Tile Preview

Preview individual hextile faces as durable graph drafts with Commit, Discard, multi-draft filmstrip, and safe next-face Render

Last updated: 2026-07-28

Tile Preview

Tile Preview is a viewer tool on an open render (not the WebSocket “tile_preview” progress event in the API reference). It runs diffusion on a single hextile face so you can judge a tile before committing it into the project graph.

It shares the same draft-node + filmstrip product model as Spot Editing, with one big difference: faces are always pose-fixed by the template, so multi-draft is always eligible (no Lock toggle).

Open the tool

  1. Open a render under Renders.
  2. Open Tile Preview from the viewer toolbar.
  3. Select a face on the sphere (or step previous/next tile controls).
  4. Configure face-local settings, then Render a preview for that face.

Draft lifecycle

Step What happens
Render (preview) GPU spends work on the selected face.
Materialize Result becomes a graph node with status: draft, stamped as created by Tile Preview.
Hold Draft is durable on the graph; selection of other faces does not burn it by default.
Other face selected Panel may show that face’s base crop; the draft stays held (badge may show “Draft · Tile N”).
Commit Promote in place — same node id becomes final; config bake for that face happens on promote, not at materialize.
Discard Only deliberate delete of draft / pin residual work.
Leave tool Drafts are tool-scoped live work; closing the tool detaches the live session — re-open re-adopts when still valid.

Drafts are never the graph head until promoted. Head advances on Commit (promote), not on materialize.

Materialize failure

If materialize fails, a pin residual may remain with automatic retry (limited). Discard still kills pin-only residual. Closing the panel is allowed; re-open can retry.

Multi-draft filmstrip (always on for TP)

Unlike Spot (which needs Lock position for multi-draft), Tile Preview always can append variations on the same face:

  1. Render face 4 → filmstrip Variations (1).
  2. Change settings / seed and Render again → Variations (2); newest becomes active.
  3. Click a frame to attach it; Commit promotes only the active frame (label may read Commit — discard N other(s)).
  4. Soft cap 8 variations — further appends refuse rather than silently dropping old frames.

Filmstrip chrome matches Spot: Variations (N), per-frame discard, Discard all.

Next-face Render: auto-promote vs resolve

Held drafts on current face Action on another face Result
N = 1 Render that other face Auto-promote the single draft, then start a new draft on the new face
N ≥ 2 Render that other face Resolve dialog: Commit selected · Discard all · Cancel
Any Bare face selection only Does not auto-promote — selection alone is not “Render”

Cancel leaves held variations intact and does not start the other face’s render.

Template geometry changes

Changing hextile template rotation / offset (grid geometry) while Tile Preview drafts are held:

  1. Confirm: changing the grid will discard N held tile variations.
  2. Continue → clears Tile Preview drafts for that render only.
  3. Cancel → aborts the geometry change.

Spot free-tile drafts are not cleared by this gate.

Commit / Discard bar

Typical chrome (names as in the app):

  • Render / re-render / retry — face preview actions
  • Commit — promote active draft
  • Discard — delete held draft work for the face / set

Held-draft affordances may note that Commit and Discard still target the tile that owns the set even if the UI is highlighting another face’s base crop.

Graph & head

  • Draft nodes appear in the Derivation Graph while held (tool-scoped filtering may hide or dim inactive tool drafts in some panels).
  • After Commit, the promoted node is a normal project step; use head vs active like any other op.
  • Do not confuse this tool with API WebSocket messages named tile_preview in API Reference — those are progress frames during full renders.

Differences from Spot Edit

Spot Edit Tile Preview
Owner Free / placed spots Template face index
Multi-draft gate Only when locked Always
Cross-owner start Preview other spot Render other face
Template rotate/offset Does not clear Spot set Warn + clear TP drafts only
Lock / Unlock Yes No unlock UI

Shared: draft materialize, filmstrip, Commit = promote active, Discard = kill, resolve dialog when N≥2 + other owner, soft cap 8.

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