Making the vertice display bigger to show better (also use AA here):
Scaling the vertices by their distance makes the vertices stick to the mush much better. They don’t slide around when zooming in close nor scale, and it all gives a much better sense of depth.
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3d view gradient background using the world settings.
Patch here: http://projects.blender.org/tracker/?func=detail&aid=22747&group_id=9&atid=127