AutoStakkert!

Around the end of August I’ll release a new version of AS!2, featuring some bug fixes and of course new features so I can find more bugs in the following months. Gotta stay busy.

A short list of things that have changed:

– Native MJPEG support (no codec required, and of course very fast)
– Fixed flat field calibration resulting in brightened images.
– Drag & drop folders of valid image files (jpg, bmp, tif, fit, pngs) should now work all the time correctly.
– Optimised RGB color file stacking. There should be a performance increase when using RGB images/videos in MAP mode.
– Stacking multiple files in MAP mode is now possible (if you just want to create a single stack, make sure that you only fill ONE of the frame nr/percentage boxes with a valid number and set all the others to ‘0’!!!).
– Fixed reading some AVIs coming out of WinJUPOS(AS!2 made them look misformed). I might have broken other avis though, so be ware and let me know if you find any problems.

I’m currently working to see if I can squeeze a bit more performance out of the image alignment phase. It’s already at light speed, but as we all know, light speed is too slow. Light speed , too slow? Yes, we’re gonna have to go right to ludicrous speed. No, I’m not going to use GPGPU (yet?), but I think it might be possible to squeeze out another 25% speed improvement. This of course does should not have priority over the items already on my TODO list, but it’s fun, so I’m making it a priority.

And, just a reminder. If you find ANY problems in AS!2, please do let me know. I don’t know if I can fix it, but I certainly can’t fix what I don’t know.

A new version of AS!2 has just been released, you can find it in the download section. Here is a small list of the most important changes/fixes:

• Fixed regression bug: failed to open any image files (fit, bmp, tif, jpg, etc.. it would all show there were no frames available)
• Fixed when switching to Single AP mode, AS!2 would not stack automatically (you had to manually place an AP first).
• Maximum size of the frame is set to 3000×2000, internal frame size limitations have been removed. Use the INI-file to further increase the maximum image size (the INI-file contains a maxWidth and maxHeight value).
• Made edge quality estimator more robust still. It will now still provide a meaningful quality estimation whenever it encounters missing information.
• Fixed bug in detecting horizontal and vertical artefacts, causing random lockups after analysing.

If you run into any problems with this new version, or just have a good idea you think should be implemented, just let me know. I’m always open to suggestions.

One big bad bug has slipped past me, and it affects all those using images files (e.g. bmp, tif, png). At the moment those using image files can’t use version 2.1.0.0, as it mistakingly believes there are no frames to be processed when you try to drag and drop the image files onto AS!2. I already fixed it, but want to run some tests before this fixed version can be found in the download section.

It’s not entirely unthinkable that more bugs are found in the coming days, so please keep a close eye on this website. I tend to update the software regularly instead of running weeks of tests, but still, in the future I’ll try to run the software by some non-avi/ser users before updating a new version 😉

Emil

A new version of AS!2 has just been release, have a look at the download section to find out what has changed.

Version 2.1 includes some fancy new features like dark and flat-frame support to calibrate your images, but more importantly, a whole lot of bugs got fixed. I probably didn’t manage to catch each and every one of them, so if you run into any problems with version 2.1, or just have a good idea you think should be implemented, just let me know. I’m always open to suggestions.

You can download AutoStakkert!2 from the download page.

Please send me an email if you find any problems in this release of AutoStakkert!2.

“I can’t see me ever using anything else to align image sequences from now on” – Damian Peach

This lucky imaging software is all about alignment and stacking of image sequences. It will create high quality image stacks of the Planets, the Sun, and the Moon, without too much hassle. It’s fast, easy to use, and simply produces the sharpest possible results. If you want to get a head start, jump to the Features and Guides section to find out what this advanced piece of software can do.

One more week of beta testing, and then everyone can download the new and much improved AutoStakkert! 2.