Image Comparison Player

The Image Comparison Player is a Rust-based application designed to compare images from two directories. It provides a visual interface for side-by-side comparison, flip difference visualization, and playback control of image sequences.

Purpose

This application is useful for:

• Comparing two sets of image sequences
• Analyzing differences between image sequences
• Reviewing visual changes in rendered outputs

How It Works

The application loads images from two specified directories and displays them side-by-side. Users can navigate through the images, play them as a sequence, and use various comparison tools to analyze differences.

Arguments

The application accepts the following command-line arguments:

--dir1 <DIR>                First directory containing images (required)
--dir2 <DIR>                Second directory containing images (required)
--window-size <WIDTHxHEIGHT> Window size (default: 1920x1080)
--cache-size <SIZE>         Size of the image cache (default: 50)
--preload-ahead <COUNT>     Number of images to preload ahead (default: 6)
--preload-behind <COUNT>    Number of images to preload behind (default: 0)
--num-load-threads <COUNT>  Number of threads for loading images (default: 6)
--num-process-threads <COUNT> Number of threads for processing images (default: 6)
--num-flip-diff-threads <COUNT> Number of threads for generating flip diffs (default: 4)
--diff-preload-ahead <COUNT> Number of diff images to preload ahead (default: 4)
--diff-preload-behind <COUNT> Number of diff images to preload behind (default: 0)
--fps <FPS>                 Frames per second (default: 30)

User Interface Controls

The application supports the following keyboard controls:

• Left Arrow: Previous frame
• Right Arrow: Next frame
• Space: Toggle play/pause
• C: Toggle cache debug window
• F: Toggle flip difference mode
• Esc: Exit the application
• [ : Decrease playback speed
• ] : Increase playback speed
• W: Move zoom center up
• A: Move zoom center left
• S: Move zoom center down
• D: Move zoom center right

Mouse controls:

• Move the cursor horizontally to adjust the split between left and right images
• Move the cursor vertically in flip difference mode to switch between normal and difference views
• Scroll to zoom in/out

Input File Options

The application supports two methods of specifying input images:

1. Directory of Images:

   • Place images in the specified directories (--dir1 and --dir2)
   • Images should have matching names or sequential numbering

2. Input.txt File:

   • Create an input.txt file in the specified directory
   • Each line should alternate between file path and duration
   • Example:

     file 'frame_0001.png'
     duration 33333us
     file 'frame_0002.png'
     duration 33333us
     

Building and Running

1. Ensure you have Rust and Cargo installed
2. Clone the repository
3. Navigate to the project directory
4. Run cargo build --release to build the application
5. Execute the application with the required arguments:

   ./target/release/image_comparison_player --dir1 /path/to/first/directory --dir2 /path/to/second/directory
   

Dependencies

The application uses several external crates, including wgpu for GPU rendering, winit for window management, clap for argument parsing, and imgui for debug UI. For a full list of dependencies, refer to the Cargo.toml file.

Note

This application is designed for comparing image sequences and may require significant system resources depending on the size and number of images being compared.