Suggestion: An option to allow generation of previews by batch (incl. with autopilot) and implement some kind of preview caching, in-memory or otherwise, in order to prevent having to keep “generating preview” while moving between images or inspecting images closely.
I know generating previews can take a lot of resources, but I prefer to have all the previews generated and loaded before I review them one by one. I think it would be easier to work with a larger set of images with this option. It can be annoying when I’m comparing files and it has to keep generating previews each time.
Also I notice that certain actions like zooming in/out and moving to a different part of the image triggers some preview generation process. By the time I’ve inspected the image closely, surely it’s already used up more processing time than if I generated the file and inspected that instead. If some in-memory cache isn’t possible, perhaps a temp files option could work.
As for my workflow, in some cases, I want to run enhancements on images first before selecting the best ones. I generate previews, inspect it, and decide if I want to add/remove/modify enhancements. My idea would allow me to inspect the images in a more organic fashion, as if looking at a gallery, rather than having to wait each time I want to compare something. comparing also often requires switching back and forth. If it has to generate preview each time I switch, it not only takes up a lot of time and computational resources, but it can also be visually confusing to see the original image again before seeing the preview applied (eg original image 1 → preview 1 → original image 2 → preview 2 → original image 1… )
