Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the thumbnail strip would sometimes fail to load when first launching the app.

New Features & Improvements

• File Renaming: Added a "Rename" option to the image viewer and Folder Grid context menus.
• Directory Manager Performance: Migrated file and directory indexing in DirectoryManager to use hash-maps (QHash), replacing linear $O(N)$ lookup scans with $O(1)$ operations to improve performance on large directories.
• UI Reload Optimizations: Optimized settings updates to bypass model and thumbnail view reloading unless layout-critical parameters are modified.
• StyleSheet Caching: Cached the main stylesheet template in memory to eliminate redundant resource file read operations.

Bug Fixes

• Folder Thumbnail Loading: Fixed an issue where folder thumbnails failed to load or got stuck in directories with multiple subfolders by correcting path normalization and task queue management in DirectoryPresenter.
• Filter Name Display: Fixed an issue where toggling or selecting the GPU CAS (Contrast Adaptive Sharpening) scaling filter displayed a generic Filter: Configured 3 message instead of its proper name (FidelityFX-CAS (GPU)).

New Features & Improvements

• UI-to-Code Migration: Fully migrated all dialog and overlay XML layouts (Settings, Batch Converter, Shortcut Creator, Print Dialog, etc.) into native C++ code to improve startup times, UI responsiveness, and custom theme rendering.
• LMB Rectangular Selection: Added the ability to select multiple files in the Folder Grid view by drawing a selection box using the Left Mouse Button (LMB).
• Open Only Selected: Added a new context menu option to open and view only the currently selected files, preventing other files in the folder from entering the slideshow/navigation queue.
• Folder View Floating Messages: Integrated FloatingMessage overlays into the Folder view to display status and error notifications directly over the grid.
• Pseudo-Fullscreen Mode: Redesigned the fullscreen mode transition to use a borderless window, eliminating screen flicker when toggling fullscreen.

Bug Fixes

• Clipboard Color Adjustments: Fixed viewport image copy (Shift+C) to correctly apply active color adjustment settings (such as exposure, contrast, brightness, temperature, tint, saturation, and hue) to the image saved in the clipboard.
• Drag-and-Drop Temp File Leak: Fixed an issue where temporary files created during image editing drag-and-drop operations were not cleaned up properly from the temporary directory.
• High-DPI Scaling Adjustments: Fixed UI layouts and scaling behavior in the color adjustments panel when using 125% and 150% display scaling.
• Windows Icon Associations: Fixed filetype icon association compatibility issues on Windows.

New Features & Improvements

• Copy Viewport to Clipboard: Added a new copyViewportClipboard action (Shift+C) that copies the currently visible portion of the image to the clipboard (this can be used as an alternative way to crop the image). The shortcut is assigned automatically if not already bound.
• Removed Windowed Info Bar: Removed the "show info bar in windowed mode" toggle from the Preferences dialog and underlying settings logic, simplifying the UI – The window title already contains all this information.

Bug Fixes

• BMP Green Tint: Fixed a green color cast appearing on BMP thumbnails in Windows Explorer by removing the custom thumbnail provider registration for standard formats (jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, dib) that Windows already handles natively.
• Thumbnail Bar Opacity Slider: Fixed incorrect UI behavior where the theme was being reloaded on every slider tick during drag. The percentage label now updates live while dragging, and the theme is applied only once upon release.

Bug Fixes

• Smart sharpen filter: Fix row index mapping in Smart Sharpen upscale.
  • Corrected the modulo index calculations for the sliding window row buffers.
    Previously, the scrambled row mapping caused a vertical seam (visible as a
    horizontal pixel shift on diagonal lines) at thread boundaries.

New Features & Improvements

• Removed OpenCV Dependency: Completely removed OpenCV integration and all OpenCV-based scaling filters (Bicubic, Lanczos, Area, Bilinear+sharpen, etc.). This reduces the installation package size and memory footprint.
• Optimized & Streamlined Scaling Filters: Simplified the selection menu to a unified Smart sharpen CPU filter, alongside standard Nearest, Bilinear, and GPU-accelerated FidelityFX-CAS. Previously relying on OpenCV, Smart sharpen is now fully custom-built and natively optimized, offering faster execution and improved image quality.
• Settings & Code Cleanup: Removed redundant UI options (such as "Smooth upscaling" and "Smooth animated images") and eliminated obsolete performance workarounds (like forcing low-quality scaling on viewports larger than 1080p). The scaling code is now cleaner and runs smoothly at any viewport size without compromise.

Bug Fixes

• Settings Flickering: Fixed window/image flickering when applying changes in the Preferences dialog.
• Open With: Fixed minor issues in the "Open with" external application handler.

New Features & Improvements

• FidelityFX-CAS Integration – Added a new high-quality scaling and sharpening filter based on AMD's FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS). The filter is processed entirely on the GPU via OpenGL shaders, providing excellent image clarity with zero CPU overhead.
• Interactive CAS Settings Panel – Added a new floating CAS settings overlay for real-time adjustment of sharpening and contrast parameters. Accessible via the context menu, and sliders can be quickly reset to defaults by double-clicking them.
• JPEG 2000 & HTJ2K/JPH Support – Added comprehensive support for JPEG 2000 formats (.jp2, .j2k, .jpf, .jpx, .jpc) and the modern high-throughput HTJ2K format (.jph). This includes Shell Extension and installer integration for automatic thumbnail generation directly inside Windows Explorer.
• Improved Downscaling Quality – Implemented automatic mipmap generation and trilinear filtering for OpenGL-accelerated rendering (active when using CAS or color adjustments). This completely eliminates aliasing ("staircasing" artifacts) and visual noise when zooming out.
• Toggle Filter at 100% Scale – Added a new option "Also use filter for 100% scale" under settings, allowing users to apply scaling filters (including CAS) even when viewing images at their native 1:1 resolution.

Bug Fixes

• Preserve Original Image on Save-As – Fixed an issue in the "Save As" flow where saving a copy of an edited image under a different filename or path would incorrectly replace the active document in the viewer instead of leaving the original file open.

New Features & Improvements

• Compare Button – Added a "Compare" button to the Color Adjustments overlay. Press and hold to temporarily view the original image, and release to restore adjustments.
• Reset Sliders via Double-Click – Double-clicking any adjustment slider (brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, exposure, temperature, tint) now resets it to its default value. Available in both the Color Adjustments overlay and the Batch Converter.
• Deferred AI Upscaling – Paused AI upscaling while actively panning or zooming to improve performance and prevent rendering lag during viewer interaction.

New Features & Improvements

• QOI & DDS Formats – Added native support (viewing, file associations, custom icons, and Explorer thumbnails). QOI is also available as an export option in Batch Converter.

• Startup Performance – Optimized launch times when opening files from Windows Explorer or shortcuts (secondary instances now hand over files to the primary instance much faster).

• Panorama Shader Adjustments – Added dynamic Exposure, Temperature, and Tint adjustments to the Panorama Viewer shader.

• Smart ICO Thumbnailing – The folder view's thumbnailer now automatically selects the ICO frame layer that best matches the requested size.

New Features & Improvements

• Custom Accent Color – Added “Use custom accent” option under Settings → Theme to manually pick any color of your choice.

Fixed

• Settings Window Flicker – The settings window now opens smoothly without any sudden resizing or visual flickering.
• Alt+I Upscaling Freeze/Lag – Fixed an issue where pressing Alt+I on some images failed to trigger or hung by bypassing redundant CPU-based scaling when AI upscaling is active.
• Theme Reset Behavior – Fixed an issue where custom accent controls remained active and checked after resetting the settings to the default "Desktop Theme".