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.
It would be great if the working directory didn't change based on the last files loaded. I (and probably many others) keep their master calibration frames in a different location than the light frames. As it is now, I open APP and set my working directly to where my lights are and load them. Then I load my calibration frames but before I can initiate the process I have to go back and reset my working directory so that the resulting files save to the correct location. Yes I could copy my calibration frames to be in the same place as the lights but that seems like an unnecessary step when the working directory could just be static.
Love APP and the work you're all doing just wanted to get some feedback!
Hi Reginald @regpratt,
Thank you very much for sharing your request.
Actually, I think there is some confusion here about how things actually work.
The Working Directory once set, is static, it does not change when you load frames like masters from different folders. I always keep my masters and integrations in separate folders, like I do also with lights, darks, flats etc...
So if you set the working directory to the folder where your lights are, and then load masters from a different folder or even a different drive, then the Working Directory is not changed at all, it still points to the folder of your lights.Â
When saving calibrated lights, registered, normalized files, there is a button to overrule the save directory. If you do not overrule it, it will always save in the static Working Directory. Same applies for your integrations/stacks. If you do not overrule with the Set Save Directory, button the results should be saved in the static working directory unless you overrule it yourself.
Does this make sense, can you double check the behaviour and let me know if all is okay or not?
Mabula
So I double checked and what was happening is that after loading files from a different directly, if you then click the working directory button Windows explorer opens up to the last folder from which you loaded files, not the original working directory I set. I always took that to mean if I continued with the workflow that last directly is where the stacks would save. However, I just ran a test stack and you are correct, the stacks did save to the original working directory even though that's not what comes up if I click the working directly button or any of the override buttons. Thanks for clearing this up!
Hi Reginald @regpratt,
Thanks for your feedback. Yes, this is the expected behaviour actually 😉 the working directory is static, but any new file chooser that is opened will open in the last location that was used in the file/directory chooser.
Mabula
