Mar 28 2026 APP 2.0.0-beta40 will be released in 7 days.
It did take a long time to have the work finished on this and it will have a major performance boost of 30-50% over 2.0.0-beta39 from calibration to integration. We extensively optimized many critical parts of APP. All has been tested to guarantee correct optimizations. Drizzle and image resampling is much faster for instance, those modules have been completely rewritten. Much less memory usage. LNC 2.0 will be released which works much better and faster than LNC in it's current state. And more, all will be added to the release notes in the coming weeks...
Update on the 2.0.0 release & the full manual
We are getting close to the 2.0.0 stable release and the full manual. The manual will soon become available on the website and also in PDF format. Both versions will be identical and once released, will start to follow the APP release cycle and thus will stay up-to-date to the latest APP version.
Once 2.0.0 is released, the price for APP will increase. Owner's license holders will not need to pay an upgrade fee to use 2.0.0, neither do Renter's license holders.
Is there an undo button when dealing with the non-linear processing panel on the right? Sometimes I'll tweak DDP, Saturation and a bunch of sliders, only to find I'm way overcorrected to then want to undo.
Another question: can we get real time updates when making adjustments instead of the press calculate + 15 second refresh wait time?
Lastly, is it mostly guess and check with the slides and qualitative values or is there a methodology to it:?
Hi Joelin,
Thank you for your question and welcome to the forum 😉
Is there an undo button when dealing with the non-linear processing panel on the right? Sometimes I'll tweak DDP, Saturation and a bunch of sliders, only to find I'm way overcorrected to then want to undo.
No, not yet, it's asked by several users, so I will definitely look into implementing this.
Another question: can we get real time updates when making adjustments instead of the press calculate + 15 second refresh wait time?
Yes, valid and good question, this is a GUI implementation issue and to have real time (are very fast) updates will require me to upgrade both the image viewer and the preview filters(sliders) with GPU enabled code. I will definitely work on that, I know that this is needed for much better user experience.
Lastly, is it mostly guess and check with the slides and qualitative values or is there a methodology to it:?
There is no real methodology in the sense that there is a particular way that is needed to get a nice and good result. Explanation is under the ? button. But what I normally do:
1) the auto DPP is a starting point.
2) first adjust the blackpoint (B) and the stretch (ST) sliders to get the background value and brightness that you desire while not showing to much noise.
3) enable saturation (SAT), usually a value of 20 is fine
4) adjust the sat threshold (ST.TH) so the background is not injected with saturation but your object does shows nice colors.
5) Possibly increase contrast with CON
6) Sharpness can be done while protecting your stars with the Sharp/Protect sliders.
7) Sometimes it can be usefull to use the HL slider, that will reduce the stretch in the highlights, this will reduce the brightness of the brightest stars/objects and will reduce star sizes.
Kind regards,
Mabula
Oh, undo would be nice. In fact, I did BC or SCC I din't like, cancelled that step instead of hitting OK, and lost all progress. Started over with the integration file as I had saved intermediaries as TIFFs and they were stretched.
Don' t know if this is of any help..
I save all the files in the 9) Tools module as FITS, so when canceling BC or SCC, you can always go back (double click) to the file you started with, before you hit cancel.
Another question: can we get real time updates when making adjustments instead of the press calculate + 15 second refresh wait time?
Yes, valid and good question, this is a GUI implementation issue and to have real time (are very fast) updates will require me to upgrade both the image viewer and the preview filters(sliders) with GPU enabled code. I will definitely work on that, I know that this is needed for much better user experience.
What about being able to do a preview through selection a small part of an image and onlyb update that. You would then have an option to apply the current settings to the whole image?
Another nice thing would be + or - boxes at the end of each slider - I find it really hard to move the slider gently enough with a mouse and often get over or undershoot with an adjustment....
I also don't understand the numbered boxes at the end of each slider - clicking them changes the number and moves the slider but what is the rationale? I'm probably missing something - after all, I never noticed the ? button 🙂
cheers
Gary
The buttons on the end of the slider change the rate of the slider adjustment. If you click the box on the right, then the slider adjustments are much more granular for fine-tuning. One question I do have around the sliders though, if I mistakenly move the slider too far, while still under the mouse button press, moving it back continues to increment or decrement the value in the same direction. Is this a bug or an operation I have yet to understand?
Oh, undo would be nice. In fact, I did BC or SCC I din't like, cancelled that step instead of hitting OK, and lost all progress. Started over with the integration file as I had saved intermediaries as TIFFs and they were stretched.
For these tools an undo button will not accomplish a lot, for 2 reasons:
- Each calculate doesn't depend on a previous calculate, each time a new model/calibration is done using the area select boxes that you have drawn at that moment. What you can do however is remove wrong area select boxes (the red ones could be faulty) and remove the last added area select box.
