Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
I'm just starting out with APP but am having issues with it crashing. Originally I installed 1.066 (latest at the time) and yesterday I installed 1.067. I have also updated java to the latest available. I'm running on a mac mini dual core i5 with 8G ram, and osx 10.13.6.
The crash always occurs when attempting to load an image into the image viewer pane. If I simply start APP, load the below file and attempt to view in image pane it crashes every time. This file is the output from tabs 1-6, integration:
St-avg-3842.0s-NR-x_1.0_LZ3-NS-full-eq-add-sc_BWMV_nor-AA-RL-noMBB.fits
I'm just starting out with APP but am having issues with it crashing. Originally I installed 1.066 (latest at the time) and yesterday I installed 1.067. I have also updated java to the latest available. I'm running on a mac mini dual core i5 with 8G ram, and osx 10.13.6.
The crash always occurs when attempting to load an image into the image viewer pane. If I simply start APP, load the below file and attempt to view in image pane it crashes every time. This file is the output from tabs 1-6, integration:
St-avg-3842.0s-NR-x_1.0_LZ3-NS-full-eq-add-sc_BWMV_nor-AA-RL-noMBB.fits
Dear Scott @scott,
First of all, performing an installation/upgrade of Java on the Operating System has no effect whatsoever on APP's behaviour, APP is installed with it's own Java Runtime to ensure correct behaviour of the application.
An issue like yours has been unknown to me up until now, so thank you very much for sharing.
I will try to look up the cause of the problem from the stack dump.
So the application can function in processing data but it fails when you want to actually see the image data right?
Can you share the hardware specifics of your Mac or Macbook ?
I would need to know:
cpu, memory, graphical card and it's memory if any.
Oh, when APP is started, is the Top Left OpenGL label green or orange ?
Kind regards,
Mabula
Mabula,
It doesn't crash all the time when viewing an image. I can view the original lights just fine. It seems the more processing has been completed, the more likely it is to crash. I have been able to process other images all the way through, and view them successfully, but not this image set.
I have gone through steps 1-6 twice with this set of images, and both times APP has crashed when attempting to view the output of the the integration/stacking step. After it crashed the first time, I made sure and save the output from the integration step before attempting to view the image. When I did attempt to view, APP crashed. I can re-start APP, load the output from the integration step, and when I attempt to view the image it crashes every time.
Additionally, the image viewer sometimes presents the images in a strange 'tiled' way with a repeating series of part of the image. Re-loading the image usually corrects the problem but it often re-occurs, specifically when attempting to select area rectangles on the 'remove light pollution' tab.
The computer I use for AP is an older mac mini (2011), I'm patiently waiting for Apple to release an upgrade. Here are the specs:
Dual core 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory: 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
I have a quad core i7 macbook pro with 16G, but that is my work laptop so I don't usually use it for this type of task. I may try and install APP tonight to see if it is more stable on that machine.
Thanks,
Scott
Hi Scott,
Okay, that's very helpfull, I was worried that the image viewer was completely broken in your mac mini, which would have meant a more structural problem.
Is it possible that you send me the integration file in question ? Perhaps there is something about it that causes the issue.
Otherwise, the issue probably is in either
- the OpenGL implementation in APP or
- in the OpenGL drivers on the operating system.
Do you know if the mac mini has the lateste available graphical drivers installed?
It will really help if you can share the results on the i7 macbook ;-).
Mabula
Mabula,
My mac is current on all OS updates, and the openGL drivers are built in to osx, they can't be upgraded outside of the os. Also, it sounds like Apple is ending support of openGL in favor of their own graphics code:
I can upload the .fits file that is causing the crash but it is large, 176MB zipped, so the forum will not allow it. I'm uploading the file to dropbox now. I don't believe it is specific to this file, as I experienced crashes on other images in the same manner.
Mabula,
I sent a link to download the .fits file from dropbox to the APP support email address.
Mabula,
I sent a link to download the .fits file from dropbox to the APP support email address.
Hi Scott,
Thank you for sending me the integration file. I have tested it on my Macbook Pro 2016. No problem, so I would agree the problem is not related to this specific file or data.
Mabula
Mabula,
My mac is current on all OS updates, and the openGL drivers are built in to osx, they can't be upgraded outside of the os. Also, it sounds like Apple is ending support of openGL in favor of their own graphics code:
I can upload the .fits file that is causing the crash but it is large, 176MB zipped, so the forum will not allow it. I'm uploading the file to dropbox now. I don't believe it is specific to this file, as I experienced crashes on other images in the same manner.
Hi Scott @skestergmail-com,
I am aware, the most immediate concern here is that developers will no longer be able to develop OpenGL applications using XCODE, apple's development platfrom, because the development libraries will be removed in a future MacOS version.
This immediate concern is (luckily) no problem for me or APP at all. I simply don't and will not use XCODE for APP's development because I choose to develop in a multi-platfrom development environment which XCODE obviously is not.
To add to this: this doesn't mean that OpenGL enabled applications also stop to work. It would be a tremendous stupid thing for Apple to do since allmost all legacy Apple Apps would stop working at that point. It will be hard to imagine... If Apple however decides to be so stupid, then that will be rather amazing I think...
So I am aware of Apple's plans. For APP's development towards the future, I will probably not use Apple technolgy over similar technology that will work on multiple platforms for obvious reasons.
Currently, APP also works nearly identical on systems where OpenGL is not available. So APP is not dependent on OpenGL to be able to run 😉 The image viewer has a non-openGL implementation besides the OpenGL implementation.
Mabula
Mabula,
I was able to install APP and test the image on my macbook with no errors. Must be a driver issue on the mini.
On another subject, I have watched several of the APP tutorials, and understand how to do the basics with tabs 1-6. Where can I go to learn about all the tools on the right hand side of the APP window. I assume they deal with stretching and other finishing aspects, but I have no idea how to use them. Also how did you get the great color in the image you posted above? Mine looks nice, but more black & white without the green/blue in yours.
Thanks,
Scott
Dear Scott @skestergmail-com,
Yes, a driver issue could very well be the cause here. And that will relate to Open-GL then.
I will try to make it easier, so you can turn on/off the OpenGL implementation, then it should work on your Mac-mini as well I think.
There is a non Open-GL image viewer in APP, it's performance is a bit less, but at least, it will work I think. I'll try to include this in the next version 😉
On another subject, I have watched several of the APP tutorials, and understand how to do the basics with tabs 1-6. Where can I go to learn about all the tools on the right hand side of the APP window. I assume they deal with stretching and other finishing aspects, but I have no idea how to use them. Also how did you get the great color in the image you posted above? Mine looks nice, but more black & white without the green/blue in yours.
Perhaps the missing color is due to enabling/disabling the saturation checkbox in the preview filter on the right?
A lot of the tools is explained in detail here:
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/mosaic-tutorial-milky-way-to-rho-ophiuchi-by-mabula/
See parts 4 and higher ;-). That should get you started I think.
Mabula
