MAY 4 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta44 has been released !
New improved internal memory controls should now work on all computers
May 1 2026: APP 2.0.0-beta43 has been released !
Improved internal memory controls (much more stable and faster on big datasets), fixed CPU image viewer, fixed Narrowband extraction demosaic algortihms.
Apr 29 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta42 has been released !
New improved Normalization engine, Fixed random crashes in integration, fixed RGB Combine & Calibrate Star Colors, fixed Narrowband extraction algorithms, new development platform with performance gains, bug fixes in the tools, etc...
Apr 14 2026: Google Pay, Apple Pay & WeChat Pay added as payment options
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
Hi all,
Due to
- several outstanding issues with OpenGL on all 3 platforms (Linux, MacOS & Windows)
- and the fact that Apple (MacOS) will probably soon stop support for OpenGL
we will start work with high priority to upgrade APP to use the cross-platform Vulkan API from the Khronos group
https://www.khronos.org/vulkan/
for both
- the graphics (showing your images) in APP and also
- for performing parallel calculations on the GPU.
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In addition, APPLE has already stopped support for OpenCL with MacOS Mojave. OpenCL is a language for performing calculations directly on the GPU, which I have been testing for some months now. The testing has made very clear that we need to start using the GPU as much as we can to speed up processing significantly in APP in all tasks that can be separated in multiple tasks to be performed in parallel.
In complicated calculations, using a GPU, can drastically increase performance when compared to performing the calculation on the CPU, even with multiple CPU threads.
The speed increase can be a factor of 20x-100x faster, depending on the actual calculation, when compared to 1 single AMD Threadripper 1950X cpu thread versus using a quite regular GPU like the Nvidia Dual GTX1060 6GB which I was using in testing.
So even with a cpu thread monster like the AMD Threadrippers, using a strong GPU or multiple GPUs will clearly increase performance.
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The good news now is, that we will start using Vulkan as well for GPU calculations besides the image drawing in the image viewer window.
And with Vulkan and the MoltenVK layer provided by Khronos, we will be able to use the Metal framework on MacOS as well, also for both graphics, as well as calculations using the GPU.
So by upgrading to
- the cross-platform Vulkan APIÂ and
- the MoltenVK/Metal APIs for MacOS
we can upgrade APP to use the latest technologies for both image drawing and parallel calculations using the GPU, which
- should make APP much ! faster
- and should make APP ready for the future
Kind regards,
Mabula
