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.
I have a new problem. Many of the processes are very slow now. No problem with star analysis, registration, normalization, etc., though. One example: when I'm finished with an image, I save it in FITS, TIFF, and JPEG formats. I hit save, and then it takes something like 2 minutes before the window opens for me to select file type. Another example: I adjust contrast and/or sharpness, and it takes minutes to complete the adjustment to the image. Another example: after calibrating star colors, I go to open the new image and it takes minutes just to open it. I recently increased the memory available for APP to 12gb in an attempt to improve this, but it did not help. I am using a nearly brand new Macbook pro with 2ghz quad core and 16gb ram. Any suggestions?
Mm, and did anything change in respect to the type of data that you have versus your previous experience? What APP version are you using?
@vincent-mod I'm using 1.083-beta 1. Nothing is different in the type of data from previous experience. I reinstalled APP and processed a couple more images and it behaved the same. The star analysis, registration, etc. seems normal. The problem is with the image window. For example, if I make an adjustment to the contrast, it takes about a minute to show the adjusted image. When I am completely finished and hit save, it takes 50 seconds for the window to pop up asking me what format to use. It's puzzling.
@vincent-modWorking on another image. I cropped it and hit crop ok. Then when I went to open the new cropped image, it took 1 minute 20 seconds to open it in the image viewer. This is really bad. I'm baffled.
Yes that is too slow indeed, so are you maybe processing it using an external disk by any chance?
I'm not using an external disk.
