Recent Whidbey releases and still no fast GDI+ image loading...
I'm waiting, waiting, waiting, oh wait, it isn't there yet. As the releases go passing by I'm just not seeing the option to disable image data verification. This verification process is a huge detriment to various types of image management applications. If you don't believe me, question why nearly every image management application written using .NET features 4 larger thumbnails instead of 20 or 30 smaller ones. The graphics area used is pretty much the same, but 4 images load in under a second quite easily, while 20+ take a long time. Without image data verification stuff just loads 10x faster, and yes that is a tested number. Rather than load 4 images you can load 40... As you start to load a large number of images the ratio does change a bit because of memory usage, but for the most part you can at least load images 6 to 1.
Well, as we get closer and closer to a .NET 2.0 release I'll continue looking for the missing fast image loading that has so much impact on everything ranging from ASP .NET image processing filters to the cold load time of a Windows Forms application. Until then I guess I'll keep using my hack.
ImageFast: A stand-alone library for quickly loading GDI+ images without validation.