Hello,
I was experimenting with changes to the 3D editor a couple of weeks ago and thought I would share them in case anyone, who compiles their own copy of Blender, is interested.
There are three changes:
Gradient Background. You can alter the editor background so it shows a smooth gradient, instead of the single color you see normally. By default it shows the background as one color, but you can move a slider to alter the contrast between the top and bottom. Personally I don’t think it makes any difference for most uses, but I do like it while sculpting.
Multi-dimensional grid lines. We can usually just show, or not show, the grid floor (Z=0). But I always thought that it was odd to only allow this one grid. If it useful to show blender units in this direction, it is also useful to show them in other directions too sometimes. This patch allows you to turn on grids for any of the three dimensions. You can show two at a time or all three at once. This could also come in handy if you are used to a different direction being “up”.
Translucent floors. Normally the grid floor is just a bunch of lines, but this option allows you to show any floor as a solid translucent surface. You can adjust the transparency of these.
The following image shows a screenshot of the changes in action:
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/11329
The following link is to the diff, if you do your own compiling and want to give it a try:
http://www.pasteall.org/21036/diff
Harley