RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor • Hacker News Board

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#21

Post by rossant » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 6:25 AM UTC

TheDong wrote: post #15

polishdude20 wrote: post #7

Hey congrats on the app! This is just what I'm looking for :) Just installed it on my m1 mac and opened a folder of RAW files. The initial loading lagged my whole macbook. Couldn't even open the dock. Once the thumbnails all loaded it's better but not as buttery smooth as I would have hoped! Would love to know what other commercial apps do that make them not lag. Is it just that they're written natively?

I mean, it's making 720px width jpg thumbnails using the CPU https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/blob/fc21ede729b45d97... And then it's sending these thumbnails back from rust to javascript as base64 encoded strings, not using a shared buffer: https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/blob/fc21ede729b45d97... This is the sorta stuff that native apps mostly don't do. They don't base64 an image just to send it to a dif…

6x sounds bad. Might be a sign of vibe coding?

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#22

Post by ImGonnaVibeCode » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 6:29 AM UTC

rossant wrote: post #21

TheDong wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's making 720px width jpg thumbnails using the CPU https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/blob/fc21ede729b45d97... And then it's sending these thumbnails back from rust to javascript as base64 encoded strings, not using a shared buffer: https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/blob/fc21ede729b45d97... This is the sorta stuff that native apps mostly don't do. They don't base64 an image just to send it to a dif…

6x sounds bad. Might be a sign of vibe coding?

>React and Rust, with the support from Google Gemini

>immensely grateful for Google's Gemini

>AI Studio's free tier

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#23

Post by vladvasiliu » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 6:44 AM UTC

ethan_smith wrote: post #13

dylan604 wrote: post #3

Why the decision to store edits in sidecar instead of the app’s library? I’m sure there’s pros/cons that were considered, so curious how the pros won out.

Sidecar files (like XMP) are the industry standard for non-destructive RAW editing - they maintain file portability between different apps and preserve your original files. Library-based approaches offer better performance and organization but create vendor lock-in and complicate backups.

Aren't edits app-specific anyway? Last I tried (a month or so ago) sharing edits between darktable and lightroom didn't exactly work.

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#24

Post by strogonoff » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 6:54 AM UTC

appleaday1 wrote: post #18

strogonoff wrote: post #16

The best raw image processing tool I know is called “RawTherapee”. It was developed by one or more absolute colour science geeks, it is CLI-scriptable, its companion RawPedia is a treasure trove of information (I learned many basics there, including how to create DCP profiles for calibration, dark frames, flat fields, etc.), and not to make a dig (fine, to make a bit of a dig) you can see the expertise starting with…

I like this one its simple and easy to use

May I ask why choose to shoot raw given simplicity and ease of use are priorities?

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#25

Post by donatzsky » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 6:58 AM UTC

mikae1 wrote: post #17

strogonoff wrote: post #16

The best raw image processing tool I know is called “RawTherapee”. It was developed by one or more absolute colour science geeks, it is CLI-scriptable, its companion RawPedia is a treasure trove of information (I learned many basics there, including how to create DCP profiles for calibration, dark frames, flat fields, etc.), and not to make a dig (fine, to make a bit of a dig) you can see the expertise starting with…

Local adjustments are really difficult though, as it only supports the good ole "Nik u point" tech. For this reason only I use darktable instead. Would really like to be able to use RawTherapee's dual-illuminant DCPs (not available in darktable).

ART (Another RawTherapee) has a more Lightroom-like approach to masking that you might like better.

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#26

Post by donatzsky » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 7:03 AM UTC

kamranjon wrote: post #10

polishdude20 wrote: post #7

Hey congrats on the app! This is just what I'm looking for :) Just installed it on my m1 mac and opened a folder of RAW files. The initial loading lagged my whole macbook. Couldn't even open the dock. Once the thumbnails all loaded it's better but not as buttery smooth as I would have hoped! Would love to know what other commercial apps do that make them not lag. Is it just that they're written natively?

If you haven’t tried ansel: https://ansel.photos/en/ or darktable: https://www.darktable.org/ I’d recommend trying them out - they are the current open source raw editing apps that perform well that are out there. It could be that this app is competitive with them, but I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet - but both ansel and darktable run well on my M1.

While certainly an impressive effort, it's not even close to competitive yet. As is pointed out in a comment on [1] and as can be seen from the rat piss yellow in the sky, the algorithms are very much on the naive/simple side of things.

[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=7QymsCRNRHE

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#27

Post by cybertimom » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 7:08 AM UTC

TheDong wrote: post #15

polishdude20 wrote: post #7

Hey congrats on the app! This is just what I'm looking for :) Just installed it on my m1 mac and opened a folder of RAW files. The initial loading lagged my whole macbook. Couldn't even open the dock. Once the thumbnails all loaded it's better but not as buttery smooth as I would have hoped! Would love to know what other commercial apps do that make them not lag. Is it just that they're written natively?

I mean, it's making 720px width jpg thumbnails using the CPU https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/blob/fc21ede729b45d97... And then it's sending these thumbnails back from rust to javascript as base64 encoded strings, not using a shared buffer: https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/blob/fc21ede729b45d97... This is the sorta stuff that native apps mostly don't do. They don't base64 an image just to send it to a dif…

Yes you are completely right. This part is definitely not optimal yet. I haven't had lots of Tauri / Rust experience before this project.. it's on my todo list to improve. While trying to use the asset localhost protocol I ran into a lot of permission issues.

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#28

Post by Sharlin » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 7:09 AM UTC

strogonoff wrote: post #16

The best raw image processing tool I know is called “RawTherapee”. It was developed by one or more absolute colour science geeks, it is CLI-scriptable, its companion RawPedia is a treasure trove of information (I learned many basics there, including how to create DCP profiles for calibration, dark frames, flat fields, etc.), and not to make a dig (fine, to make a bit of a dig) you can see the expertise starting with…

IME in photo post-processing, good UX, smooth multi-photo workflow and intuitive controls beat technical details every time.

RawTherapee is better than Darktable. But that’s a pretty low bar to clear. There are reasons people pay for Lightroom.

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#29

Post by cybertimom » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 7:09 AM UTC

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #5

Looks very interesting. How much work would it be to get this code signed for the Mac?

I think it's pretty simple. I'm just focused on the core features right now but I definitely plan to sign it in the next 1-2 weeks. Thanks :)

Re: RapidRAW: A non-destructive and GPU-accelerated RAW image editor

#30

Post by cybertimom » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 7:10 AM UTC

tux1968 wrote: post #8

mrbluecoat wrote: post #2

> a personal challenge at the age of 18 ... with the support from Google Gemini I'm no AI fanboy, but it's neat to see some dreams come true because of it.

He's no doubt a talented young man as well. Google Gemini would be much less helpful in many other people's hands; kudos to him. That said, at some point the people so dismissive about the capabilities of current AI systems, will have to admit that they're quite powerful indeed, even with their limitations.

Thank you for the feedback. Yes - Gemini was a big help but as I also work / train LLM's I know very well how to use them and their limitations. With this, I can use them much more efficiently.