Render editor viewport gizmos and UI on a separate render pass to prevent them from being affected by post-processing effects

[golddotasksquestions]

Describe the project you are working on

This applies to any 3D project I've worked on so far

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

I can't see the viewport UI/gizmos clearly because the WorldEnvironment post processing is applied to the viewport UI/Gizmos as well. It drives me crazy.

This has been discussed before, but those issues have been closed. Why, I really don't understand.

godotengine/godot#8140
godotengine/godot#8485
godotengine/godot#43896

"There is really no fixing to this, you can disable environment now in individual viewports, so closing this."

Disabling the WorldEnvironment is unfortunately not really an option because the WE is so substantial and intertwined to any 3D scene lighting. As level artist, environment artist, art director, game designer, and concept artist I cannot evaluate what I am doing/what needs to be done without WE on because the scene would look completely differently without.

If this really can't be fixed for the 3.X branch anymore, I really hope this will be fixed in 4.0, because working like this on anything visual is really frustrating.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

It would help me to see all the little things I have to constantly click and drag.

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

The viewport gizmos should look like the axis in the top right corner in the above screenshot, unaffected by the light and post processing of the game world. Unfortunately I'm not a 3D graphics programmer, so I don't know anything about the implementation.

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

Would be used by anyone working in 3D and who wants nice visuals.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

It's a basic usability necessity.

[Calinou]

If gizmos are drawn on a separate render pass, then they won't be able to be occluded by the scene's geometry anymore. I'm not sure if this can be fixed.

A simpler way to fix this would be to have a toggle or editor setting to always disable glow, auto exposure and depth of field while in the editor. In 4.0, this is made easier for depth of field since it's part of the CameraEffects resource which you should define in the Camera3D node instead of WorldEnvironment.

[golddotasksquestions]

A simpler way to fix this would be to have a toggle or editor setting to always disable glow, auto exposure and depth of field while in the editor.

I really disagree strongly. This might be simple to implement, but it's definitely not solution. Glow, auto-exposure, bloom and DOF change the look of a scene drastically. Much more so when your project is stylized. Godot rendering is not great at realism, so people use it for stylized art first and foremost.

When I place an asset, create the detail of the scene, when I paint the splatmap, when I come up with the atmosphere, when I compose the layout of the environment ... I need to be able to see what the end result will look like as I am doing it.

Godot's post-processing UX already sucks tremendously, precisely because the Editor scene is always looks slightly different from the running scene and the intertwined WE setting result in super tight tolerances where 0.03 looks ok but 0.01 or 0.06 look terrible ... resulting in having to have to resort to editing those numbers numerically because the slider won't work in those fine details floating point position any more ... which is again: guesswork. Please let's not make this ordeal worse by further facilitating guesswork rather than fixing the issue properly (WYSIWYG)

[Jummit]

While I don't like your attitude to Godot's capabilities, I agree that at some point this problem has to be addressed. I don't think that it would be a huge problem if the gizmos wouldn't be occluded by geometry, I actually think this is how it works in UE4.

[Calinou]

I don't think that it would be a huge problem if the gizmos wouldn't be occluded by geometry, I actually think this is how it works in UE4.

It would look pretty strange for the grid and origin lines. We wouldn't even be able to partially occlude those (like we do for the new 3D selection box).

[Zireael07]

Grid/origin lines could stay as-is IMHO, the main problem is gizmos being affected by glow/what have you.

[golddotasksquestions]

@Jummit I'm using Godot exclusively and daily now since more than two years, full time. If I would not believe in Godots capabilities, I would not have spend all this time learning, using, and celebrating the community effort that this engine is.
But just because I love this engine, and admire the people making, improving and using it, does not mean I've become desensitized to it's (sometimes glaring) flaws.
Everyone has different usecases, I can only report on mine.
I'm not criticizing the contributors who worked on an issue I'm reporting on (If that's why you mention "attitude"). My sole intention is to bring attention to what I consider a sizeable stumbling block on Godot's path to glory as well as an impediment to my own daily work.

[Jummit]

@golddotasksquestions I agree with most of your criticism, just not with how you express it. Anyway, I would like it if we could stay on-topic.

[alexfreyre]

I agree with this proposal because with post-process effects it is impossible to see the gizmos, a great example is desaturate completely the scene, the gizmo is almost indistinguishable.

[dueddel]

I know it's not really necessary to confirm that issue with more screenshots, but I can't help. I think the problem is even worse with DoF Blur.

These are some environment settings

This is what a simple Spatial node's gizmo looks like with above environment settings:

Blurred gizmo doesn't come in very handy when you need some overview of your scene (e.g. if you wanted to arrange some level assets):

However, I too would love to see a fix for that.

[Calinou]

I know it's not really necessary to confirm that issue with more screenshots, but I can't help. I think the problem is even worse with DoF Blur.

This has been solved in the master branch by moving DoF Blur settings to a separate CameraEffects resource, which is disabled in the editor unless you're currently previewing a camera node with a CameraEffects resource.

This can't be backported to 3.x because it breaks backwards compatibility. I see two ways to fix this issue in 3.x:

• Disable DoF Blur in the editor viewport unless a camera is being previewed (not particularly intuitive).
• Add a Preview Depth of Field checkbox to the Perspective menu at the top-left corner of the 3D viewport.