Qt GUI overhaul: live reload, undo/redo, test suite, crash reporting

Headline features
- Live Reload From Source (QFileSystemWatcher, captured SVTFCreateOptions
  + retune dialog; also watches parent directory for atomic-save editors).
- External VTF change detection with clean/dirty divergence handling plus
  Shift+F5 force-reload.
- Command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) with subsequence fuzzy matching and
  persistent recency + use-count scoring.
- Non-modal toast overlay; clickable variant with pointer-hover pause.
- Undo/redo backed by QUndoStack: flags, minor version, start frame,
  bumpmap scale, reflectivity, and compute-reflectivity. Properties
  multi-field saves grouped as a single macro.
- Equirectangular HDRI -> cubemap (Tools menu; CPU bilinear sampler;
  256/512/1024/2048 face sizes).
- Lit Normal + Mip Diff channel-view modes; per-mip PSNR stats in VTF
  Properties dialog.
- Export presets (preset bar on Create dialog: Save As / Delete; 20+
  fields persisted in QSettings).
- Per-file view memory (zoom, fit, cubemap face); reopen-last-session
  + auto-fit-on-open options.
- Extended image import: PNG/JPG/BMP/TIFF/WebP/GIF/PPM/PGM/PBM (Qt) plus
  TGA, HDR, PSD, PIC (stb_image), OpenEXR (tinyexr), QOI (qoi.h).
  Animated GIF/APNG auto-expand into Animated-VTF frames.
- Crash reporting: async-signal-safe POSIX handler / SetUnhandledException
  filter on Windows, writes to <AppDataLocation>/crashes/ with backtrace.
  Next startup surfaces new reports via a clickable toast.

VTFLib fixes and extensions
- Kaiser/Gaussian/Point mipmap filter crash fixed: replaced the
  stbir_filter(MipmapFilter) cast (which produced out-of-range stbir
  enum values) with an explicit VTFFilterToStbirFilter mapping applied
  at all three stbir_resize call sites.
- New MIPMAP_FILTER_NICE: Valve-style half-pixel box filter that forces
  STBIR_TYPE_UINT8_SRGB in mipmap generation regardless of the caller's
  bSRGB flag. Exposed via vtfcmd -mfilter nice and the Qt dialog.
- CVTFFile::Load now detects byte-swapped headers (console VTFs,
  Xbox 360 / PS3) and future VTF 7.6+ / compressed-body variants,
  failing with specific errors instead of generic corruption.
- Fix -Wswitch warning by handling RESIZE_COUNT sentinel.

VTFCmd
- New -exportpath <file> flag for shell thumbnailers that pass an exact
  destination path. Only honored without -extract-all-*.

Test suite + CI
- 14 CTest scenarios: three formats (RGBA8888/BGRA8888/RGB888), a
  -nomipmaps variant, eight mipmap filters (box/triangle/catrom/mitchell/
  kaiser/point/gaussian/nice), an animated round-trip with per-frame
  diff, and a 6-face cubemap round-trip. Header magic + dimensions +
  flags validated; PNG output pixel-diffed via new imgdiff helper
  (PSNR >= 20 dB gate, fully-transparent pixels ignored).
- New imgdiff test helper (stb_image-based).
- New mkanimvtf test helper (vlImageCreateMultiple wrapper; --cube flag
  for 6-face env maps).
- CI core job runs ctest on every push across Ubuntu/Windows/macOS.
- CI qt-gui job runs a headless vtfeditqt --version / --help smoke test.
- New release job: tag-triggered (v*), downloads all platform artifacts,
  packages them with versioned names (e.g. QTFEdit-3.5.0-linux-x86_64.zip),
  drafts a GitHub Release with CHANGELOG.md as the body.
- vtfeditqt gained --version / --help that short-circuit before
  QApplication so the smoke step needs no platform plugin.

Shell integration
- Linux: packaging/linux/vtf.thumbnailer + vtf-mime.xml; cmake --install
  deploys them to share/thumbnailers and share/mime/packages.
- Windows: packaging/windows/vtf-assoc.reg + uninstaller; registers
  .vtf/.vmt under HKCU (no admin).
- macOS: Info.plist.in with CFBundleDocumentTypes +
  UTExportedTypeDeclarations; QFileOpenEvent filter in main.cpp.

