2026-10-09 APP 2.0.0-beta48 has been released !
This is mainly a bug fix release for the reported bugs in beta47. In addition it has a significant User Interface performance improvement noticable when you need to process 1000s of images in APP.
2026-10-03 APP 2.0.0-beta47 has been released !
This is a very big release... many code optimizations/rewrites, many parts of APP are much faster and more precise, especially star analysis and registration are much faster ! Big mosaics will go much faster 🙂
And we introduce a new preview filter, which includes the new Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch and a General Levels Stretch, this has been long over due. The old preview filter (the panel on the right side to stretch and preview your data) has not been updated for a couple of years and it is a critical part of any APP session.
Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch or ADSS is a much more intuitive stretch algorithm. It is also color preserving (which is a great new addition in itself ! ) which means that the highlights are no longer bleached, color is maintained from the linear data while stretching. You can simply stretch your data using the sky background level and signal width sliders which work much easier and more intuitive. You no longer need to fiddle with the old complicated sliders with zoom buttons. All the zoom buttons for the sliders are made redundant. And you can enter slider values in the slider value fields yourself. I will make a youtube video in the coming days to explain and fully introduce ADSS. Once the video is ready, it will be highlighted on the forum.
RGB Combine upgrade !. The RGB Combine Tool has been rewritten mostly. The tool is faster and easier to use and most importantly, the Luminance slider to inject a luminance channel or channels into the RGB composite is now working correctly. It no longer bleaches the RGB colors. Combined with the new ADSS preview, you will get much better and easier great composites with great color! I will also explain this in a new youtube video.
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
