Help me try a faster Kobalt?

[nicoverbruggen]

I'm currently working on an engine adjustment that allows hyper fast book loading. Opening a book like The Way of Kings for the first time takes 3 seconds instead of 30, and layout changes are instant.

This "fast mode" is different from how KOReader does it, because, well... I've hard forked CREngine and started working on a different pagination system that's potentially 30% faster in rendering pages and can do regional pagination (so at no point the whole books needs to be loaded).

It comes at a price: the same price Kobo currently pays for their reader... page numbers beyond the currently paginated section are actually guesses and totally made up (did you know that was the case??) because when you don't layout the whole book, you can't exactly know how many pages there are. On average, those guesses tend to be pretty dang close, though.

I'm going to be posting an experimental build here over the weekend, but I'd like to gauge interest in such an experimental release.

Comment below and let me know if you'd be up for testing such a build!

[Oakwine]

I’ll test anything.

I had posted at the beginning about perceived speed, where you calculate the minimum needed, display it, then calculate more in the background while the user reads.

Kobalt’s current full calculation is very nice, in that there isn’t the stutter when loading a new chapter. But if the next chapter/section/whatever was loaded and calculated in the background as the user approached it, it could feel the same.

[nicoverbruggen]

It's very difficult to do async work on a single-core Kobo, because as soon as you start doing "background" work the page turns become slow.

I've been trying to get it right for the last month or so with the help of various LLMs, and I think I potentially cracked it now! For larger books this is definitely super nice.

[nicoverbruggen]

Coming from KOReader it feels a little like black magic to be honest. I can't believe I got it working as good as it does.

[benhodge9]

Fwiw, I don't mind the reader taking longer to load - having accurate page counts and no pause between chapters feels much nicer to me. Speed isn't my top priority when reading, and I'm not changing the layout often enough to worry about a few seconds whilst a charge is supplied. Hopefully this provides a nice alternative for those who want it, but I hope the whole book rendering remains an option.

[nicoverbruggen]

Well, I do think the fast mode will become the default, but you will absolutely be able to select the "full book pagination" mode in Settings!

[benhodge9]

Thanks, absolutely fair enough, and good to hear!

[DavidNSB]

Sounds interesting and definitely will test.

[glaucon1984]

I will definitely test it.

[glaucon1984]

WOW. I almost feel sad because the loading screen is so pretty but people won't be able to enjoy it.

[JasonInOttawa]

I prefer accurate page counts.

Crosspoint Reader has a page count for the current chapter that includes a ~ character the first few pages of a new chapter and then removes it once the accurate page count is determined after a few pages flips. It doesn't show another count for the whole book

[Aron-dxd]

Would love to test it out

[Mutaracha]

Will the optimization affect epub files with images? I’m working on a comic book reading mode that aims to deliver an experience similar to Nickel. In portrait orientation, the performance is on par. However, in landscape orientation, Nickel operates faster. That said, the screenshots reveal that Nickel has lower image quality, though the disparity is hardly noticeable on the Libra 2 screen.

[abijango]

I'm up for testing as well! This sounds amazing