@Brecht Van Lommel (brecht): It was always this way, but I actually agree with you. When using Eevee or Cycles in Edit Mode, it can be useful to model without seeing the edit cage. Disabling Overlays could completely disable mesh display.

Especially if you have two viewports as the reporter above is doing.

@Brecht Van Lommel (brecht): +1

btw.: we could probably remove the Wireframe Overlay setting from the UI when in editmode (since its showing all edges anyways)?

It is extremely useful to model something on one side of a screen and watch it updated in real time (or close to real time in case of cycles) in other window. Loved it for many years in Blender and now with Eevee it would be even more efficient. Having edit mode drawing overlay the rendering is imo defeating the purpose of rendered view. Specially when it comes to more dense meshes - render is being practically covered with wireframe display and we cant see it. Making it an option would not only brought back functionality present in 2.79 but expanded on it. Thats why I reported it as a bug - because this option was available in previous versions. Thank you for considering it!

@Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) @William Reynish (billreynish) it was this way in the begining. But I think we reverted it because in 2.79 you still display edit wires on top of solid/material view if only render is enabled. Basically the old behavior of hidding the wires in rendered mode was a limitation.

For me it make sense to hide all overlays even edit ones. But that can create confusion I think.

You decide of course but just last thing. If we have an OPTION to hide it all or leave edit lines - then we can have a choice. Not giving an option clearly is limiting whats possible. If somebody will hide all overlays - can be confused as well before he realizes whats up. 2.8 suppose to be able to do whatever was possible in 2.79, right? ;) OK, I shut up now.

@Clément Foucault (fclem), for who was hiding the wires a limitation or confusing? I can imagine some setup where you want to focus on modeling only, and enabled "Only Render" to hide all other distracting stuff? 2.8 has more overlay options like Extras for that, which might be a good replacement. But I'm just guessing here.

In any case 2.79 had the option of having a rendered viewport without any overlays, so that's important to keep supporting too.

@Clément Foucault (fclem) @Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) I think one of the reasons we always show the wires, is to make it clearer that you are in Edit Mode.

But, we could make that clear in other ways. Some apps do things like having different colors in the UI chrome when you are in different modes (XSI for example). That is something we could solve separately.

In any case, it should be possible to view the scene in Edit Mode without the edit cage display

Dear all,

I have nothing to blame for not including this feature, which adds possible working habits for 3D modelers, than a strange rigidity in the developers eyes, which truly I do not understand... All arguments against seem unrealistic, as we should aim on maximum expressive possibilities, instead of limiting functionality which only favours the beginning modeler, who will be delighted to later on discover these extra possibilities are really there. I for one work on a more and more professional level, ALWAYS using multiple (up to five different) viewports using the same well-explored method, with one of the viewports in solid edit mode (with edit cage) to do the actual editing on. This allows fast working updates, using a low subd level to allow even faster updates. Rendered view just clouds the editing... It is really necessary to have the other viewports unclouded by the edit cage. Without, no real esthetic or emotional impression of the art piece can be obtained. Be very aware that this should be one of the high aims of every 3D creation suite, creating maximum awareness of exactly what one is shaping, together with expressiveness of operation. As I see it, Blender often realizes the second, but with this limitation falls short of the first.

I have now reported other bug that is kind of related: https://developer.blender.org/T60254

I really tried to use to this new idea of overlay of mesh on rendered view but this is simply killing the purpose of "rendered view". I dont see what is being rendered because mesh is covering it. And if I have an option to turn overlays OFF, but it is hiding overlays only partially (mesh is still visible) then it doesnt make sense... Not in rendered view.
I know it could be confusing if you turned off mesh in edit mode because it would look like object mode. Sure, leave it there. But rendered view should represent what will be rendered regardless of mode you are in. By far this is the most frustrating part of working with new Blender for me. I was using it all the time and it worked beautifully. So helpful! Please kindly take a second look at this limitation.

@Clément Foucault (fclem): Would you be ok with making it so the edit cage display gets hidden when overlays are turned off?

Personally I'm ok. But I would like to see a collective consensus on this matter before changing it.

Also would it be ok to have the same behavior for other edit mode for consistency? (armatures edit/pose/curves etc..)

Sure, those would also be invisible I suppose. @Brecht Van Lommel (brecht) : you also agree to make it so turning Overlays off hides the Edit cage?

Yes.