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 tried the trial version and have just upgraded to the renters version. I very much like APP's ability to calibrate and combine, it does an excellent job and the left side of the software panel is fairly well polished. As a photographer, I am so used to Photoshop and would really like the right side of the panel to behave in a similar fashion. I find tweaking the histogram quite difficult and would prefer a single line with black, white and gamma points to slide and the ability to zoom in.
Adrian
Hi Adrian. Yes, that part is being worked on and will likely improve in later versions. APP is just 1 year old and Mabula was focussing a lot on getting the calibration parts as perfect as possible (which shows), I believe he'll be focussing more on the post-processing part this year. If that means you get Photoshop-style slider... noooo idea. 😉 Would be nice yes.
and I guess the correct re-ordering of tab numbers on the left side? Also would be nice to see the slider function on the left takes effect once you take the mouse click off instead of having to press calculate?
My overview of APP is that it is such a good calibration tool and also with other initial processing steps like background normalization, that this part should be polished first. I am less worried about the right side because there are several good programs, like Photoshop, that are so good at image manipulation, that it would be very hard to match with APP, just some basic functions there I would suggest.
