Pre-render inputs

I don't know about the overall usefulness of such an input, but I really like the idea of an input that has to have a value confirmed before rendering commences.

For instance, I have been making a polaroid photo filter, and I would like users to be able to adjust the brightness/contrast before FF begins to render the whole thing. If they were given a thumbnail of the effect of only these inputs, it would be incredibly useful.

A single Dialog component perhaps could stop rendering (if possible - I understand it's undertaken by a seperate thread) and display a thumbnail of the input, and allow the user to adjust any inputs that affect the thumbnail.

It it's not possible, or not practical, that's fine. I've never used anything as commodious to artistic expression as Filter Forge.

mike,

yes, this was somewhat covered in another thread, at least the part about real time rendering. a preview window i'm not sure, but it would be useful at times, especially when you're using slow components. a much smaller preview window that renders on a toggle basis would be good. and i assume when you mention the polaroid filter you're talking about the polaroid dust and scratch remover filter.

i think the trick here would be where would you put it? you'd almost have to swap it in and out with the main display.

one of the things that's always bugged me about paint shop pro 10 is that every tool you use like their excellent 'digital camera noise removal' is that it starts to automatically render based on your inputs after about 3 seconds of your input. i'd much prefer a button to push that says 'ready' before it starts doing that. so, it sounds like you're talking about something similar here in FF. you make your changes and get them all set the way you want based on a pre-rendering thumbnail and then hit 'ready' and the main display would then go ahead.

i think the trouble with that might be that even though you're only seemingly rendering a very small image, you're actually rendering the whole and just displaying it in a thumb. so, not much time is actually saved, if any. .... i think.

there is another way to do it as well, though this is a bit trickier. my negative scanner and software display multiple outputs based on a number of variations. i've also seen a normal plugin that does this. the main display is 9 smaller panes or frames, each based on various settings and switches. so, instead of one preview, you get 9. to adjust the settings you click one of the panes that are labeled based on what that pane controls. so, if you want more red you click the pane that would add more red. if you want more contrast you click the pane that would add more contrast. those panes are pre-rendered already showing what that effect would do to the main window. so, no sliders, just click on a pane. as you click a given pane the main display changes to that effect and the panes update again. not sure this would work well for FF though.

you've also got the presets. these are currently a sort of preview. but, with the way they are done, it's somewhat hard to guess what your actual image is going to look like, at least for me. in fact, i almost exclusively use FF as a stand-alone and almost always with an actual image plugged in. if i want to use a given effect in a layer in psp, i simply save the whole image out and then add it as a layer in psp.

still, it's a workable system. adding a preview sounds good, but i'm not sure you'd really save much time. even the psp previews end up rendering the whole image when they do the previews. you simply toggle the main display on or off to your wishes, but it does render the whole image.

ok, so enough of my speculative rambling.

craig