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Feature matching is much slower in the latest version (666d015) #4482

Description

@yzslab

Describe the bug
Hi, I upgraded from 802461f to 666d015 just now, and found that the feature matching has become much slower.
The 802461f only takes about 0.7s to finish processing an image:

$ colmap --help
COLMAP 3.13.0.dev0 -- Structure-from-Motion and Multi-View Stereo
(Commit 802461fd on 2025-09-01 with CUDA)
# ...

$ colmap vocab_tree_matcher --database_path colmap.db --VocabTreeMatching.vocab_tree_path ~/.cache/colmap/vocab_tree_faiss_flickr100K_words32K.bin
# ...
I0627 19:22:45.285238 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [1/371]
I0627 19:22:47.449900 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 2.165s
I0627 19:22:47.449950 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [2/371]
I0627 19:22:48.173496 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.724s
I0627 19:22:48.173534 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [3/371]
I0627 19:22:48.835594 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.662s
I0627 19:22:48.835634 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [4/371]
I0627 19:22:49.488729 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.653s
I0627 19:22:49.488756 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [5/371]
I0627 19:22:50.192255 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.704s
I0627 19:22:50.192293 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [6/371]
I0627 19:22:50.870695 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.678s
I0627 19:22:50.870736 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [7/371]
I0627 19:22:51.538556 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.668s
I0627 19:22:51.538599 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [8/371]
I0627 19:22:52.280521 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.742s
I0627 19:22:52.280555 2587672 pairing.cc:331] Processing image [9/371]
I0627 19:22:53.041129 2587672 feature_matching.cc:117] in 0.761s
# ...

But 666d015 takes more than 3s per image:

$ ~/src/colmap-upstream/colmap --help
COLMAP 4.2.0.dev0 (Commit 666d0158 on 2026-06-27 with CUDA)
# ...

$ ~/src/colmap-upstream/colmap vocab_tree_matcher --database_path colmap.db --VocabTreeMatching.vocab_tree_path ~/.cache/colmap/vocab_tree_faiss_flickr100K_words32K.bin
# ...
I0627 19:36:33.466027 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [1/371]
I0627 19:36:38.745220 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 5.279s
I0627 19:36:38.745255 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [2/371]
I0627 19:36:43.167970 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 4.423s
I0627 19:36:43.168001 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [3/371]
I0627 19:36:47.237032 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 4.069s
I0627 19:36:47.237071 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [4/371]
I0627 19:36:51.326221 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 4.089s
I0627 19:36:51.326247 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [5/371]
I0627 19:36:55.202837 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 3.877s
I0627 19:36:55.202879 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [6/371]
I0627 19:36:58.592381 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 3.390s
I0627 19:36:58.592447 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [7/371]
I0627 19:37:03.241613 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 4.649s
I0627 19:37:03.241640 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [8/371]
I0627 19:37:07.108819 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 3.867s
I0627 19:37:07.108856 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [9/371]
I0627 19:37:11.133400 2594083 feature_matching.cc:217] in 4.025s
I0627 19:37:11.133428 2594083 pairing.cc:328] Processing image [10/371]
# ...

I also tried to build 666d015 using docker/build.sh, and the issue persists.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Download an image set from https://www.tanksandtemples.org/download/, e.g. Meeting room
  2. Run feature_extractor and vocab_tree_matcher using 802461f and 666d015, respectively
  3. You will find that the 666d015 takes much longer to process images

Expected behavior
666d015 should perform feature matching as fast as 802461f.

Environment:

  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04
  • COLMAP Version: 666d015

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