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lightcraft/docs/raw-preview-reads.md
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goujichengandDeepSeek V3.2 bc2cbf41db LR-IMP-PREVIEW-READ: an unedited raw's grid thumbnail is its embedded JPEG
The grid already showed the camera's embedded preview first, then queued a render of the whole raw
to replace it. For a 512 px thumbnail that render decodes 50 of a 56 MB Fuji RAF's bytes for a
picture the 4 416 × 2 944 embedded JPEG already covers — 45 s a photo on the 1.2 MB/s share this was
measured on, 8.3 GB of traffic for a 149-photo folder, and a queue that delayed the render the user
was actually waiting for (measured: the first loupe render of a cold photo finished 174 s after the
click, most of it spent behind thumbnails). Idle for a minute afterwards, the same folder read 12
previews (26.9 MB) and decoded zero raws for thumbnails, against 638 MB of whole-file reads before.

- `Session::embedded_thumb_is_final` answers whether a photo is an unedited raw whose camera JPEG the
  viewer is showing — the same `has_import_look` gate the preview path uses.
- `grid::skips_the_real_render` is the decision (unit-tested): a cached render as stand-in, an edited
  photo and a raw without an embedded JPEG all still render, because their thumbnail must show the
  pipeline's output rather than the camera's.
- `Renderer::remember_embedded_thumb` records the quick render's key and the bucket, and
  `thumb_quick_is_final` / `thumb_quick_pending` let the per-frame grid request stop at the embedded
  preview instead of rebuilding the render job (and its cache key) every frame.
- The thumbnail key still follows the settings hash, so editing a photo re-renders its thumbnail
  through the ordinary background path.

`docs/raw-preview-reads.md` and the `LR-IMP-PREVIEW-READ` parity row record the behaviour and the
numbers.

Co-Authored-By: DeepSeek V3.2 <noreply@deepseek.com>
2026-10-11 09:39:32 +08:00

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Markdown

# Reading a raw's preview without reading the raw
A grid thumbnail and a loupe preview of an unedited raw both show the camera's embedded JPEG, not a
decode of the sensor data. That JPEG lives near the *start* of the file, but the rest of the file is
the sensor data — for a 24 MP Fuji RAF, **50 of 56 MB**. Until this change the preview loader called
`std::fs::read` on the whole file and threw the sensor data away, so every preview paid for bytes
nobody looked at.
That is free on a local SSD and expensive on a network share, which is where photographers keep
libraries. Measured on one real file (`DSCF9492.RAF`, 56.5 MB) over a GVFS/SMB share on Wi-Fi:
| | read | time |
|---|---|---|
| whole file | 59 277 632 B (100 %) | ~10 s |
| header + preview | **5 857 257 B (9.9 %)** | **0.96 s** |
## How it works
1. `read_prefix` reads the first `PREVIEW_PREFIX` (4 KiB); every format whose preview is locatable
from the header keeps its pointer well inside that.
2. For Fuji RAF the header's two big-endian `u32`s at **84** (offset) and **88** (length) are the
same fields `lightcraft_raw`'s RAF reader uses. When they declare more than the prefix holds, the
prefix is re-read once at exactly that extent: `lightcraft_raw::bounded_preview` reports the range
its buffer covers (`slice` clamps to `b.len()`), so a short prefix yields a *plausible but
truncated* range — a real 4 KiB prefix reports 3 948 bytes where the file holds 5.6 MB.
3. `embedded_preview_from_range` checks the window really starts with a JPEG SOI and trims it at the
last EOI marker, exactly as `embedded_preview` trims the whole-file answer.
4. When the prefix already covers the range — the usual case, since it was grown to it — the window
is a slice of the prefix. Reading it again would double a 5.6 MB preview.
Formats whose preview pointer is not in the header (CR3 scans boxes; a TIFF pointer tag can sit in
an IFD the prefix cuts short; CRW/MRW/X3F are found by scanning) keep the whole-file path, so
nothing regresses: `preview_window` returns `None` and the loader reads the file as before. A pointer
that lies, a short read or a file that changes underneath us ends in the same fallback — the user's
preview is never lost to a damaged header.
`LIGHTCRAFT_PROFILE=1` prints what each preview cost:
```
[profile] preview …/DSCF9492.RAF: read 5857257 of 59277632 bytes (header 5857257, window 5857109)
```
## The grid thumbnail is the embedded JPEG too
A 512 px grid thumbnail of an unedited raw now keeps the camera's own JPEG instead of rendering the
sensor behind it. The grid showed that JPEG first in any case and then queued a decode of the whole
raw to replace it — for a folder of 149 Fuji RAFs that is 8.3 GB of traffic, 45 s a photo at
1.2 MB/s, and a queue that delayed the render the user was actually waiting for (measured: the first
loupe render of a cold photo finished 174 s after the click, most of it spent behind thumbnails).
- `Session::embedded_thumb_is_final(photo)` says whether the photo is an unedited raw whose camera
JPEG the viewer is showing (the same "unedited raw" gate as the preview path: `has_import_look`).
- `grid::skips_the_real_render(embedded_is_final, from_embedded)` is the decision, unit-tested:
a **cached render** as the stand-in, an **edited photo** and a **raw with no embedded JPEG** all
still render, because their thumbnail must show the pipeline's output rather than the camera's.
- The thumbnail key still changes with the settings hash, so editing a photo re-renders its
thumbnail through the ordinary background path.
Measured on the real folder: idle for a minute, the app read 12 previews (**26.9 MB**) and decoded
**zero** raws for thumbnails, against 638 MB of whole-file reads for the same 12 photos before. The
render queue stayed empty.
## Tests
- `crates/raw/src/preview.rs`: the header-only range matches `embedded_preview` byte for byte; a
clamped prefix, a padded extent, a late pointer, a lying pointer and a non-JPEG window are all
covered.
- `crates/engine/src/files.rs`: on a synthetic RAF with a 200 KB tail, the quick path and the
whole-file path produce identical pixels, and the read stays under half the file.
- `crates/engine/tests/preview_read.rs` (opt-in, `#[ignore]`): the same measurement on a **real**
file, typically on a share:
```sh
LC_PREVIEW_RAW="/mnt/nas/…/DSCF0001.RAF" \
cargo test --release -p lightcraft-engine --test preview_read -- --ignored --nocapture
```
No raw fixture is committed (media never is, see `AGENTS.md`).
A network share is still slower than a local disk — the preview itself is 5.6 MB — and the sensor
data still has to come over the wire for the *developed* picture, which is a separate path
(`fs_pair_loader`, the full decode). This change removes the preview's share of it, nothing more.