[Bf-cycles] update delay

[David Fenner]

Hi there. I want to propose a very small thing that will be extremely
helpful. Right now interactivity with cycles is good to see what you are
doing, however it can also be helpful to "compare" images. Sometimes, when
you have a complex render, you have to make two f12 renders to compare the
changes, because you need to see a descently well sampled
highlight/material/displacement or anything to decide which one you like
more, specially when you are at the "fine tuning" point. Right now, the
interactive process let's you have quick previews of what you are doing,
but doesn't let you compare, because when you make a change on a complex
render the resampling process doesn't make an "instant" comparison, and the
first noise rounds confuse your eyes and the fine detail you wanted to
compare fades away from your brain easily. So f12 is required.  Right now,
if you start with a resolution of 512 (viewport settings) things get a bit
better, but you still can't make this "fine tuning" comparisons that are
very very important for high quality/detailed work. What I want to propose
is a feature to optionally delay the first viewport update as much as you
want (for example two seconds), this way, when you make a change, you
compare a descently sampled image to another one descently sampled, and you
can enter a fine tuning stage currently imposible without f12. Usually the
render process, and I say this out of experience, starts out with how it is
now to see the "macro" of things, yet it ends with a process of small
comparisons and tests. This feature would make you wait for a while longer
for an update (only a small while), but the update would be worthwhile to
look at, and would let your brain see an instant comparison, retainging the
last image and seeing the new one right away, so it can process the two
better and decide upon it.
I know you can make a very small box to see detail, but that doesn't give
you a "mood" or "feel" of the big picture. It is very frecuent to have a
few renders and make comparisons, constantly going back and foward with two
pictures of the same frame, it happens a lot in compositing too, it allows
the "artistic" desicions to take place. This feature would allow this.
Thoughts? I'm sure many people that work with cycles day by day start
increasing the viewport start resolution to get slower but more accurate
updates, not only to make fine tuning comparisons but also to ease the eyes
a little. If this could be taken a little further (only optionally) it
would benefit everybody.

David.
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