Poll: Preview Feedback

There have been some complaints regarding the faint hatch-pattern that conveys preview-off mode. I'm currently rewriting a lot of graphics routines and I was wondering if the following (ghostly white) is a better choice:

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 11, 2009 at 10:24am

I never had any problem with it. Ghostly white looks good with text, but how does it look with draw icons enabled? I have another poll question, should draw icons be enabled by default?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 11, 2009 at 10:30am

Almost all icons in Grasshopper use dark colours for exterior pixels, and a drop shadow. It works well on most bright backgrounds.

I have no strong feelings one way or the other regarding Name vs. Icon defaults. But I do know it's easier to follow along with someone on an overhead projector when they are using Names. It's very hard to find a component if you know what the icon looks like but relatively easy if you know the name.

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia.

Permalink Reply by Vicente Soler on November 11, 2009 at 10:58am

But text looks so boring :P. I guess probably depends more what you become used to than anything else. People using Grasshopper productively probably won't be looking at the definition in an overhead projector.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 11, 2009 at 11:10am

I prefer the icon mode as well, but since the setting is so easily adjusted it seemed like the safest approach.

Also, remember that until recently it was not possible to override the display of a single object, which meant that any custom names assigned to floating parameters or components would remain unseen.

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Theunis du Toit on November 11, 2009 at 10:27am

I never had a problem with the faint hatch-pattern just by the way.

To comment on this ghostly white preview, its lighter, so clashes in my mind with being hidden. It makes sense to me that if the object of a component is hidden then the component should be darker, not lighter.

Maybe thats just me.

Permalink Reply by Pep Tornabell on November 11, 2009 at 10:51am

Hi david, for me both ways are good. I can imagine a diffuse golden aurea around the visible nodes... LOL.
By the way... talking about graphics... any chance to change the red/green preview for next release ? I'm half daltonic and sometimes is hard to differenciate between a green meteor lost in a red galaxy of points... Thanks. There were a very short discussion about it, it would be nice to have a preview graphical control.

Thanks

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 11, 2009 at 12:13pm

I can at least turn it into a setting. You'll have to edit an xml file somewhere to make it stick, but I suppose it's better than nothing.

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David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Wieland Schmidt on November 11, 2009 at 1:05pm

Hi David, I prefer your new ghostly white version for the preview-off mode, it makes it more obvious. I would, like Pep, greatly appreciate if the red/green preview could be changed into other colors.

Permalink Reply by Pep Tornabell on November 12, 2009 at 2:29am

Of course, thanks (I may need some help on that, but I'll ask when the time comes)

Thanks again!

(for all your time, support and effort!)

Permalink Reply by Jacek Jaskólski on November 11, 2009 at 10:54am

I agree.
Since the background is gray, the whiter component stands out more due to bigger contrast...

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on November 11, 2009 at 11:13am

Theunis,

thanks for your thoughts. I do agree with your comment about dark colours and hidden stuff.
Do note I also just added the ability to disable components, in which case they will be drawn in low-contrast grey. I'd like the keep these two feedback modes as far apart as possible.

Perhaps it makes more sense to draw all normal object in light-grey, and only use black for preview off...

--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Jacek Jaskólski on November 11, 2009 at 10:47am

I have some problems with it, especially on a small-screen/large-resolution display (15,4"/WUXGA) it's hard to tell whether the preview is on or off.

Ghostly preview? Why not go all the way: