After looking at the new 28.9 custom build version, I'm still not happy with way the Octane Imager Preview Mode/Render Mode dissonance is tackled. I'm even more confused now (party because there's still some graying out bug in there). So for a hopefully final time I try to untangle the situation. There has to be a better way.
Here are some things that make the whole situation a bit chaotic now ...
*) Wording: There are a lot of Octane-specific words in there that might be confusing to Blender users or new Octane users. There's the "Imager" that sounds rather antiquated. Than we have a "Preview Mode" and a "Render Mode". Better to understand but still confusing in combination with the "Imager".
*) There are a lot of checkboxes right now. This leads to a lot of possible combinations - too many in my opinion.
*) In Preview Mode the settings can change between the actual preview settings and the camera settings when you jump in and out of the Camera Perspective view. This could be seen as a feature but for me personally it's distracting and I'd like an option to deactivate that.
*) The new checkboxes at the top feel out of place. Why not put them inside the corresponding panel and make it simpler?
So here are some thoughts/suggestions based on the points above ...
*) Move the checkboxes into the corresponding sections. I will not dive into the PostProcess section now. But solutions could be alongside the ones for the Octane Imager section.
*) Remove the checkbox in front of the Octane Imager header and replace it by a "Reset All Settings" button. There are always settings that influence the viewport appearance and unchecking the checkbox leaves you in a limbo about what's going on. Based on "what you see is what you get" it makes more sense to have a reset button to set everything back to default. And getting rid of another checkbox only helps.
*) Slight change of wording to "Use For All Cameras (Render Mode)" to more accurately reference the panel that this is connected to.
*) Add a checkbox (I know - but this is a nice one) named something like "Use for Camera View (Preview Mode)". This addresses my wish from above to stay consistent between User Perspective and Camera Perspective. I'd rather stay in sRGB/Denoiser OFF all the time instead of switching in and out of it whenever I hit "0". Could be personal, but I think that this is not a strange wish to have - especially concerning the denoising (which impacts performance).
Let me know what you think. Maybe there are things I've overseen or that could be improved even more.
So here's my mockup ...