No, for node editors I just need fit to frame. Which currently adds this major border of empty space around everything and makes it smaller that actually would fit, but whatever…
if youre going with that, then maybe slighly different icons would be better/clearer?
anything that can tell us that we are dealing with the backdrop
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I had this in mind when I mentioned it before.
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Agree. In the video above I was just reusing existing icons for demonstration purposes. I would also need new icons for
- Fit to view
- 100% or 1:1 zoom
- Pan backdrop
- Zoom backdrop
Any suggestions?
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heres some random stuff for inspiration
for pan and zoom, if you go with something like in the image above (zoom), all you have to do is swap the magnifying glass with a hand, and thats the pan.
fit to view is always something around those lines:
for 1:1 zoom i was thinking on something like this, but idk how it will look in a very small size:
perhaps a simple button like this would work too:
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Excellent progress. This fit to view button could be used in the shader editor as well. It would be a great improvement in the quality of life: it is incredible how much time it takes every time you are editing materials and you have to look for the home key every time you change materials because the nodes are not centered in the view.
Is there a possibility that these great changes will come into the 4.2 release?
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Thank you for the feedback so far! I talked with the UI team and did some changes. So here are some updates:
Fast Viewing:
- Now the viewer node is added to favorites, and not the node before it.
- Image editor shows the name of the current viewer node being viewed
- The preview button is removed for the viewer node. Instead a number was added there to indicate this viewer node is being marked as favorite.
- Note: the patch is written in Python as an add-on for now. So drawing a fancy icon instead of number to show the node has been favored is not an option, but will be once we move feature to C++ if the prototype gets accepted.
Image size visualization
I agreed with the UI team to simplify the solution, by removing the overlay of domain size (It was not obvious what it meant) and put the information as a text in the upper left corner, similar to the info text in the 3D view. The current patch looks like this:
Pan and zoom:
Although the UI team agreed we should solve the problem of backdrop navigation, the idea of having a new set gizmos didn’t get accepted. Especially the fit to background gizmo didn’t fit into the current design of gizmos, where they should be interactive and not just buttons to call operators. So the current patch only implements pan and zoom for nodes for all node editors:
I will try to come up with a better solution that doesn’t break the current design. Ideas of a mini map for navigation was discussed. I will look into that next, and see if it’s feasible.
No, unfortunately all the features above won’t make it to 4.2 since 4.2 is in bcon3 (bug fixing only). Also, they might change depending on the feedback from users and the UI team.
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In my point of view, the BACKDROP function should be completely removed.
Either view the results in image viewer or make a sub-preview-mode of compositor window (just like the sub-preview-mode of VSE) is preferrable.
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Being able to put a node graph atop a viewer is certainly useful for maximum use of screen space, but I agree this should be done in a global manner, not a special case for compositor graphs.
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I could not disagree more. The compositor backdrop is one of Blender’s best features
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Want to make it clear that I consider the special case better than nothing. I do think part of the approach is correct (compared to other software), in that the “viewer” is added to the node graph, rather than the node graph being added to a viewer. This allows the viewer to depend on which node graph you are editing.
Hopefully this will determine a standard method of delivering events to the underlying viewer, and maybe someday expanded so the geometry can be viewed behind the geometry editor, or a render viewed behind a shader editor, or the composite render preview viewed behind the compositor,
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To me from an artist’s point of view, it’s so annoying to have messy UI elements on top of the artwork itself.
To get a clean, non-overlapped view, with the backdrop, from time to time, I have to reposition the backdrop using weird navigation method (which is distinguished from any other editor panels of Blender ).
So I’d rather have a dedicated viewer to rule out the clusters and leave the artwork alone.
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Just don’t use it then? Its optional but kind of only option for laptop users
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I think a single keystroke that hides the graph and gives full interface functionality to the viewer (except for that one keystroke, which would return back to graph-on-top mode) is all that is needed. Possibly that can be the only way to manipulate the viewer (ie to pan or zoom you hide the graph and then use normal pan and zoom controls).
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Yeah, It’s OK to have it as an option. I just don’t use it.
I’m not sure about all that overlapping. I like having the compositor backdrop when I work on my laptop, but it’s a workaround. Imho having my image framed without obstruction is always going to be better, as long as I have the screen estate
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Then click the box and Turn It Off.
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