Increase usability and speed

I've downloaded the demo of 2.0, and sure enough, it seems just as slow as v1. Click on a "preset" and it can take 5 minutes for the preview to finish rendering. Why this isn't stored as a JPEG that loads instantly is a mystery to me. I see it's using 3 or 4 CPUs in my Mac Pro 8 core tower. Just rendering a preset raises the CPU temperature 10 degrees Fahrenheit, to 97F. Just to look at a preset. (My machine usually operates on most tasks at about 85 degrees.)

Beyond the resource issues, this is a tool that takes a lot of playing and experimentation to learn and use effectively. Problem is, every little tweak takes minutes to run. If there were some way to get quick feedback (a sort of preview render, as in Vue or other 3D packages), it might be more usable. Not to mention a lot more fun.

You might want to take a look at PhotoworkShop by Xycod. It runs very quickly, and has options for controlling the level of rendering, to speed things up during the creation phase. It also includes a node-based editor. It's not nearly as powerful or full-featured as FF, but the implementation, I feel, is much better than FF's.