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.
When doing a multi-channel process, I check the "Apply Filter Header Tag" box when loading Flats or Master Flats
Next, when I add Darks or MasterDarks, I always want "All Channels" checked, but the "To which channel do we need to assign the frame(s)?" dialog remembers the "Apply Filter Header Tag" status and shows that checked instead. I always have to manually uncheck the "Apply Filter" box and check the "All Frames" box. Unless one used different sensors, gains, or temperatures for different channels, I would think "All Frames" would be the most common default case and should be checked by default when loading darks, master darks, and bias frames.
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Hi Rowland @rowland-f-archer-jr,
Thank you for your valuable feedback once more 😉 I agree, in most cases, the darks, bias, flat darks will be used for all channels and APP will otherwise match them automatically based on image dimensions, iso/gain and exposure if needed.
If you select "All Channels" it will overrule checking of the "apply Filter Header Tag" so there is no need to uncheck it. But I have made sure that if you select "All Channels" the tag is automatically disabled in APP 1.066.
I have made the following adjustments for APP 1.066:
- if "All Channels" is selected -> "apply Filter Header Tag"Â is disabled and any channel selection as well
- if "apply Filter Header Tag" is selected ->Â "ALL Channels" is disabled and any channel selection as well
- if a channel is selected -> select "ALL Channels" is disabled and "apply Filter Header Tag" is disabled as well.
- And in case of loading bias, darks & dark flats or their Masters, "All Channels" will be selected by default.
Thanks ;-),
Mabula
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Hi Mabula,Â
I just noticed when loading Dark Flats (Multi-session) that the filter defaults to All Filters.Â
I don't know whether this has always been the case, or perhaps changed as part of this request but, certainly for the processing I do, I usually have Dark flats for each filter. This is because the Dark Flats should have the same exposure as the Flats and inevitably each flat has a different exposure.Â
So, in my mind, the Dark Flats Load should default to "By Filter" and not to All Filters.
As an example, I just loaded five sessions of data which required me to change the default 20 times which was pretty frustrating in what is already a mind/concentration challenging process.
If the user has the type of data that means "All Filters" could be used at least if the default was to "By Filter" they would only have to change the setting once, rather than the twenty times I had to with the current default.
Thanks
Jon
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