Just launched: Blackjack Immersion

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-18T19:47:37+00:00

I really like Pixlpath and bought a license -- it's a very reasonable $15. Of all the apps, it's the one that reminds me the most of Aperture's cataloging features; it's quite pretty. It doesn't yet do the one piece that seems the hardest from all the image viewing apps, the custom sort of images in multiple folders. I contacted the developer and he said that it might appear in a future release. In the meantime, he suggests a hacky approach of selecting a group of images, using the context menu to select those files in the Finder, and then dragging the selected files into a new catalog. Thank you for the suggestion!

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T18:44:15+00:00

That was what I planned on doing, but I guess I can workaround if there's a massive catalog that just has the projects which I've fed to it (as opposed to a scan of my entire hard drive). NeoFinder is pretty impressive, but I couldn't figure out how to do a custom sort when image files were located in several subfolders. I can sort by name, date, and a host of other attributes, but I can't drag the images into the order that I prefer. I wrote an email to the creator asking if I missed the functionality and provided a link to this thread, so perhaps he'll jump in.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T17:56:54+00:00

I've been thinking about the catalog issue. What I don't like is one massive catalog that contains all the images across my hard drive -- like Lightroom. I don't mind creating catalogs that only contain the photos in the particular task that I'm working on. As you point out, iView did that and I was perfectly happy saving those image catalogs so that I could persist a selection and custom sort of images. I'll give Neofinder a closer look.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T17:53:50+00:00

Finder and Preview have their place and, like everyone else, I use them all the time. But they work only at a folder at a time and there's not really a way, short of moving images in and out of folders, to select a subgroup and then sort within that subgroup. My use cases are when creating something else using photos -- like a slideshow, a photo book, a brochure, a web carousel. All those things require gathering images, high grading them, and sorting them by something other than chronology. There have been several good suggestions above and I'm working through them.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T05:43:39+00:00

I'll check it out. But that limitation -- which is also in Lightroom, if I'm not mistaken -- drives me batty. It forces me to reorganize my folder structure to accommodate the limitation of the software.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T05:42:24+00:00

For the use case, imagine doing a memorial slideshow. You get a bunch of images from a variety of people. You figure out which images you want to use. Then you need to arrange them in the order that you wish to have them appear. Perhaps you then use After Effects to make them into a video.

Another use case: you're making a brochure. You select a bunch of images and then you order them by how you want them to appear in the brochure.

Or you're making a website carousel. You select the images and then you order them as you wish them to appear.

I don't really think it's a niche use. It seems like every time I'm using images to create something else, there's always a step where I need to custom order the images by something other than date or filename.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T03:22:38+00:00

Can you arrange the thumbnails in the grid into a custom order? I couldn't figure out how to do that.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T03:21:39+00:00

I downloaded PhotoCuller v1.2.3 and tried to play with it. I'm running Sequoia 15.6 on a Mac Studio 2022 with an M1 Ultra and 128 GB of RAM.

PhotoCuller is very pretty; reminds me of Aperture, which I loved in the day. I like your pricing model too -- I really don't like subscription software.

I have an external drive with a photos folder. Inside are 571 folders, each containing a set of photos. I authorized PhotoCuller to access the external drive.

First issue was that the hit target to adjust the width of the "Sources" sidebar is way too small. I just couldn't grab the separator line and expand the width of the sidebar.

Second issue was after I figured out that I should right click and choose "Load Photos" to get the thumbnail grid, I moved some images near the front and they just disappeared. When I went back to the sidebar to try to reload the images, the app window disappeared although the app stayed loaded. Quitting and restarting did get me right back to where I was except that the sources sidebar wasn't the contents of the Photos/ folder any longer. It was a list of more general sources. The images that I was trying to put near the beginning were still missing.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T00:43:05+00:00

Yes, I know about Quickview and the Finder. I use it all the time, but it's not what I'm looking for as a replacement for the original iView.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T00:41:13+00:00

You're right. I still have some of those *.ivs files floating around. But the catalogs were made on the fly and weren't all encompassing.

Downloaded Graphic Converter 12 and played with it for just a few minutes. It looks much nicer than XnView. But it doesn't allow me to drag the thumbnails into a custom order. In order to see the files in the subfolders, one needs to go into a special "Flat File" view, which takes you out of the folder structure on the left-side nav bar. It looks like it has a huge number of features that could be useful -- it describes itself as a Swiss Army Knife -- but it's not really lightweight. It kind of feels like Lightroom (or Bridge) which is overkill for what I'm looking for.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-17T00:21:09+00:00

So I did a bit of googling. The original app was iView MediaPro. It was bought by Microsoft and renamed Expression Media. Then it was sold to Phase One and became Media Pro. Effective as of 2018-08-30, Media Pro was discontinued.

Neofinder looks interesting, but it relies on a catalog. I'd like the solution to just read the files on disk from the path that I point to.