- If you are happy with the outcome, click on Ok, this result is saved to your work directory, so that's your undo option if you progress from there. If you are not happy, clicking on cancel will simply stop the tool without saving or applying anything.
Let me know if this is clear and suits your wishes. I know that some APP users are under the impression that these calculate steps depend on each other and would therefore warrant an undo to revert to a previous calculate outcome, but it's not the case. The undo in that case, is to simply remove the latest added area select boxes.
Kind regards,
Mabula
Don' t know if this is of any help..
I save all the files in the 9) Tools module as FITS, so when canceling BC or SCC, you can always go back (double click) to the file you started with, before you hit cancel.
Indeed, the results per tool are always saved into your work directory upon clicking on Ok.
And like Betelgeuze mentions, while working in a tool, you can save intermediary results that you like using the save button under the histogram. Disable the stretch selectbox to make sure that you save it as linear (unstretched) data 😉
Mabula
Another question: can we get real time updates when making adjustments instead of the press calculate + 15 second refresh wait time?
Yes, valid and good question, this is a GUI implementation issue and to have real time (are very fast) updates will require me to upgrade both the image viewer and the preview filters(sliders) with GPU enabled code. I will definitely work on that, I know that this is needed for much better user experience.
What about being able to do a preview through selection a small part of an image and onlyb update that. You would then have an option to apply the current settings to the whole image?
Another nice thing would be + or - boxes at the end of each slider - I find it really hard to move the slider gently enough with a mouse and often get over or undershoot with an adjustment....
I also don't understand the numbered boxes at the end of each slider - clicking them changes the number and moves the slider but what is the rationale? I'm probably missing something - after all, I never noticed the ? button 🙂
cheers
Gary
Hi Gary, yes I am investigating on how to improve the preview calculation and viewer drawing speed and quality of the image.
The numbers reflect the + and - zoom options of the sliders. On 32bits data these enable you to work with a millionth precion ! if you are zoomed in all the way.
if the left button is 1 and the right button is 2, You are completely zoomed out. (zoom = 1)
If the left button is 1 and the right button is 3, you are zoomed in once (zoom = 2)
If the left button is 3 and the right button is 4, you are completely zoomed in (zoom = 4)
Kind regards,
Mabula
Another question: can we get real time updates when making adjustments instead of the press calculate + 15 second refresh wait time?
Yes, valid and good question, this is a GUI implementation issue and to have real time (are very fast) updates will require me to upgrade both the image viewer and the preview filters(sliders) with GPU enabled code. I will definitely work on that, I know that this is needed for much better user experience.
What about being able to do a preview through selection a small part of an image and onlyb update that. You would then have an option to apply the current settings to the whole image?
Another nice thing would be + or - boxes at the end of each slider - I find it really hard to move the slider gently enough with a mouse and often get over or undershoot with an adjustment....
I also don't understand the numbered boxes at the end of each slider - clicking them changes the number and moves the slider but what is the rationale? I'm probably missing something - after all, I never noticed the ? button 🙂
cheers
Gary
Hi Gary, yes I am investigating on how to improve the preview calculation and viewer drawing speed and quality of the image.
The numbers reflect the + and - zoom options of the sliders. On 32bits data these enable you to work with a millionth precion ! if you are zoomed in all the way.
if the left button is 1 and the right button is 2, You are completely zoomed out. (zoom = 1)
If the left button is 1 and the right button is 3, you are zoomed in once (zoom = 2)
If the left button is 3 and the right button is 4, you are completely zoomed in (zoom = 4)
Kind regards,
Mabula
Thanks Mabula,
I do think this is really hard to understand and counterintuitive....but then I can be a bit slow 🙂
I'm not even sure we need to zoom. I have previously used other software effectively that just had a slider and either a + or - button or a box where you could enter a value.
If others prefer the zoom level, why not just have a box for zoom level 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. Do we need 2 numbers? It just adds complexity and another thing that we need to memorise to work effectively...
Please take this as a constructive criticism 🙂
It may be my opinion, but I have a little experience here as before my retirement part of my job was helping to develop software from a usability point of view (complex legal software).
cheers
Gary
Hi Gary,
We definitely need the ability to zoom in on the sliders if you want to carefully process 32bits data with high precision. Without a zoom function, it would be impossible to control the sliders if we have very high quality data which we can stretch really strongly.
On 16bits data we only have 65535 integer values on which we can adjust the sliders, so a zoom wouldn't yet be needed. But on your integrations, which have 32bits float datatype, and can have a very high dynamic range ( much larger than 16bits ! which depends on the number of frames that you integrate), it's vital to be able to do this.
Maybe I can change the gui so it's more clear.. I will thank about it.
Kind regards,
Mabula
