1.083 Stable ETA?

Hi David @dsifry,

I am making good progress 😉

Further improvements have already been implemented for the Comet registration. Right now, I am working on the star analysis module, then I need to do some work still on the new Star Reducer Tool. When that is done, the stable release will come out. Hopefully, it will be within anywhere between 1-4 weeks I think. This is a wide timeframe, but as it guess in development, there can always be unexpected/unforeseen issues that I might want to fix for the stable release as well.

Mabula

Hi Mabula,

Thanks for the update!

Is there maybe still something to be "polished" in the star-reducer tool that

might cause APP to crash?

Just tried on an image and @95% done with the calculation it just hanged,

no response anymore.

Hope to see the improved version soon!

Regards,

Mert

FWIW here a screenshot of another error popping up stating I've

run out of memory: ( my laptop has 8Gb, APP is allowed to use 7Gb)

Hi @mabula-admin (Mabula)!

Just wanted to check in on the status of 1.083 - either a new stable beta, or the release. About four weeks ago, you said 1-4 weeks, and I know things often take longer than we think, but any update you can give on a release timeframe would be helpful!

Hi David! I know Mabula is working on it (obviously 🙂 ), but didn't get a solid release date. Might be the optimizations to e.g. the star reducer is taking a bit more time than expected. We notified Mabula, so I hope he can give some more details on it.

Hi @mabula-admin - Any update on beta3? It's been over a year since we had a stable point release, and weeks since your last update, and while I love APP, it's getting frustrating to not hear from you with some more detailed plans about when we'll have the next stable release ready. 

Thanks.

Dave

Hi David @dsifry,

I am working as hard as I can, and will release it soon. Should not be any more months, only couple of weeks now... work is progressing well 😉 Sorry to keep you all waiting. After the 1.083 release, I will revert to the monthly release cycle that we had before for sure !

Mabula

@mabula-admin When will you continue working on comet stacking? Was star removal part of the path to comet stacking?

The star removal algorithm can be part of that yes, these two are quite a lot of work to get right, which is why 1.083 is taking quite some time. But when those technologies are implemented well, that should allow for a proper basis to iterate more frequently again.

Hi @mabula-admin ! Not to be too much of a nudge, but checking in on the ETA for the new stable beta, can you give us some visibility?

Thanks!

Hi David,

No worries, we understand. I asked Mabula if he has a firmer grip on an eta.

Hi David @dsifry,

I am progressing well, I think within 1-2 week's time it should be there. If it is still not there, I will release a beta3 which will again be much closer to the actual stable release.

Mabula

That is super-exciting, man. APP is GREAT software and a new version would be outstanding. Looking forward to the new stuff.

Hi Mabula @mabula-admin,

Any update? It's been two weeks since your last message on November 3rd. We all understand that software development is hard and often takes longer than you expect - and that delivery estimates are tough to get right. But the last beta (-beta2) was released on 2021-05-31, and despite your communication of a number of self-imposed deadlines (see this post's history above) the latest rev is still the -beta2 release. 

With deep respect for the great work you've done, looking forward to hearing back from you.

Dave

@dsifry Hi Dave. I checked with Mabula and he is still working on it. It is unclear how much more time he'll need.

So the last communication on this was November 18th, and it is now December 11th. We haven't had a stable release of APP in over 17 months - and a beta release in over six months - with no clarity or communication from @mabula-admin @vincent-moderatoror @wouter-moderator on what's going on other than promises that haven't been kept. 

We all understand that software development is hard and often takes longer than you expect - and that delivery estimates are tough to get right. But the last beta (-beta2) was released on 2021-05-31, and despite your communication of a number of self-imposed deadlines (see this post's history above) the latest rev is still the -beta2 release. 

With deep respect for the great work you've done, looking forward to hearing back from you with I hope, some real talk on schedules, holdups, and release dates.

Hi David @dsifry,

Please accept my apologies that it still took a bit longer than my previous estimate for the 1.083 release.

The APP 1.083-beta3 and stable releases are now almost ready. I really expect the beta3 to be released within 1 week's time now and expect it to be already very stable.

I am doing last work on an improved Star Reducer at this very moment!

Today and in the coming week I will be adding many release notes here to show what has been changed/improved from the beta2 release.

https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/community/release-information/astro-pixel-processor-1-083-preparing-next-release/

But in short it includes:

• optimized registration of mosaics, giving a big speed increase with processing big mosaics
• optimzed the registration engine leading to faster registration.
• 3)ANALYSE STARS will be significantly quicker and the issues with the beta2 are solved.
• 5)NORMALIZE will be significantly quicker
• Optimzed adaptive pedestal implementation in 2)CALIBRATE, leading to faster data calibration and it includes a warning system that will detect if there is a problemm with darks/bias compatibility versus light frames, like having used a wrong sensor offset, or a light leakage in the optical train.
• Further improvements in the new image saver module
• Fixed an important bug in the DDP auto-stretch that could lead to a white-out super stretch.
• Much better comet registration compared to beta2 and optimized code for speed and memory usage
• Much better Star Reducer
• Much improved HSL Selective Color tool
• Using the latest LibRaw 2021-10 snapshot, we have added support for many more consumer camera's like the new Canon EOS R5, R6 & Nikon Z6 II, Z7 II ...

I will be working hard in the coming days, to finalize the beta3 code. As soon as I know on which day I can release it, I will put it on top of the forum 😉

Again, please accept my apologies for the long delay in this release, after the 1.083 stable release, I will make sure that next releases will follow much quicker again !

Mabula

I am very much looking forward to 1.083 Beta 3 and stable release. I have some data impacted by the earlier issue with incomplete FITS header info which Beta 2 opens happily, but some of my data is impacted by the star analysis/registration bug.

I have a somewhat convoluted workflow at the moment of installing Beta 2, opening the files which 1.082 won't open and saving them as calibrated lights (Might as well calibrate them while I have them loaded) then reinstalling 1.082 to continue so as to avoid the registration issue.

I won't be criticising for the delay, my sister used to work in software development and I understand how sometimes these things snowball and take far longer than expected, so I will just thank you for the coming release and hope you don't run in to any bumps on the way now! I reckon you will deserve a break soon!