Replace all flags with one value when holding Ctrl/Cmd in the layers editor

[Calinou]

This behavior is inspired by Blender (except it's the other way around to preserve the current default behavior).

Trying to enable a single enabled value with Cmd held will invert the current flags, which makes enabling all flags but one faster.

Preview

On the GIF below, at first, I'm checking boxes as usual, then I hold down Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) to replace existing values.

June 2021 patch

From 5155ff04b1615d809051565cbd9b2a04cdccf8b1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Hugo Locurcio <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2020 15:14:18 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Replace all flags with one value when holding Cmd in the
 layers editor

This behavior is inspired by Blender (except it's the other way
around to preserve the current default behavior).

Trying to enable a single enabled value with Cmd held will invert the
current flags, which makes enabling all flags but one faster.
---
 editor/editor_properties.cpp | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/editor/editor_properties.cpp b/editor/editor_properties.cpp
index 84105f0cb733..f7b123219e09 100644
--- a/editor/editor_properties.cpp
+++ b/editor/editor_properties.cpp
@@ -590,7 +590,8 @@ class EditorPropertyLayersGrid : public Control {
 	Vector<Rect2> flag_rects;
 	Vector<String> names;
 	Vector<String> tooltips;
-	int hovered_index;
+	// Set to `INT32_MAX` when nothing is hovered.
+	uint32_t hovered_index;
 
 	virtual Size2 get_minimum_size() const override {
 		Ref<Font> font = get_theme_font("font", "Label");
@@ -625,10 +626,22 @@ class EditorPropertyLayersGrid : public Control {
 		if (mb.is_valid() && mb->get_button_index() == MOUSE_BUTTON_LEFT && mb->is_pressed() && hovered_index >= 0) {
 			// Toggle the flag.
 			// We base our choice on the hovered flag, so that it always matches the hovered flag.
-			if (value & (1 << hovered_index)) {
-				value &= ~(1 << hovered_index);
+			if (mb->is_command_pressed()) {
+				// Holding Command will replace all flags with the hovered flag ("solo mode"),
+				// instead of toggling the hovered flags while preserving other flags's state.
+				if (value == 1 << hovered_index) {
+					// If the flag is already enbled, enable all other items and disable the current flag.
+					// This allows for quicker toggling.
+					value = INT32_MAX - (1 << hovered_index);
+				} else {
+					value = 1 << hovered_index;
+				}
 			} else {
-				value |= (1 << hovered_index);
+				if (value & (1 << hovered_index)) {
+					value &= ~(1 << hovered_index);
+				} else {
+					value |= (1 << hovered_index);
+				}
 			}
 
 			emit_signal("flag_changed", value);
@@ -661,7 +674,7 @@ class EditorPropertyLayersGrid : public Control {
 							o.x += 1;
 						}
 
-						const int idx = i * 10 + j;
+						const uint32_t idx = i * 10 + j;
 						const bool on = value & (1 << idx);
 						Rect2 rect2 = Rect2(o, Size2(bsize, bsize));
 
@@ -677,7 +690,7 @@ class EditorPropertyLayersGrid : public Control {
 				}
 			} break;
 			case NOTIFICATION_MOUSE_EXIT: {
-				hovered_index = -1;
+				hovered_index = INT32_MAX; // Nothing is hovered.
 				update();
 			} break;
 			default:
@@ -697,7 +710,7 @@ class EditorPropertyLayersGrid : public Control {
 
 	EditorPropertyLayersGrid() {
 		value = 0;
-		hovered_index = -1; // Nothing is hovered.
+		hovered_index = INT32_MAX; // Nothing is hovered.
 	}
 };
 void EditorPropertyLayers::_grid_changed(uint32_t p_grid) {

[akien-mga]

This behavior is inspired by Blender (except it's the other way around to preserve the current default behavior).

Wouldn't that be confusing? The "Hold Shift to select multiple items" behavior is quite common on most OSes, and also used in Godot.

Maybe using a different hotkey would reduce confusion, e.g. Ctrl+Click?

[Calinou]

I changed the hotkey to from Shift to Ctrl (Cmd on macOS).

[akien-mga]

I think it might be the same issue with Cmd/Ctrl though, as Ctrl+Click is typically used to add new items to an existing selection (so the opposite to what this feature does).

Eventually it probably doesn't matter so much either way (Shift, Ctrl or another key) as long as we can make this discoverable, which isn't really the case as is. Can we add a tooltip?

[Calinou]

Rebased and tested again, it works successfully.

I added a new behavior for added convenience:

Trying to enable a single enabled value with Cmd held will invert the current flags, which makes enabling all flags but one faster.

simplescreenrecorder-2021-06-21_18.29.28.mp4

[akien-mga]

It fails building:

editor/editor_properties.cpp: In member function 'void EditorPropertyLayersGrid::_gui_input(const Ref<InputEvent>&)':
editor/editor_properties.cpp:630:15: error: comparison of integer expressions of different signedness: 'uint32_t' {aka 'unsigned int'} and 'int' [-Werror=sign-compare]
  630 |     if (value == 1 << hovered_index) {
      |         ~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[clayjohn]

Reviewed in PR review, looks good, just needs to be updated to fix CI errors

[Calinou]

Rebased and tested again (with CI fixed), it works as expected.

[akien-mga]

Thanks!