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.
APP1.075. ZWO ASI1600MC osc, Sharpcap Pro, Photoshop CS6
Hi everyone. I'm just starting out with APP and would be the first to admit to being not very tech savvy. I'm particularly impressed with the way APP deals with light pollution - something which is a fact of life around here and I've not had an answer for up to now. However, I've had a number of error messages using the programme, the latest of which I've attached as screenshots. I wondered if someone here could translate for non techies like me and offer me some idea of what went wrong. I also wondered if there was a log file somewhere which might shed some light. I wasn't able to find one in the APP folder. I also wondered if there was a "guide" to APP error messages which I've not found yet.Â
I've been capturing with Sharpcap Pro which defaulted its output to png files at one stage (which I didn't notice at the time). Using DSS to stack, as I was, png wasn't a problem. Now I'm trying out APP, which doesn't use png files, I've had to convert the png from my old sessions to tiff. I wondered if that might be an issue.Â
John B
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Converting data through different engines is not the best approach indeed. APP reads various formats, but not png indeed, the best is to get them into their raw formats at the beginning and use those directly or first converted to dng if APP can't read it. However it shouldn't produce an error I think, are you using calibration data in this way as well (converted to tiff etc) ?
Thanks for replying Vincent. (I only noticed they were png when I came to stack them, but DSS accepts png so I was able to use them at that time). I used a master dark which also had been converted from png to tiff using PS. There were no other calibration files. In future I will certainly aim to save captures directly to fits or tiff which APP reads natively. In the meantime is there a reliable way to convert png to another format APP will read? Do you think this the issue which prevents the Integration file from opening in APP?
Can you read the error message for me?
No, the error message has more to do with the Java programming. But as you said you used a converted calibration frame, this might trigger such errors sometimes. What happens if you leave out the calibration data?
Not sure if png has the entire and un-altered data in it to be honest, so not sure if that'll work. Certainly may have issues, not working at all, for calibration data. DNG is a format used when camera's that don't have native support, are supported in that way.
I've tried without the master dark frame, lights only, and am getting, I think, exactly the same error message.
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Mmmmm, then I think it's the files themselves that are causing an issue. Could you upload maybe 5 for me to have a look at? If you can use wetransfer.com for that that would be great, my email is vincent@astropixelprocessor.com
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Thanks Vincent. 5 files (in 2 emails) sent as requested.