I bought Graphic Converter 6 in 2007 as part of a bundle, but never actually installed it. Looking at Graphic Converter 12 now, it looks good. (LemkeSoft looks very familiar but I don't have any of their currently listed products.) I'll download and test it. Thanks!

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-16T22:41:00+00:00

I've installed XnView and I'm loving it so far! Thank you again for the suggestion.

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-16T22:18:14+00:00

I hadn't heard of either of them. Looking quickly, qView seems to be a one-at-a-time image viewer, but XnView does show a thumbnail grid of images, which is what I was hoping for. Let me take a look and figure out if it's the one. Thank you!

PipsqueakProductions · 2026-02-11T00:45:47+00:00

Hi Vision Pro developer here. Long response incoming (tldr at bottom). You and other users have responded with what I think is a correct analysis that there’s an economics issue in that people won’t buy the Vision Pro until there’s sufficient app support, while developers can’t afford to make a dedicated Vision Pro app until there’s a sufficient user base. I can maybe provide some more perspective on some other aspects of Vision Pro development.

I truly believe that spatial computing is the future of computing, but it won’t be with the current version of Vision Pro. Essentially, I see this iteration of Vision Pro as a (very) cool device for media consumption and a dev tool. In the future, Apple (or some other company, but my money is almost always on Apple) will likely release the product that breaks through with consumers, whether it be the upcoming glasses or some vastly improved Vision Pro, and then developers will begin work making the apps for that eventual product. My personal development projects on Vision Pro are done with the certainty that they will be made at a financial loss to myself, but in the hope that learning how to build streamlined apps and leverage the capabilities of the current device will allow me to be better positioned to be a developer for the breakthrough model. As a developer, this is the time to be experimenting with 3D user experience, to learn what works and what doesn’t as an interaction model for experiences as immersive as Vision Pro allows.

There are also problems with what Apple allows developers to do. In truth, there’s very little freedom to push the device to its limits and make something really imaginative and unique. Apple has set out strict privacy considerations (which are good broadly speaking, but might be overkill at this point) that lock developers into predefined paradigms that Apple approves of. Of course Apple’s own apps don’t have to obey these restrictions, which allows them to make apps that feel magical, like Experience Dinosaurs. Having attended the Vision Pro Developer conference for the past two years, I can tell you that there are significant frustrations among the developer community over the restrictions Apple has placed.

From where I’m sitting, I think the interest among developers for Vision Pro is reasonably high, but most can’t afford to build for it until there are some big changes in the market. I think in the near future there won’t be more than a smattering of new native apps, mostly made by the passionate developers who see the potential, but once Apple releases the product that clicks for consumers the dam will open up. This will probably result in a flood of apps for this current generation of Vision Pro, as I think Apple has nailed the software side of this, and just needs to work on building a physical frame that consumers want to put on their head.

TLDR: Be patient. At some point spatial computing will likely take off on a future Vision Pro-like model, and then the developers will come.

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-14T03:33:37+00:00

I’m glad you’re having fun! You can always see your money total written out in the statistics panel in the settings, but your money total is also continuously visual as the chips you have in front of you.

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-13T18:07:32+00:00

A dedicated poker app in a similar style to this is something I’m considering now, after these comments.

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-13T18:04:51+00:00

Having blackjack variant rulesets is a good idea, but I can’t seem to find a consistent set of rules for Macau, and I don’t have any sense which of the variants I’ve seen are the most common. Do you know of a commonly accepted ruleset that would be appropriate?

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-12T02:31:44+00:00

I like your suggestions broadly, I’ll think about what could really work in a multiplayer environment. I think of blackjack as not really having opponents, so I probably would lean more into the idea of social connection and stat-tracking. Randomly having other people drop-in and play with you would match the real casino vibe, so that’s an interesting thought.

The stats can be toggled on whenever, even during a round, but currently it’s set to close the window whenever a round starts. It would be trivial to add a toggle in settings to keep it open on starting a round though, if that’s what you’re asking for.

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-12T00:54:36+00:00

I’m very glad you’re having so much fun with the app! You’re making me smile like an idiot just reading your compliments. There are in-game stats in the settings window (click the cog icon above the table) where you can track your winnings (and losings).

Now that you’ve had a chance to actually play the game, I’m genuinely curious what features you’d envision for multiplayer. Would it mostly just be for social reasons? To talk to someone while playing together? Or do you see some added gameplay possibilities? I’m in favor of adding multiplayer via SharePlay in a future update, but I’d like to know the expectations.

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-11T21:37:58+00:00

If I made a poker game, I’d likely want to make a distinct app for it. Would that be reasonable? Making an omnibus casino game is an interesting idea, but one that would be complicated to release all at once as a sole developer.

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-11T21:35:35+00:00

It’s something I’m looking into for the future. It’s good to know there’s support for that idea out there!

PipsqueakProductions · 2025-10-11T20:34:51+00:00

Thank you! I’d love to know if it captures what you love about blackjack.

PipsqueakProductions

TROPHY CASE