Version
- Project version bumped 3.0.0 -> 3.5.0. main.cpp --version now reads
  QTFEDIT_VERSION from CMake via a compile definition so the string
  won't drift out of sync with the project version again.

Cleanup
- Removed unused applyExposure8bit and leadingSpacesCount in MainWindow.
- Expanded .gitignore for macOS/Linux/Windows metadata, editor swap
  files, clang-tidy/clangd caches, CTest scratch, coverage/profiling
  artifacts, core dumps, alternate build directories.

Docs
- docs/parity.md: VTFEdit Reloaded parity remains 100%; new Beyond-Parity
  section covers every feature above.
- docs/roadmap.md: forward roadmap covering big-ticket items (Strata
  compressed VTF read/write, Xbox 360 / PS3 console VTF read) plus
  shell-integration, Qt GUI quick/medium/ambitious tiers, and
  infrastructure work.
- README.md: version header v3.0 -> v3.5, expanded feature bullets,
  Testing section, short Roadmap highlighting the two headline items
  with a link to docs/roadmap.md for the full catalogue, release flow.
- CHANGELOG.md: full inventory of the 3.5.0 arc.

Author: programmer1o1

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build
         run: cmake --build build --config Release
 
+      - name: Test
+        working-directory: build
+        run: ctest --output-on-failure -C Release
+
       - name: Upload artifacts
         uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
@@ -98,6 +102,31 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build
         run: cmake --build build-qt --config Release
 
+      - name: Smoke test (Linux/macOS)
+        if: runner.os != 'Windows'
+        shell: bash
+        env:
+          QT_QPA_PLATFORM: offscreen
+        run: |
+          if [ "$RUNNER_OS" = "macOS" ]; then
+            ./build-qt/VTFEdit/vtfeditqt.app/Contents/MacOS/vtfeditqt --version
+            ./build-qt/VTFEdit/vtfeditqt.app/Contents/MacOS/vtfeditqt --help
+          else
+            ./build-qt/VTFEdit/vtfeditqt --version
+            ./build-qt/VTFEdit/vtfeditqt --help
+          fi
+
+      - name: Smoke test (Windows)
+        if: runner.os == 'Windows'
+        shell: pwsh
+        env:
+          QT_QPA_PLATFORM: offscreen
+        run: |
+          & .\build-qt\VTFEdit\Release\vtfeditqt.exe --version
+          if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { throw "vtfeditqt --version failed with $LASTEXITCODE" }
+          & .\build-qt\VTFEdit\Release\vtfeditqt.exe --help
+          if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) { throw "vtfeditqt --help failed with $LASTEXITCODE" }
+
       - name: Install (stage)
         run: cmake --install build-qt --config Release --prefix dist
 
@@ -245,4 +274,53 @@ jobs:
           if-no-files-found: error
           compression-level: 9
           path: |
-            legacy/sln/vs2019/Build/**
+            legacy/sln/vs2019/Build/**
+
+  release:
+    name: Publish GitHub Release
+    needs: [core, qt-gui, winforms-windows]
+    if: startsWith(github.ref, 'refs/tags/v')
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      contents: write
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Download all artifacts
+        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          path: artifacts
+
+      - name: Package per-platform bundles
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          set -euo pipefail
+          cd artifacts
+          version="${GITHUB_REF_NAME#v}"
+          mkdir -p ../release-assets
+          for d in */; do
+            name="${d%/}"
+            case "$name" in
+              vtfeditqt-ubuntu-latest)     out="QTFEdit-${version}-linux-x86_64" ;;
+              vtfeditqt-windows-latest)    out="QTFEdit-${version}-windows-x86_64" ;;
+              vtfeditqt-macos-latest)      out="QTFEdit-${version}-macos" ;;
+              core-ubuntu-latest)          out="VTFLib-VTFCmd-${version}-linux-x86_64" ;;
+              core-windows-latest)         out="VTFLib-VTFCmd-${version}-windows-x86_64" ;;
+              core-macos-latest)           out="VTFLib-VTFCmd-${version}-macos" ;;
+              vtfedit-winforms-windows-latest) out="VTFEdit-Reloaded-${version}-winforms-windows-x86_64" ;;
+              *)                            out="${name}-${version}" ;;
+            esac
+            (cd "$d" && zip -r "../../release-assets/${out}.zip" .)
+          done
+          echo "---"
+          ls -la ../release-assets
+
+      - name: Publish release (draft)
+        uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v2
+        with:
+          files: release-assets/*.zip
+          body_path: CHANGELOG.md
+          draft: true
+          fail_on_unmatched_files: true
+          generate_release_notes: false

