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.
Hi. I am having a large (24" f/3.3) welded aluminum Dob built, on a dual-axis equatorial platform, so it will be capable of imaging. At 2313 mm FL after the 3" Big Paracorr, I will be able to bin my ASI6200MM pixels 3X (1.00 arc-sec/pixel) or even 4X (1.34 arc-sec/pixel), and with such large pixels (11.3 um and 15.0 um), I will be able to use really short exposures and still swamp the read noise at my 21.2 SQM imaging site. But the downside of exposures in the 5 to 30 second range is a LOT of images to register and stack. Each image is 120 MB, and there could easily be hundreds, if not a thousand of them to process. My understanding is that APP can handle all of the cores and threads you can throw at it, which under Windows 10 maxes out at 32/64. So AMD Threadripper 3970X. My questions relate to the right amount of DRAM, how that breaks among DRAM sticks (so how many), and about the M2 SSD(s). I am currently looking to use G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3200 CL14. My questions are:
- Is 3200 CL14 (14-14-14-34) still the highest performance option?
- For 32 GB, is 4x8GB better than 2x16GB?
- Would 64 GB be better than 32 GB? That would be 4x16GB.
- On the M2 SSD front, I am holding out for Samsungs imminent launch of their 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 M2 SSD.
- That will be available in up to 1 TB capacity. Would that have benefits over the 500 GB version?
- My MB choice, the Asus Prime TRX40-Pro S, has room and cooling for two M2 SSDs. Would their be any advantage to adding a second M2 drive, and putting the OS and APP on that? If so, can I assume that it would also want to be PCIe 4.0 and fast? What capacity would be best?
Thanks!
All the best,
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
So I’m not super into the latest PC technology, but 3200 memory seems plenty fast still. The timings and optimal memory configurations are usually something for games optimization (or overclocking to the edge of stability, which I wouldn't recommend for a processing computer). I don’t think it’ll make a huge difference for APP’s processing. If you can afford the best, indeed a threadripper is amazing, APP uses as many cores as you have. If 64GB is an option choose that. That SSD is going to help you a lot as well, in this case it doesn’t really matter what size, so I guess the more the better as well, especially when your projects are that big.
In the future APP will also harness the power of the GPU. It’s not necessary to buy the best right now as it isn’t in yet. Personally i would buy a decent GPU and wait for that option and buy a good one then.
Thanks, Vincent.
All the best,
Kevin
