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,
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This is my first 100% APP processed picture.
It's a 3 tiles mosaic around Rho complex.
Gear : Sony A7S modified, Samyang 135 at f2, Star adventurer.
180 to 240 x 30 sec per tile, at ISO 3200.
I'm quite satisfied with this picture, but the more I look, the more I see the defaults : the background is to flat and darks are clipped. I think the gradient removal as been to rough.
Any idea or suggestion to improve the result ?
CS
David
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Great pic David 🙂
Thats one of my favorite regions in the night sky!
CS GernotÂ
I think it's amazing! It's difficult to judge if improvements are necessary, for that a 100% crop would be nice to see. 🙂
Hi guy, thanx for your comments !
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@vinvent-mod, the picture is a direct jpeg exported at 80% quality with APP.
So this is normally a 100% picture (you can display the picutre at 100% by opening it in a new tab - right clic).
As mentionned above, the gradient removal was a bit strong and it has also removed the "natural" gradient created by the milky way. The background should be brighter in the lower left and left sides, and darker in the right side.
And the blacks seems to be clipped too : the dust clouds should be more brown than black.
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Ah right, doh I should know that. haha It might just be my monitor (which is calibrated), but it doesn't seem to me that the clouds are completely black. Could this be an artefact of converting it to jpeg? What does the original look like?
The exported jpeg looks similar to the picture displayed in APP.
Maybe a to strong rejection setting (winsor at 1 int. and kappa 3).
I think it would be nice to have a specific black control, similar to the HL control.
Interesting it looks so similar, I mean the compression is huge from 32-bit to 8 of a JPG and then at a 80% level even. I'd expect with that to have clipping and with the 32-bit one not. The rejection setting is mainly for noise, it shouldn't affect the black level, and your setting is relatively mild. But testing it without any rejection might be interesting.
