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.
Have a few years worth of master flats, darks and bias files from DSS (Deep Sky Stacker). I am in the process of transitioning from DSS to APP and would like to re-run APP on my older data. In some cases to free up disk space I deleted the original calibration subs. Is it OK to use the calibration masters from DSS for APP?
thanks for your time and attention to this matter - Randy
Hi Randy, sorry but using calibration masters from other applications will not work well with APP. I am afraid that you will need to redo all the work there.
Wouter
Thanks Wouter, understood. It would be a nice feature if possible in the future... I will have to keep all the calibration data going forward.
Kind regards,
Randy
Randy, it is very difficult if not impossible to do that. All applications use their own way of storing the calibration data and the data formats usually are closed. On top of that, several algorithms exist for creating the calibration masters and APP may disagree with the algorithm used or wouldn’t know how to apply the calibrated data if the used algorithm is closed as well.
