Before/After

[gminder]

Let's say I am in the Life module with an image of M31 (which I am as I type). I'm not satisfied with the default result so I start tweaking the settings. I can use the "before" icon to see what I started with, but I don't seem to have a way of comparing the incremental changes between settings tweaks. So when I change the "strength" setting from 150% to 175% I can't tell what difference it made unless I am looking at the screen the instant the change takes effect.

Given the amount of data which is being crunched, there's probably a really good computer resource reason why it' might not be practical, but a separate before/after function to compare successive settings changes would be really great.

[admin]

Let's say I am in the Life module with an image of M31 (which I am as I type). I'm not satisfied with the default result so I start tweaking the settings. I can use the "before" icon to see what I started with, but I don't seem to have a way of comparing the incremental changes between settings tweaks. So when I change the "strength" setting from 150% to 175% I can't tell what difference it made unless I am looking at the screen the instant the change takes effect.

Given the amount of data which is being crunched, there's probably a really good computer resource reason why it' might not be practical, but a separate before/after function to compare successive settings changes would be really great.

You're spot on in that it's mainly a resource issue. A lot of work went into making parameter changes as 'real-time' as possible, separating out operations that would take an inordinate amount of time behind a 'do' button. On a pretty beefy system things aren't so bad in most modules, but that changes when a system is not so bleeding edge, or you're viewing huge images...

[puckja]

May I suggest another work around on this issue. I also need to see the effect of different parameter. Thanks to the explain on the challenge.

Currently ST will gray out the screen and pop up a progress window, which is nice but it basically block the view of "previous" result. If the screen can be left "un-grayed" and the progress window may be reduced to a small window docked to the edge, the user may stare on the screen to realize the change.

A crude way would be screen copy using Irfanview or something to keep the previous screen shot and compare the before and after effect.

So would it be still difficult to implement to say store the previous screen shot in ST so the user can switch back & forth?

Thanks for the great job!

[admin]

I'll think about this and put it on the list of issues to address in 1.4.

Ideally, I'd like for parameter changes to propagate near-realtime. One way to do that is to use preview areas and optimise/speed up rendering. This would void the need for an in-module before and after. Let me think about this...

[ecuador]

I am new to StarTools, but after processing a handful of images I must say that this feature request is probably the most urgent in my opinion. What I am doing currently is taking a screenshot of the preview window with settings at a specific level, then try changing the settings and open the screenshot to compare. This need not be a resource-heavy feature. One idea is to just make a "screenshot" button (e.g. to the left of before/after), when you click on it it takes a simple screenshot of the current preview, then perhaps hovering over the button shows it, hovering away hides it and it stays until you click the button again to make a new screenshot. Or two buttons (one to take the screenshot one to hide/show) if you don't like hovering.