.gitignore

@@ -337,5 +337,111 @@ ASALocalRun/
 # NVidia Nsight GPU debugger configuration file
 *.nvuser
 
-# MFractors (Xamarin productivity tool) working folder 
+# MFractors (Xamarin productivity tool) working folder
 .mfractor/
+
+# -------------------------------------------------------------------
+# QTFEdit project additions (cross-platform, editors, tooling, CTest)
+# -------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# macOS metadata
+.DS_Store
+.AppleDouble
+.LSOverride
+._*
+.Spotlight-V100
+.Trashes
+.TemporaryItems
+.VolumeIcon.icns
+.fseventsd/
+.com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
+Icon?
+# Catch nested .DS_Store files too (e.g. legacy/.DS_Store, thirdparty/.DS_Store).
+**/.DS_Store
+
+# Linux
+*~
+.fuse_hidden*
+.Trash-*
+.nfs*
+.directory
+
+# Windows
+Thumbs.db
+Thumbs.db:encryptable
+ehthumbs.db
+ehthumbs_vista.db
+Desktop.ini
+$RECYCLE.BIN/
+
+# Editor swap/backup
+*.swp
+*.swo
+*.swn
+.*.sw?
+*.orig
+*.rej
+*.bak
+
+# Clang/clangd/ccls tooling caches (override the `!*.[Cc]ache/` rule above)
+.cache/
+.clangd/
+.ccls-cache/
+compile_flags.txt
+
+# Qt Creator per-user project state
+CMakeLists.txt.user
+CMakeLists.txt.user.*
+*.qmake.stash
+*.pro.user
+*.pro.user.*
+
+# VS Code / Xcode / Sublime / other editors
+.vscode/
+!.vscode/extensions.json
+!.vscode/settings.shared.json
+xcuserdata/
+*.xcworkspace/
+*.xcuserstate
+*.sublime-workspace
+*.sublime-project
+
+# CTest scratch + artifacts that CMake drops into the source tree if ctest is
+# ever invoked from the wrong directory (build/ is preferred).
+/Testing/
+**/Testing/
+CTestTestfile.cmake
+DartConfiguration.tcl
+
+# Coverage / profiling
+*.gcda
+*.gcno
+*.gcov
+coverage/
+*.profdata
+*.profraw
+perf.data
+perf.data.old
+
+# Core dumps
+core
+core.*
+vgcore.*
+
+# Accidental Python venvs
+venv/
+.venv/
+env/
+__pycache__/
+
+# Accidental app bundles inside the source tree (real builds land in build/)
+*.app/
+
+# Crash-report outputs written by the tool during dev runs inside the tree
+crashes/
+
+# Build-tree fallback: anything under build/, build-qt/ etc. is already covered
+# by the [Bb]uild/ pattern above; this is just defensive for alternate names.
+out/
+cmake-build-*/
+

