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.
Hello,
I would be interested in buying a license, but considering 2.x beta is out and a version 2 will soon be released, all people with the Owner License before the release will have to pay again the license fee I guess ?
The Owner’s License is equivalent to 3 years of APP on the same version (renting). I was wondering if this upgrade cost is calculated with a prorata or this is a flat fee which is the same for everybody ?
Also, the proposal of 2 license models is a bit fuzzy to me because I don't see the point of owning a software version considering that anyway it will be obsoleted quite fast with changes coming from OS, drivers, hardware, etc. So I see the owner license much more like an upfront paiement. So for someone wanting to get APP now, and, considering the new version numbering changes (which makes more sense also), and the 2 license possibilities (owner vs rent), does APP also has a fixed / determined product cycle, like a new major release maximum 1 every 3 or 4 year max to make sure people renting vs people owning end up with similar cost ?
I am trying to understand which model to go with for the next 3 years considering 2.x will be released...
Thanks a lot :=)
Hi @mathieucarbou,
I would be interested in buying a license, but considering 2.x beta is out and a version 2 will soon be released, all people with the Owner License before the release will have to pay again the license fee I guess ?
No, the APP 2.0 version will not need an upgrade fee for Owner's license users. If it would, we would have announced clearly in advance 😉
The Owner’s License is equivalent to 3 years of APP on the same version (renting). I was wondering if this upgrade cost is calculated with a prorata or this is a flat fee which is the same for everybody ?
An Owner's license upgrade fee would be equal for all Owner's license users, since the new price of the Owner's license would go up with the same amount as the upgrade fee as well 😉 This possible upgrade fee would only be 5-15% of the initial price depending on the contents of the upgrade.
Also, the proposal of 2 license models is a bit fuzzy to me because I don't see the point of owning a software version considering that anyway it will be obsoleted quite fast with changes coming from OS, drivers, hardware, etc. So I see the owner license much more like an upfront paiement. So for someone wanting to get APP now, and, considering the new version numbering changes (which makes more sense also), and the 2 license possibilities (owner vs rent), does APP also has a fixed / determined product cycle, like a new major release maximum 1 every 3 or 4 year max to make sure people renting vs people owning end up with similar cost ?
We intend to create a big upgrade every 3-4 years that warrents an upgrade fee for Owner's license users. But I can not look into the future what chances there will be, so I can not promise anything on this matter. The Renter's license price will stay fixed going forward though.
What I can say is this: we have never asked an upgrade fee yet in the first 5 years of APP. I am planning though that APP 3.0 would need an upgrade fee, since it will have a completely new registration engine with better and faster mosaic algorithms, possibly a new interface and it will very likely run on a newer development platform as well.
Please let me know if this is clear and if you have any other questions 😉
Mabula
Thanks a lot! This is more than I was expecting! Awesome and very clear!
I am very happy to support the development of such product, especially for Mac!
I didn't find some JIRA or bug report system or any Github link to post issues. I've downloaded 2.0.0 beta3 on my M1 mac but it cannot be closed. The process is answering a normal kill command though.
Here is the thread dump attached, showing a thread waiting on a lock in the OpenGL bindings for Mac.
Hi Mathieu @mathieucarbou,
Thank you very much for reporting this. I have never experienced this on my mac computers with the 2.0.0-beta3 version. Did this happen only once or does it happen all the time on your mac computer?
Mabula
@mabula-admin Hello, I've tried a second time and you are right, this only happened the first time I launched the program. Second time. it opened, license heck happened, then I've closed. First time I've opened, added the license, then closed. I don't happen to remember having seen the popup the first time when closing, with the message explaining session will be saved.
Hi @mathieucarbou,
Thank you for your feedback. So do I understand correctly then that closing the application was not possible because of the window about the working directory being saved? That window was open, but you did not see it then?
For bugs/issues, we have our own git system with our own private cloud, so any issue reported here on our forum is put into our issue list to fix for sure 😉
Mabula
@mabula-admin no the window was not there. App was opened, I've clicked on the cross to close it, and it was hanging. Not popup window like the second time (as far as I remember). If there is a way to clear the app data to retry I could.
Okay, thanks @mathieucarbou, I will make a note of it. Please let us know if it every happens again 😉
Mabula
@mabula-admin will do 😉
FYI, I'm a lead SW engineer, specialised in core java development (clustering products, concurrency, etc). So if you need some sporadic help in figuring the problem here I can. My GitHub: https://github.com/mathieucarbou
