There is one potential problem with my theoretical technique, which has to do with errant grain.

With an original negative, the center of the dye cloud will correspond with actual image detail almost 100% of the time. However, when a print is made from the o-neg, the dye clouds are the basis of the new image. The 2nd generation print will have the o-neg grain and a further dye cloud pattern. If you were to trace the centers of these clouds, some of them would perfectly overlap the grains of the previous print and retain all the detail of the o-neg, but most photons would have struck some other place on the o-neg dye clouds. These new clouds would have slightly incorrect value and placement in the image. This is what I’m going to call ‘errant grain’. If a print reaches something like 4th generation, which is about right for most prints of Star Wars, then this problem could be quite severe, and despite this precision the image will be somewhat soft. I’m still thinking of how to correct this issue.