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. Anyone having trouble with window focus after starting APP ? I am running Mint 19.3 with Mate desktop - fully updated. Quite often (very often actually) after I start APP the "click to focus" stops working and cannot get focus on terminal, browsers etc. Also cannot close windows or bring them to the foreground etc. Whole desktop screwed.
Fix 1. Login to console and kill -9 APP. seems to fix.
Fix 2. kill desktop and start again.
Fix 3. Go to panel and try to minimise then unminimise windows.
This happened also on previous APP versions. Currently running APP v. 1.082
As long as I stay in APP then everything fine until I want to bring up other terminals/windows.Â
Some mismatch between graphic libraries I presume.
Anyone got a less intrusive fix ?
Thanks.
Nick
Interesting, my main machine is running the latest Linux Mint and I'm not having this issue. What steps do reproduce this for you? Just starting up and trying to select the main window?
Vincent - are you using Cinnamon desktop ? I am using Mate since Cinnamon used to
create other issues with other software. Maybe because the PC has been upgraded
many times and have some dodgy libraries lurking around. Just wondered if anyone else had similar issue. If not then some software issue with my desktop, I have all sorts of stuff installed over the years which you wont have if you installed a fresh clean copy.
It seems to happen randomnly. Sometimes run APP and close it and no problem, other times desktop "stuck". Doesn't happen with any other software I use and is definitely
a problem when I use APP.Â
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Yes Cinnamon. I've had good luck with it tbh, no issues with all kinds of software (which impressed me to the point I switched to Linux, after years not having used it). 🙂 I do keep a rather clean system and it is about year old now. So maybe an issue that got introduced at your site, but that's hard to say. Can you test on maybe a virtual machine running a fresh Linux Mint desktop? Just as an idea?
It is weird this only happens with APP though, do you have any other Java based software?
I have another PC with Mint 20, but it is a bit of a pain to use as it is headless and
in another location.Â
Might give it a try at some stage and let you know if it has issues as well.