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Changelog
+
+## 3.5.0 — 2026-04-24
+
+### Qt GUI (QTFEdit)
+
+- **Live Reload From Source** (Tools menu, opt-in): when a VTF was created by importing an image, `QFileSystemWatcher` re-encodes and overwrites the VTF in place whenever the source changes. Captures the original `SVTFCreateOptions`, texture type, and alpha-format choice. Directory watching catches editors that atomic-save (write-tmp + rename). `Tools → Retune Live Source Options…` re-runs the Create dialog mid-session.
+- **External VTF change detection** (always on): the open `.vtf` is watched on disk. Clean buffers auto-reload silently (preserving frame/face/slice/mip selection); dirty buffers get a status-bar warning. A 2-second self-save window suppresses feedback loops.
+- **Discard Changes & Reload** (Shift+F5).
+- **Command palette** (Ctrl+Shift+P) — fuzzy subsequence matching with start-of-string / word-boundary / consecutive-char bonuses; persistent recency + use-count scoring (3-day exp-decay half-life).
+- **Lit Normal** channel-view mode — Lambertian shading over RG-as-normal with a fixed directional light.
+- **Mip Diff** channel-view mode — heatmap of `|current mip − upscale(next-coarser mip)|`.
+- **Mip quality stats** in the VTF Properties dialog — per-mip PSNR column companion to Mip Diff.
+- **Non-modal Toast** overlay for info / warn / error status messages, supersedes most `QMessageBox::information` calls; repositions on window resize; supports a clickable variant with pointer-hover pause.
+- **Undo / redo** (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z) backed by `QUndoStack`. Covers VTF flags, minor version, start frame, bumpmap scale, reflectivity, and computed-reflectivity. Properties-dialog multi-field saves grouped as a single macro. Stack cleared on file close / open.
+- **Equirectangular HDRI → cubemap** (`Tools → Create Cubemap From HDRI…`) — CPU bilinear sampler into a 6-face Env-Map VTF at 256 / 512 / 1024 / 2048 per face.
+- **Export presets** in the Create VTF dialog (preset bar with combo + Save As… + Delete). Persists 20+ fields: format, mipmap filter, version, resize config, sRGB/gamma, full flag mask.
+- **Per-file memory**: zoom level, fit-to-window state, and cubemap face are remembered per VTF.
+- **Reopen last session on startup** (opt-in).
+- **Auto-fit preview on open** (opt-in).
+- **Extended image import**: PNG/JPG/BMP/TIFF/WebP/GIF/PPM/PGM/PBM via Qt; **TGA** / Radiance **HDR** / Photoshop **PSD** / Softimage **PIC** via bundled `stb_image`; **OpenEXR** via tinyexr; **QOI** via `qoi.h`. Animated **GIF** / **APNG** auto-expand into Animated-VTF frames.
+- **Crash reporting** — async-signal-safe POSIX handler (or `SetUnhandledExceptionFilter` on Windows) writes a minimal report with backtrace to `<AppDataLocation>/crashes/crash-<epochms>.txt`. On next startup, any new reports surface as a **clickable** non-modal toast that opens the folder via `QDesktopServices`.
+- **Qt GUI `--version` / `--help`** flags short-circuit before `QApplication` so the binary can be smoke-tested headlessly without a platform plugin.
+- **macOS file associations**: `CFBundleDocumentTypes` + `UTExportedTypeDeclarations` in a custom `Info.plist.in`; `main.cpp` installs a `QFileOpenEvent` filter for Finder "Open With".
+
+### VTFLib
+
+- **Kaiser / Gaussian / Point / etc. mipmap filter crash fixed**: `stbir_filter(MipmapFilter)` was a plain C-style cast across two incompatible enums. Out-of-range values past `MIPMAP_FILTER_MITCHELL` tripped an internal `stbir__perform_build` assertion at mipmap-generation time. Replaced with a `VTFFilterToStbirFilter` helper that explicitly maps each VTFLib filter to the closest stbir equivalent (MITCHELL for the windowed-sinc family, TRIANGLE for Gaussian/Bessel, etc.). Applied to all three `stbir_resize` call sites.
+- **`MIPMAP_FILTER_NICE`** — new enum value for a Valve-style half-pixel box filter that forces `STBIR_TYPE_UINT8_SRGB` in the mipmap generation path regardless of the caller's `bSRGB` flag. Exposed via `vtfcmd -mfilter nice` and the Qt Create dialog's combo (**"Nice (sRGB-aware box)"**).
+- **Clearer errors for unsupported VTF variants** — `CVTFFile::Load` now detects byte-swapped headers (big-endian console VTFs — Xbox 360 / PS3) and future Strata minor versions, and fails with a specific error pointing at `docs/roadmap.md`.
+- Fixed `-Wswitch` warning in the resize-method switch by handling the `RESIZE_COUNT` sentinel explicitly.
+
+### VTFCmd
+
+- **`-exportpath <file>`**: single-output path flag for tools (like shell thumbnailers) that need a specific destination file. Only honoured without `-extract-all-*` to prevent overwriting the same file N times.
+
+### Testing + CI
+
+- **CTest round-trip suite**: 14 scenarios — three formats (RGBA8888 / BGRA8888 / RGB888), a `-nomipmaps` variant, eight mipmap-filter variants (box / triangle / catrom / mitchell / kaiser / point / gaussian / nice), an animated round-trip with per-frame diff, and a 6-face cubemap round-trip. Each test validates VTF header fields (magic, width/height, Frames field for animated, `TEXTUREFLAGS_ENVMAP` for cubemap) and pixel-diffs the decoded PNG via the bundled `imgdiff` helper (PSNR ≥ 20 dB gate, fully-transparent pixels ignored).
+- New **`imgdiff`** test helper (stb_image-based pixel diff).
+- New **`mkanimvtf`** test helper — builds multi-frame or cubemap VTFs via `vlImageCreateMultiple` (vtfcmd's `-file` flag can't do that directly). `--cube` flag for 6-face env maps.
+- **CI**: `core` job runs `ctest` on every push (Ubuntu / Windows / macOS). `qt-gui` job runs `vtfeditqt --version` + `--help` as a headless smoke test on all three platforms.
+
+### Shell integration
+
+- **Linux** (freedesktop): `packaging/linux/vtf.thumbnailer` + `vtf-mime.xml`. `cmake --install` deploys them to `share/thumbnailers` and `share/mime/packages`. `.vtf` files get thumbnails in Nautilus / Nemo / Thunar / Caja / PCManFM.
+- **Windows**: `packaging/windows/vtf-assoc.reg` + uninstaller. Registers `.vtf` / `.vmt` with QTFEdit ProgIDs under `HKEY_CURRENT_USER` (no admin).
+- **macOS**: file associations already shipped via `Info.plist.in`; Finder thumbnails still need a Quick Look app extension (not shipped).
+
+### Cleanup
+
+- Removed unused `applyExposure8bit` and `leadingSpacesCount` functions from `MainWindow.cpp`.
+
+### Docs
+
+- `docs/parity.md` — VTFEdit Reloaded parity checklist now with a "Beyond Parity (Qt-only enhancements)" section covering every item above.
+- `docs/roadmap.md` — detailed roadmap covering the big-ticket additions (Strata compressed VTF, console VTF read for Xbox 360 / PS3), shell integration follow-ups, Qt GUI quick / medium / ambitious items, and infrastructure work.
+- `README.md` — expanded feature bullets; added Testing, Roadmap (Pending), and packaging sections; points at both `docs/*.md`.
+- `packaging/linux/README.md` and `packaging/windows/README.md` — step-by-step install/uninstall.

