bevy/examples/ui
ickshonpe bf20c630a8
UI Node Gradients (#18139)
# Objective

Allowing drawing of UI nodes with a gradient instead of a flat color.

## Solution

The are three gradient structs corresponding to the three types of
gradients supported: `LinearGradient`, `ConicGradient` and
`RadialGradient`. These are then wrapped in a `Gradient` enum
discriminator which has `Linear`, `Conic` and `Radial` variants.

Each gradient type consists of the geometric properties for that
gradient and a list of color stops.
Color stops consist of a color, a position or angle and an optional
hint. If no position is specified for a stop, it's evenly spaced between
the previous and following stops. Color stop positions are absolute, if
you specify a list of stops:
```vec![vec![ColorStop::new(RED, Val::Percent(90.), ColorStop::new(Color::GREEN, Val::Percent(10.))```
the colors will be reordered and the gradient will transition from green at 10% to red at 90%. 

Colors are interpolated between the stops in SRGB space. The hint is a normalized value that can be used to shift the mid-point where the colors are mixed 50-50.  between the stop with the hint and the following stop.

For sharp stops with no interpolated transition, place two stops at the same position.

`ConicGradient`s and RadialGradient`s have a center which is set using the new `Position` type. `Position` consists of a normalized (relative to the UI node) `Vec2` anchor point and a responsive x, y offset.

To draw a UI node with a gradient you insert the components `BackgroundGradient` and `BorderGradient`, which both newtype a vector of `Gradient`s. If you set a background color, the background color is drawn first and the gradient(s) are drawn on top.

The implementation is deliberately simple and self contained. The shader draws the gradient in multiple passes which is quite inefficient for gradients with a very large number of color stops. It's simple though and there won't be any compatibility issues. We could make gradients a specialization for `UiPipeline` but I used a separate pipeline plugin for now to ensure that these changes don't break anything. 

#### Not supported in this PR
* Interpolation in other color spaces besides SRGB. 
* Images and text: This would need some breaking changes like a `UiColor` enum type with `Color` and `Gradient` variants, to enable `BorderColor`, `TextColor`, `BackgroundColor` and `ImageNode::color` to take either a `Color` or a gradient.
* Repeating gradients

## Testing

Includes three examples that can be used for testing:
```
cargo run --example linear_gradients
cargo run --example stacked_gradients
cargo run --example radial_gradients
```

Most of the code except the components API is contained within the `bevy_ui/src/render/linear_gradients` module.
There are no changes to any existing systems or plugins except for the addition of the gradients rendering systems to the render world schedule and the `Val` changes from #18164 . 

## Showcase

![gradients](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a09c5bb2-f9dc-4bc5-9d17-21a6338519d3)
![stacked](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7a1ad28e-8ae0-41d5-85b2-aa62647aef03)
![rad](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/48609cf1-52aa-453c-afba-3b4845f3ddec)

Conic gradients can be used to draw simple pie charts like in CSS:
![PIE](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4594b96f-52ab-4974-911a-16d065d213bc)
2025-05-20 14:45:22 +00:00
..
borders.rs refactor ui/borders example to use new children! macro (#18962) 2025-05-04 08:35:03 +00:00
box_shadow.rs Rename UiBoxShadowSamples to BoxShadowSamples. (#16505) 2024-12-03 19:43:26 +00:00
button.rs Upgrade to Rust Edition 2024 (#17967) 2025-02-24 03:54:47 +00:00
directional_navigation.rs Fix a few subcrate import paths in examples (#19002) 2025-04-30 18:41:17 +00:00
display_and_visibility.rs Relationships (non-fragmenting, one-to-many) (#17398) 2025-01-18 22:20:30 +00:00
flex_layout.rs Relationships (non-fragmenting, one-to-many) (#17398) 2025-01-18 22:20:30 +00:00
font_atlas_debug.rs Upgrade to Rust Edition 2024 (#17967) 2025-02-24 03:54:47 +00:00
ghost_nodes.rs Switch ChildOf back to tuple struct (#18672) 2025-04-02 00:10:10 +00:00
gradients.rs UI Node Gradients (#18139) 2025-05-20 14:45:22 +00:00
grid.rs Relationships (non-fragmenting, one-to-many) (#17398) 2025-01-18 22:20:30 +00:00
overflow_clip_margin.rs UiImage -> ImageNode, UiImageSize -> ImageNodeSize (#16271) 2024-11-07 21:52:58 +00:00
overflow_debug.rs Relationships (non-fragmenting, one-to-many) (#17398) 2025-01-18 22:20:30 +00:00
overflow.rs UiImage -> ImageNode, UiImageSize -> ImageNodeSize (#16271) 2024-11-07 21:52:58 +00:00
radial_gradients.rs UI Node Gradients (#18139) 2025-05-20 14:45:22 +00:00
relative_cursor_position.rs Merge Style properties into Node. Use ComputedNode for computed properties. (#15975) 2024-10-18 22:25:33 +00:00
render_ui_to_texture.rs Rename TargetCamera to UiTargetCamera (#17403) 2025-01-19 19:56:57 +00:00
scroll.rs Unified picking cleanup (#18401) 2025-03-18 20:28:03 +00:00
size_constraints.rs Renamed EventWriter::send methods to write. (#17977) 2025-02-23 21:18:52 +00:00
stacked_gradients.rs UI Node Gradients (#18139) 2025-05-20 14:45:22 +00:00
tab_navigation.rs Unified picking cleanup (#18401) 2025-03-18 20:28:03 +00:00
text_background_colors.rs Text background colors (#18892) 2025-05-04 08:18:46 +00:00
text_debug.rs Fix non-crate typos (#18219) 2025-03-11 06:17:48 +00:00
text_wrap_debug.rs Merge Style properties into Node. Use ComputedNode for computed properties. (#15975) 2024-10-18 22:25:33 +00:00
text.rs Basic UI text shadows (#17559) 2025-02-05 19:29:37 +00:00
transparency_ui.rs Merge Style properties into Node. Use ComputedNode for computed properties. (#15975) 2024-10-18 22:25:33 +00:00
ui_material.rs ui_material example webgl2 fix (#17852) 2025-02-13 20:52:26 +00:00
ui_scaling.rs Remove everything except Instant from bevy_utils::time (#17158) 2025-01-05 20:36:08 +00:00
ui_texture_atlas_slice.rs BorderRect maintenance (#16727) 2024-12-12 04:33:44 +00:00
ui_texture_atlas.rs UiImage -> ImageNode, UiImageSize -> ImageNodeSize (#16271) 2024-11-07 21:52:58 +00:00
ui_texture_slice_flip_and_tile.rs BorderRect maintenance (#16727) 2024-12-12 04:33:44 +00:00
ui_texture_slice.rs BorderRect maintenance (#16727) 2024-12-12 04:33:44 +00:00
viewport_debug.rs Fix non-crate typos (#18219) 2025-03-11 06:17:48 +00:00
viewport_node.rs Add a viewport UI widget (#17253) 2025-05-05 22:57:37 +00:00
window_fallthrough.rs Fix non-crate typos (#18219) 2025-03-11 06:17:48 +00:00
z_index.rs Updated comment: ZIndex::Local(0) -> ZIndex(0). (#16585) 2024-12-01 20:09:09 +00:00