grid_subdivisions == 0) {
+    return;
+  }
+
   const float zoom_x = (float)(BLI_rcti_size_x(&v2d->mask) + 1) / BLI_rctf_size_x(&v2d->cur);
-  const float zoom_normalized = (zoom_x - v2d->minzoom) / (v2d->maxzoom - v2d->minzoom);
 
   GPUVertFormat *format = immVertexFormat();
   const uint pos = GPU_vertformat_attr_add(format, "pos", GPU_COMP_F32, 2, GPU_FETCH_FLOAT);
   const uint color_id = GPU_vertformat_attr_add(format, "color", GPU_COMP_F32, 4, GPU_FETCH_FLOAT);
   immBindBuiltinProgram(GPU_SHADER_2D_FLAT_COLOR);
-  GPU_point_size(3.0f * UI_DPI_FAC);
 
-  float color[4];
-  UI_GetThemeColor3fv(grid_color_id, color);
+  /* Scaling the dots fully with the zoom looks too busy, but a bit of size variation is nice. */
+  const float min_point_size = 2.0f * UI_DPI_FAC;
+  const float point_size_factor = 1.5f;
+  const float max_point_size = point_size_factor * min_point_size;
 
-  for (int level = 0; level < grid_levels; level++) {
-    const DotGridLevelInfo *info = &level_info[level];
-    const float step = min_step * info->step_factor * U.widget_unit;
+  /* Each consecutive grid level is five times larger than the previous. */
+  const int subdivision_scale = 5;
 
-    const float alpha_factor = (zoom_normalized - info->fade_in_start_zoom) /
-                               (info->fade_in_end_zoom - info->fade_in_start_zoom);
-    color[3] = clamp_f(BLI_easing_cubic_ease_in_out(alpha_factor, 0.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), 0.0f, 1.0f);
-    if (color[3] == 0.0f) {
+  const float view_level = logf(min_step / zoom_x) / logf(subdivision_scale);
+  const int largest_visible_level = (int)view_level;
+
+  for (int level_offset = 0; level_offset <= grid_subdivisions; level_offset++) {
+    const int level = largest_visible_level - level_offset;
+
+    if (level < 0) {
       break;
     }
 
+    const float level_scale = powf(subdivision_scale, level);
+    const float point_size_precise = min_point_size * level_scale * zoom_x;
+    const float point_size_draw = ceilf(
+        clamp_f(point_size_precise, min_point_size, max_point_size));
+
+    /* To compensate the for the clamped point_size we adjust the alpha to make the overall
+     * brightness of the grid background more consistent. */
+    const float alpha = pow2f(point_size_precise / point_size_draw);
+
+    /* Make sure we don't draw points once the alpha gets too low. */
+    const float alpha_cutoff = 0.01f;
+    if (alpha < alpha_cutoff) {
+      break;
+    }
+    const float alpha_clamped = clamp_f((1.0f + alpha_cutoff) * alpha - alpha_cutoff, 0.0f, 1.0f);
+
+    /* If we have don't draw enough subdivision levels so they fade out naturally, we apply an
+     * additional fade to the last level to avoid pop in. */
+    const bool last_level = level_offset == grid_subdivisions;
+    const float subdivision_fade = last_level ? (1.0f - fractf(view_level)) : 1.0f;
+
+    float color[4];
+    UI_GetThemeColor3fv(grid_color_id, color);
+    color[3] = alpha_clamped * subdivision_fade;
+
+    const float step = min_step * level_scale;
     int count_x;
     float start_x;
     grid_axis_start_and_count(step, v2d->cur.xmin, v2d->cur.xmax, &start_x, &count_x);
@@ -1331,6 +1339,7 @@ void UI_view2d_dot_grid_draw(const View2D *v2d,
       continue;
     }
 
+    GPU_point_size(point_size_draw);
     immBegin(GPU_PRIM_POINTS, count_x * count_y);
 
     /* Theoretically drawing on top of lower grid levels could be avoided, but it would also

source/blender/makesrna/intern/rna_userdef.c

@@ -2923,8 +2923,8 @@ static void rna_def_userdef_theme_space_node(BlenderRNA *brna)
 
   prop = RNA_def_property(srna, "grid_levels", PROP_INT, PROP_NONE);
   RNA_def_property_int_sdna(prop, NULL, "grid_levels");
-  RNA_def_property_int_default(prop, 7);
-  RNA_def_property_range(prop, 0, 9);
+  RNA_def_property_int_default(prop, 3);
+  RNA_def_property_range(prop, 0, 3);
   RNA_def_property_ui_text(
       prop, "Grid Levels", "Number of subdivisions for the dot grid displayed in the background");
   RNA_def_property_update(prop, 0, "rna_userdef_theme_update");