CMakeLists.txt

@@ -13,16 +13,35 @@ endif()
 
 # QTFEdit (Qt) is the primary GUI going forward. The legacy WinForms GUI and
 # Visual Studio solutions live under `legacy/` and are frozen.
-project(QTFEdit VERSION 3.0.0 LANGUAGES C CXX)
+project(QTFEdit VERSION 3.5.0 LANGUAGES C CXX)
 
 option(VTFLIB_USE_COMPRESSONATOR "Link against AMD Compressonator if available" ON)
 option(BUILD_VTFCMD "Build VTFCmd CLI" ON)
 option(BUILD_VTFEDIT_QT "Build cross-platform Qt GUI (QTFEdit)" OFF)
 
+enable_testing()
+
 add_subdirectory(VTFLib)
 if(BUILD_VTFCMD)
     add_subdirectory(VTFCmd)
 endif()
 if(BUILD_VTFEDIT_QT)
     add_subdirectory(VTFEdit)
 endif()
+
+# Linux shell integration: ship a freedesktop thumbnailer + MIME-type XML when installing.
+# These are harmless on other platforms because `UNIX AND NOT APPLE` gates the install rule.
+if(UNIX AND NOT APPLE)
+    install(FILES
+        ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/packaging/linux/vtf.thumbnailer
+        DESTINATION share/thumbnailers
+        COMPONENT shell_integration
+        OPTIONAL
+    )
+    install(FILES
+        ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/packaging/linux/vtf-mime.xml
+        DESTINATION share/mime/packages
+        COMPONENT shell_integration
+        OPTIONAL
+    )
+endif()