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.
As shown in this screenshot APP is using 1% of resources for the last 2 hours. Â There are massive amounts of my 40g of ram and hard drive space available. Â I anticipate stacking these 83 of 113 sub frames is going to take 12 - 14 hours. Â This is almost as slow as PI. :>(
Is there anything that can be done? Â
Thanks,
Andy
I'm working on Linux, AMD 3700X, 64GB RAM, QHY268C with 50MB/picture. When I started with APP, I think 1.082, then it took really long. But after the improvements it isnt even worse to get a cup of coffee since the progress really is fast. Last I stacked 100 Pictures, it took roughly 1.5 hours (with LNC 2nd degree, 3 iterations)...
Do you processed a mosaic or something special?
I just checked the log for this project. Here are the details. Good thing I was able to go to bed!
23:32 start stacking
07:01 finish
Integrating 80 of 133
80 from one scope
53 from second scope
no drizzle
Imac 27inch computer 40 gigs of ram 500 gigs of free hard drive space
I just stacked 270 lights from ASI2600MC. APP 2.0.0 beta13. Windows 10.
It took 35 min or so. AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with 32Gb RAM.
My older PC (i7-3770) with older APP was 3 times slower.
I'm back. Is there any guidance from the developers? APP is only using 1% of resources. Is this what I should expect or is there anything that can be done to improve the processing speed?
Thanks.
Â
Some of the processes are not multi threaded yet, but a lot of improvements in speed have been made as you can see from the other users here. Are you using any setting in APP that may cause this, or better, do you use the standard settings or not?
Hi @andynowlen,
Most processes are multi-threaded in APP, but not all. The Local Normalization Correction is single-threaded and will take a lot of time when using many subs. I suspect LNC is enabled and is taking so long?
Which version are you using? Please use our latest 2.0.0 beta which is much faster than the older 1.083 version.
Regarding the LNC process, we have already started work to make it multi-threaded so in due time, it will become much faster for sure.
What does the console window show when the cpu is only utilised for 1%? Maybe you can create a screenshot, so I can now what APP actually is doing or trying to do at that stage. With 6 CPU threads, it should still show about 16% when LNC is running, not 1%, so maybe there is another problem as well on your system. Where is your working directory? On what kind of disk?
Mabula
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Thank you for your reply. On this project I did expect it to take longer. Â I am using your Drizzle at .5 droplet and scale 2. Also, I am integrating Per Session & all for 110 of 132 lights, 83%.
My question revolves around why APP doesn't use more of the available resources. Â IF I read the console log correctly Normalize finished at 17:43:36 March 28 2023. Â As of March 29 10:45:34 the integration shows 76% complete. Something like 18 hours now. Â
I did not add LNC manually as can be seen in the screenshot. I saved the console output if any info there might be helpful for me to better understand. Â I have made my machine not Sleep, no screensaver, and not to put the hard drives to sleep and no other programs are running (beyond system background activity.) Â
In the Log I notice there are 2 large time gaps with no activity recorded, or maybe the existing process is a very a long one. Â For instance at 7:40am the log shows "07:40:13 - 6) INTEGRATE: integrate light frames: LNC: turning off LNC, can't get sample size" Â the next entry is at 10:53 "10:53:25 - 6) INTEGRATE: integrate light frames: integrating pixels 24371201 to 24391681 of 96896236". Â
I am just trying to understand if I can do anything to improve my processing speed. Â
Thanks for your help.Â
Andy
