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.
So I decided to test out the RGB tool to create my SHO and HOO image stacks, but I have noticed that using APP to do this creates far too much noise and grainyness in the image, here is a screenshot using PixInsight on the left to do the RGB combine, and APP on the right, both images have had an STF applied.
Here is the HOOv1
The same thing happens with the SHOv1
Am I doing soemthing wrong, or missing some preliminary step?
Regards
Simon
Not sure as I can't tell very well from the screenshots, but to me the APP stretch seems a bit higher than the PI one. The dark patches are lighter in the APP stretch, which (if this is a stretch difference) show more noise. Does it look the same when opened in APP?
@vincent-mod I will do the same masked stretch on both images and show the difference, you are right an AutoSTF may apply different settings, but the masked stretch should not. Leave it with me, the imahe is 200mpx, so it takes a while, even on my 18 core system 😀
Hi Simon @stastro,
The RGB Combine Tool will of course not inject additional noise to the already present noise so if the resulting APP composite looks more noisy to you when compared to a Pixinsight composite using the same layers for the composite, then it surely must have to do with data normalization.
Did you try the different normalize settings in the RGB Combine Tool to see it that makes a difference ?
Mabula
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@mabula-admin You might be onto something there. In PixInsight I just use pixelmath to apply the layers rather than the ChannelCombination, so it's not applying any normalization, I will compare a channel combination in PixInsight to the PixelMath version and see what happens before I play with normalization settings in the RGB Tool
So it would appear that the ChannelCombination tool in PixInsight does not perform any normalization as it looks exactly the same as when I perform a PixelMath, so let me check the Normalization settings in APP
So selecting "None" as the normalization method produces the exact same result as PixInsight, so the question is what does normalization do exactly in RGB tool? Especially with NB channels, and especially Multiply-Scale.
I just tried all options, and all options except multiply-scale produce the same result as PixInsight
I think I have found a bug in the RGB tool though. If I select SHO (Hubble 1) and choose (Re)-Calculate, it shows me the SHO Image, but then if I select HOO 1, and choose re-calculate, the image does not change, I have to quit the RGB tool, go back in, and choose HOO 1 and load my images. When changing from one profile ot another, I noticed the colour channel sliders do not change, for example I would expect the sliders to change based on the setting chosen, but they do not move, even going between the different SHO versions
@stastro This is not a bug. You need to click the "new formula" button for the changes to take effect. The reason is that after selecting a formula, you can move the sliders to adjust the formula and you may not want to lose that by accidentally selecting another formula.
So selecting "None" as the normalization method produces the exact same result as PixInsight, so the question is what does normalization do exactly in RGB tool? Especially with NB channels, and especially Multiply-Scale.
I just tried all options, and all options except multiply-scale produce the same result as PixInsight
Hi Simon @stastro,
Thanks that is good to hear and what i would expect 😉 Normalization in the tool, tries to make the channels more compatible in terms of illumination differences.
Mabula
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