Dark theme Linux - dark text

[datiswous]

When having a dark theme applied in Linux, text in the Properties and console window is hard to see because it is black text on a dark window background (the same text color when light theme applied). Is there a way to change this text color manually?

[stgatilov]

@OrbWeaver, @greebo

[OrbWeaver]

No there isn't. We don't have any support whatsoever for dark themes.

[datiswous]

Ok, thanks for the answer at least. A shame, but it's not overly problematic when I increase the display brightness. I tried looking it up myself, but I have no idea where this would go, so I gave up on it. What is strange is that other text in the ui does change (to light color), for example the names of the textures in the Textures section.

[OrbWeaver]

I can have a look at the code and see if there is something specific we're doing that would override automatic text colour changes (perhaps we are forcing black rather than setting just the default colour for non-inherited properties).

[OrbWeaver]

9 hours ago, OrbWeaver said:

I can have a look at the code and see if there is something specific we're doing that would override automatic text colour changes (perhaps we are forcing black rather than setting just the default colour for non-inherited properties).

It turns out we were doing exactly this. I have removed all forced colour setting in the Entity Inspector, and instead show the inherited properties in italic text. I think this makes the distinction clear (along with the lack of property type icons) without compromising visibility in either light or dark themes.

[datiswous]

Cool, thanks. If you are not implementing this in a recent patch, could you point me to what code I have to change?

[OrbWeaver]

https://gitlab.com/orbweaver/DarkRadiant/-/commit/66b3c0780c16268985b4b1f6929780ffbb297db2

[datiswous]

On 5/20/2021 at 10:01 AM, OrbWeaver said:

https://gitlab.com/orbweaver/DarkRadiant/-/commit/66b3c0780c16268985b4b1f6929780ffbb297db2

I have to rebuild DR again to make this work right?

I tried to find this code in the installation directory, but couldn't find it. I don't really understand where the code ends up after a build, the install folder is a lot smaller than the original source folder.

[OrbWeaver]

Yes, it's source code so you need to rebuild. The code doesn't end up in the installation directory because it gets compiled into machine code and written into the "darkradiant" binary executable and its shared libraries.

[datiswous]

On 5/19/2021 at 9:32 PM, OrbWeaver said:

It turns out we were doing exactly this. I have removed all forced colour setting in the Entity Inspector, and instead show the inherited properties in italic text. I think this makes the distinction clear (along with the lack of property type icons) without compromising visibility in either light or dark themes.

Thanks for doing this. The text in the Console view in that window is still black though. Could this also be changed with the theme?

Current look in dark theme:

Spoiler

Edit (possible solution by editing source files):

Spoiler

The file ConsoleView.cpp in source folder DarkRadiant/libs/wxutil/ has the following code:

ConsoleView::ConsoleView(wxWindow* parent) :
	wxTextCtrl(parent, wxID_ANY, "", wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxTE_MULTILINE|wxTE_RICH2|wxTE_READONLY),
	_errorAttr(*wxRED),
	_warningAttr(wxColour(128, 128, 0)),
	_standardAttr(wxColour(wxBLACK))

_standardAttr(wxColour(wxBlack)) is the color setting for the standard log text, which currently is black. You can change it to for example wxColour(87, 87, 255) to make it i.m.o. look better on dark themes. So that code looks like this:

ConsoleView::ConsoleView(wxWindow* parent) :
	wxTextCtrl(parent, wxID_ANY, "", wxDefaultPosition, wxDefaultSize, wxTE_MULTILINE|wxTE_RICH2|wxTE_READONLY),
	_errorAttr(*wxRED),
	_warningAttr(wxColour(128, 128, 0)),
	_standardAttr(wxColour(87, 87, 255))

And this is the look in dark and light theme:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2021 by datiswous

[OrbWeaver]

Thanks for locating the relevant code. I fixed it not by choosing a standard colour but by defaulting to no colour at all, which seems to use the default theme-appropriate colour just like the fixed entity property list.

[datiswous]

Cool, I didn't know of wxNullColour and how that works.

On 5/19/2021 at 9:32 PM, OrbWeaver said:

I have removed all forced colour setting in the Entity Inspector, and instead show the inherited properties in italic text

I was thinking something else earlier. This totally works, but I wonder if it's not clearer if the entity properties (not the inherited ones) are bolted and in that way differentiated instead of making the inherited entities italic. I could test it, but I don't know the relevant code.

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by datiswous

[OrbWeaver]

I don't like the idea of bolding everything, it will just make everything look really loud and in your face. Bold should be used for occasional highlights, not as the default text style.

[datiswous]

Fair enough.

 

Something else: Is the Gitlab code the same as what is on Github?

[OrbWeaver]

The GitHub repository is Greebo's, the GitLab one is mine. Code is synchronised between the two sporadically (usually after a release or one of us implements a significant change), while at other times the code may diverge.

[datiswous]

Will this be implemented in DR 2.13?