Alpha checkerboard in TOP Viewer is too dark to distinguish from dark content

Wishlist and RFEs
1

Title: Alpha checkerboard in TOP Viewer appears much darker/lower-contrast than in older builds

Hi,

I noticed that the alpha checkerboard pattern in the TOP Viewer is now much darker and lower-contrast compared to how it used to look in older builds. In my current version, the checkerboard (alpha = 0) and a solid dark/black RGB shape (alpha = 1) are nearly impossible to tell apart at a glance — see the first screenshot attached.

By comparison, tutorials uploaded a few years ago show a noticeably brighter, higher-contrast checkerboard where transparent and opaque areas are easy to distinguish even with dark content — see the second screenshot (from an older tutorial).

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Create a Circle TOP (or any TOP with alpha and dark RGB content).
  2. Open its viewer.
  3. Compare the checkerboard contrast against dark/black shapes.

Expected: checkerboard should be clearly distinguishable from dark opaque content, as in older builds.
Actual: checkerboard is dark enough that it’s hard to distinguish alpha=0 from alpha=1 when the content is also dark.

My build: [2025.3280]
OS/GPU: [Windows 11 / RTX 3080 ]

Attached: two screenshots showing the current low-contrast checkerboard vs. an older, higher-contrast version.

Would it be possible to either restore the previous checkerboard contrast, or add a brightness/contrast setting for it in Preferences?

Thanks!

Option to change transparency of TOPs back to the OG grey
2

Hi @IKKI_2010

thank you for the feedback. I’ve logged this as a RFE, perhaps also something for people to be able to adjust to a personal preference.
If you still can post the two screenshots you where mentioning, it’d be great to see if you are actually seeing something different than myself.

cheers
Markus

3

related to Option to change transparency of TOPs back to the OG grey