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.
Is there a quick start guide for APP, where in 30 minutes I can understand how to do a standard stacking and post processing workflow (e.g. for something as common as Andromeda)?
I realize that there are hours of video tutorials, but it would be helpful to get an "easy win" that would motivate to continue and go deeper vs going back to familiar tools such as DSS.
Not really that quick no. Basically, for regular integrations of relatively simple single-shot color data.. it's just a matter of loading the calibration frames, the lights and going to tab 6 and click "integrate". Many options are automatic now so that should already give a nice result, easily outdoing DSS for example.
In the workflows section of the forum there are a few more in-depth written tutorials, mainly for narrowband combinations with OSC data.
@vincent-mod Thanks! It is good to hear that the options are automatic (I interpret as having "intelligent defaults"). I indeed use single-shot color camera for now and was going directly to "integrate" after loading frames so it's good to hear that I wasn't missing anything important, at least for the beginner level.Â
Yes they are "intelligent" as in, they give the optimal result given what APP can know about the data. But for cases which are a bit more challenging or effects like undersampling and such, there you might want to change things. But you can learn about these in your journey of the hobby. 🙂
