This update took a lot longer than expected, but I think it will be worth the wait.
You can finally preview images inside chaiNNer without having to open an external program! It's not a fully-fledged built-in image viewer (yet), but rather a node that will show an image preview similar to how Load Image has always done it. Part of this feature included reworking how previews work in general, so you'll see that the previews for both Load Image and PyTorch's Load Model now appear on the outputs of the node rather than the input. This is due to the fact that we now automatically run valid "starting" nodes (nodes with no ability to create input connections) and use their outputs for setting types and showing previews (if applicable). This means we now allow more data to be automatically typed and previewed through the type system as well, meaning things like file name and directory outputs now are previewed via the type previews.
You'll also notice this happens in iterators. The new View Image node allows you to preview the input of iterators, something which was not possible before. And, due to the other outputs types being set, you can see in real-time other information being updated (if you use it in the chain).
Anyway, onto the full changelog:
Dependency Updates:
- NCNN
- This update brings the latest NCNN fixes and optimizations to chaiNNer. I'm not entirely sure what those are or if they're relevant, but you should definitely update as this version will be required starting with the next major chaiNNer update.
New Features
- Output Previews
- Some outputs now have previews that replace the old preview system.
- Some outputs now set types when they weren't before.
- All image outputs (that don't have a built-in preview) now have a "preview" button to easily create a View Image node for that output.
- Outputs previews are processed in another thread to avoid slowing down node execution (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- F5, F6, and F7 now perform "Run", "Pause", and "Stop" respectively.
- Pressing tab in the node selector panel now cycles through the nodes list.
- Pressing enter on a highlighted node in the selector panel will create it.
- The file open dialog now has an "All Files (*)" filter.
- "Export for Sharing" menu option
- Save a chain without any file inputs or directory inputs, to avoid leaking your filepaths when sharing .chn files with others
- Input type tags (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Nodes with certain input restrictions now have those restrictions shown as type tags
Changes to Existing Features
- Interpolation nodes now output their amounts. This can be useful for making labels with the amounts of each model.
- Added output type to Rotate Image node (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Added output type to Add Caption node (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Renamed "Start" to "Run" to better describe the function of that button.
- Menu items are now disabled when an alert box is open.
- Merge Channels node is now officially deprecated. (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Change "Block Size" to "Block Radius" for Adaptive Threshold.
- Improved descriptions for many nodes.
- Blend Images node performance improvements (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- The selector panel will un-collapse if the search bar is interacted with in collapse mode (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Dependency manager UI improvements (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Image File Iterator now processes files alphabetically
New Nodes
- View Image
- Takes in any image input and displays it in the chain
- View Image (External)
- This is the old Preview Image node, renamed
- Invert Color
- Inverts the colors of an image
Bug Fixes
- Disable context menu on disabled directory and file inputs (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Fixed math node inputs not allowing decimals (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Fixed issue that would cause the system PYTHONHOME environment variable to override chaiNNer's integrated python path.
- Fixed opened file name being lost on page reload.
- Fixed ".tif" (one f) files not being recognized when opening an image.
- Node animation status no longer is put in undo state (thanks @RunDevelopment)
- Fixed visual bug on node selector panel button outlines (thanks @RunDevelopment)