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.
There are standard conventions for shortcuts in graphics programs that I miss when using APP. Especially spacebar + mouse movement to scroll the image. Just implementing that one would remove huge frustrations for me.Â
thank you
Hi Steven, yes I agree. I've send your request to Mabula.
Hi Steven @mrrat & @vincent-mod,
I guess, I can add the spacebar as an option as well, that should be no problem I think. I have added it to my ToDo list to implement.
But as it is now, it is not working well for you, or is it just confusing because you are used to space bar + mouse movement?
Simply click a mousebutton and move the mouse? If you do not move you will zoom in/out, if you move, the image is moved 😉
Mabula
Simply click a mousebutton and move the mouse?
That doesn't work in the tools that require mouse selections.
+1 from me.
There are (unwritten) standards in GUIs that I am missing in APP big time. Selecting, unselecting, scrolling, previewing, ... with the spacebar and arrow keys for single files or a whole bunch of files with the shift or control keys. Also a fast preview ... now you have to wait for each file to show its content. In macOS this is all happening in realtime with the CMD-Y command. Extremely fast and convenient. I would also appreciate similar options and easy-of-use in APP.
On macOS APP could greatly benefit from METAL, Accelerate and the CoreImage frameworks. Programs like Pixelmap Pro and Affinity Phot take full advantage of these frameworks and are extremely fast. I know, this is a lot of extra(?) programming work and not really in the focus of APP... just saying ...;-).
