Vieversys

Vieversys is a fast, elegant, and highly experimental macOS media browser built with Objective-C + AppKit. It provides a smooth three-pane experience for browsing local files and SMB network shares with rich thumbnail grids, instant previews, metadata inspection, slideshows, and side-by-side compare — all backed by a robust VFS layer and dual decode pipeline.

A deeply internal tool focused on performance, polish, and seamless local + remote media workflows.

Built for Power Users & Media Workflows

Vieversys combines native macOS ergonomics with serious media handling:

• Local + SMB VFS — seamless browsing of network shares with credential & bookmark support
• High-performance thumbnail browser — virtualized grid with fast filtering, sorting, and live refresh
• Rich preview pane — zoom, pan, rotate, mirror, fit/fill, and staged high-resolution loading
• Tabbed metadata inspector — Info, Metadata (EXIF/IPTC/XMP), and Technical (codec, duration, etc.)
• Slideshow & Compare — fullscreen timed playback and synchronized side-by-side viewing
• FFmpeg integration — direct library decode fallback with VideoToolbox hardware acceleration

Smart & Responsive Experience

• Progressive directory streaming with instant UI feedback
• Intelligent neighbor preloading around current selection
• Memory-pressure aware thumbnail and preview caches
• Keyboard-first navigation with extensive shortcuts
• Persistent bookmarks, recents, and window state
• Automatic local directory watching with debounced refresh

Everything feels native, fast, and predictable — even over SMB.

Technical Foundation

• Clean layered architecture (UI → Domain → Services → VFS → Decode)
• Dual decode path: Apple QuickLook first, FFmpeg fallback second
• Direct libsmbclient integration with custom FFmpeg IO for remote media
• Persistent config and thumbnail cache under ~/.config/vieversys
• Performance harness and hang diagnostics tooling for development

Current Status

Vieversys is a highly experimental and internal project. It is under active development as a personal media management tool and architectural playground. No public releases have been made.

It already delivers a smooth, responsive experience for both local and networked media libraries, with strong emphasis on preview quality, navigation speed, and macOS-native polish.

Vieversys is for users who want:

• a beautiful, fast native macOS media browser,
• seamless local + SMB network share support,
• rich preview and metadata tools,
• and deeply customizable experimental software.

Built as a highly experimental project to explore high-quality macOS media browsing architecture.