Resampling a large image for display

Hi,

This post is less "solution seeking" and more "opinion seeking".

I have 2 large image files. Each pixel is stored either as a short integer or a float value (depending on source). The images are huge - about 10000px by 7000px.

I want to display them in a set windows - of say 500px by 500px each (user resizable). One window will contain the whole image (resampled) and another will contain a 1:1 zoomed view. The area to zoom into will be chosen by clicking in the resized image view. (Marked with a red square)

That is what I intend to do. But I need help deciding how to actually implement it.

1. One idea I have is to resample the whole file at start (may take 5-10 secs?)and save as a bitmap or a binary file. Then load it.
The second idea is to load in patches dynamically. So initially I do something like a nearest neighbour approximation, and then do bicubic resampling on small patches. THis will reduce the wait time to see the image but may be much more complex. (Bit like what google earth does?)
Which one do you think is better? Resample at start, but have a uniform user experience later. Or resample block by block in some way.

2. I cant decide how to implement the drawing surface. Plot pixel by pixel using GDI on a document. (Im using MFC) Or save as a bitmap and load to picturebox. Or some openGL method? (Im very lost here, but im willing to learn - links will be appriciated)

3. Can I access one file at multiple points? If I could have one thread resampling half of the file, and another doing the next half, it would be really quick. But im not sure if its possible at all. (May be I can copy the file beforehand and seek?)

Any help and opinion on this would be appriciated. Im just trying to lay down some a framework / plan of work to.
Links / Tutorials appriciated. Im new to MFC.

Tags: C++, MFC, Image Processing