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'm running APP on a Win7 Enterprise machine. APP crashes on large integration (600 subs) All steps up to final integration work fine. Gets about 85% of the way on integration and locks up the PC. Throws garbage up on screen. Have to force power off and restart. Two of three stacks successfully integrated. How do I recover from this?
APP doesn't seem to know where it left off leaving me to start over from calibration. This is several hours lost and not the first time this happens. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue or if it's a local problem. The PC crash and garbage screen only happens when using APP, no other issues.Â
I have 7 threads and 14gb allocated to APPÂ Â
- 64 bit
- Core I7
- 16Gb RAM
- 500Gb SSD
600 frames is a bit of a stretch to stack all at once, it consumes too much memory probably at certain steps. It's better to divide them into 200 sub stacks and then integrate the 3 resulting integrations.
A history feature of steps is a nice idea yes, I think it's also on the list to be supported in due time.
@vincent-mod
Can you be more specific on how this would be done? I can break down subs by filter, but how do you register and normalize between sets?
Ah it's different filters, well then you make those in separate stacks, usually I process those completely to my liking first and then you load them into APP again using the multi-filter option and then proceed to register them. Save the registered frames, go to the tools tab and use the combine RGB feature to combine them.
Also, I guess you configured APP to use more memory than set standard?
Mine is set a bit too high as I also just have 16GB total, I simply use APP only when I'm not doing much else. 🙂
Ah it's different filters, well then you make those in separate stacks, usually I process those completely to my liking first and then you load them into APP again using the multi-filter option and then proceed to register them. Save the registered frames, go to the tools tab and use the combine RGB feature to combine them.
Are you saying to completely run each filter from load to integrate and then load the three integrations again with multi-channel, register them, then combine in RGB?
Yes, if that makes the subs at a more reasonable level of 100-200 at a time. Otherwise you split up a bit more, but basically doing the same thing. Doing it all at once works as well, but if it's this much, dividing is a better approach.
@vincent-mod
Does this have an effect on normalization, or is normalization only considering the subs in each stack. I mean does normalization take subs from different filters into account or does it work only "locally" per stack.
I think you're correct there, you need to save the normalized stacks then go to RGB combine. Sorry.
Saw this thread and it interested me. I am shooting one shot color, and can easily end up with 5 or 600 frames of data over the course of many nights of imaging. When I have tried this I check Multi Session and assign the light and calibration frames to the correct session. Should I be running each night separately and then combining integrated frames with each other?
Multi session processing is handy when you have the need for different flats per night or other calibration data that differs. And in the end you can further integrate the calibrated data yes.
