4.0.0

[ccseer]

Your feedback is welcome on all aspects. Urgently need expert recommendations on the UI.

Application Level

1. ​x64 Architecture 🥇

   • Overall performance boost with ultra-large file handling capability
   • Critical plugins (e.g., OfficeViewer) now require 64-bit compatibility for future updates
   • make sure you have MS vc dll installed: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

2. ​Redesigned UI 🥇

   • New color schemes
   • Rewritten UI components
   • Differentiated visual treatments for Win10/Win11
   • Improved font compatibility
   • Draggable pre-preview loading screen
   • Unified icon set across the app

3. ​Bug Fixes

   • Fixed hover effect disappearance after window dragging

4. ​Update Module

   • Complete rewrite of update mechanism

5. ​Optimized Loading Workflow 🥇

   • Loading order follows top-down sequence in Settings > Type
   • Extensions match from top until failure/no match
   • Priority hierarchy: DLL plugins > Embedded types > Converter types
   • Disable hierarchy: Blacklisted extensions > Disabled types

6. ​user.ini Enhancements

   • Added exclude parameter per group to remove built-in types
   • Enables redirecting file handling (e.g., skip Seer's PDF preview for .ai files)
   • Excluded extensions hidden in Settings > File Types

7. ​System Preview Integration 🥇

   • Supports native Explorer preview (Alt+P)
   • Manage system-supported extensions via Settings > Type

8. ​Activation Improvements

   • Fixed network-related activation issues

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Plugins

1. ​Plugin Framework Overhaul
   • Three plugin types: Converter, Embedded, and DLL

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Property View

1. Multi-line display support
2. Faster metadata calculations:
   • File/folder counts
   • Directory sizes
   • Hash values
3. Shift-key temporary data display (session-persistent)
4. Added preview handler label (matches Settings > Type)

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Image Viewer

1. ​Performance & Compatibility

   • Faster rendering with expanded ICC profile support
   • Added MiniMap (hotkey M) 🥇
   • Expand to max display size (hotkey E) 🥇
   • New formats: JXL, JXR, EXR, DDS (partial code from KDE kimageformats, LGPL 2.1)
   • Fixed scaling issues for certain formats
   • Improved AVIF/RAW support
   • RAW: Fixed half-resolution bug
   • SVG: Default size capped at 512px for performance
   • SVG: Added transparency background pattern
   • GIF: Frame index display during pause (←/→ to navigate)
   • Max file size increased to 150MB for full image preview

2. ​user.ini Parameters

   • accelerate: GPU acceleration toggle (default ON)
   • minimap_scale: MiniMap zoom factor [0.5-2.0]

3. ​Metadata

   • Expanded EXIF support

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HTML Viewer

1. Performance improvements
2. Fixed HiDPI scaling latency
3. Reduced dark theme flicker for Markdown

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PDF Viewer

1. Fixed history tracking issues

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Media Viewer

1. Redesigned progress bar
2. Hardware acceleration toggle in Settings > Type > Media
3. R3D 32-bit support deprecated (to return as new plugin in Seer-4.1.0)

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Folder Viewer

1. ​Memory Optimization 🥇

   • 45% memory reduction (e.g., 920MB → 500MB for 500k-file ZIP)
   • Fixed crash on repeated previews

2. ​UX Improvements

   • macOS-style column view behavior
   • Archive file icon support
   • 75% faster loading (16s → 4s for large ZIP)
   • Fixed accidental file opening via Alt+Arrow

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Text Viewer

1. ​Syntax Highlighting

   • New language support
   • Updated color themes (partial code from KDE syntax-highlighting, MIT)

2. ​Encoding Support 🥇

   • Full UTF-16/UTF-32 BE/LE compatibility

3. ​Performance 🥇

   • Reduced processing time/memory usage

4. ​Customization

   • Improved font rendering
   • user.ini font customization option

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1. Integrated crash reporting system.

2. PDF: The sidebar has been moved to the right. A new option in user.ini allows moving it back to the left.

3. Plugins:

   1. JsonTreeViewer 1.0.0

      • DLL plugin.
      • https://github.com/ccseer/JsonTreeViewer
      • Displays JSON data as a tree structure, mainly for large files; supports searching within loaded data.
      • Based on Meta simdjson (MIT).

   2. FontViewer updated to 1.2.0

      • Changed from an embedded plugin to a DLL plugin. Please re-add the plugin for it to work.
      • https://github.com/ccseer/FontViewer
      • Supports custom preview text input.
      • Added fontviewer.ini, typically located next to the DLL:
        • Place the plugin in a folder with read/write access.
        • Remembers preview text.
        • Remembers preview font size.
      • Includes several built-in preview text examples.

   3. OfficeViewer updated to 1.4.0

      • Changed from an embedded plugin to a DLL plugin. Please re-add the plugin for it to work.
      • https://github.com/ccseer/OfficeViewer
      • Background loading during preview reduces UI stuttering.
      • Switched from 32-bit to 64-bit, offering better performance.

   4. Eps2Png updated to 1.1.0

      • Added a parameter to fix incorrect image size.

4. Settings - Plugins:

   • New UI for plugin management.
   • Plugins can now be disabled instead of fully removed.
   • When adding a plugin with the same name, it will be automatically replaced if the new version is newer.
     • OfficeViewer was renamed; please delete the old one and add the new version.

5. Settings - Shortcuts - Open Settings: Ctrl+,

   • If the tray icon is hidden, this shortcut can bring up the settings window.

6. Video:

   • Fixed a crash when opening certain MP4 files.
   • Playback speed is now remembered for the duration of the app session.

[ccseer]

https://github.com/ccseer/Seer/releases/download/Releases/Seer-4.0.0.exe

[TheNekoSan]

Great job ! If I may, I just prefered the old grey dark sheme, but this new version is awesome. Overal Seer is faster and none bugs at this time (Win11 24h2) ! The Fontviewer is a cool evolution, also.
Thank you very much !

[Darthagnon]

Does v4.x still work on Windows 7?

[ccseer]

not any more.
3.3.3: https://github.com/ccseer/Seer/releases/download/Releases/Seer-3.3.3.exe

[Darthagnon]

Thank you for the information. I'm glad I bought a license before v4 came out. I'll stick with v3.3.3

Wondering, did any of the old versions (e.g. v2.x) ever work on WinXP? I have an old laptop that could use it.

[ccseer]

the minimum support is win7.