moscow wrote:Hi!
Friend of my give me his laptop and tell me: Try StarTools! Very good program
I used PixInsight before, do a little fixes in it code.
So I open my Cocon nebula linear fit and start to using StarTools. And found it GREAT. Thanks for your work very much.
Hi,
Thank you for your kind words! It means a lot.
Thank you also for your thoughtful feedback!
Here is my first look results:
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Sharpen:
- only 1 cpu core used (speed up);
- no preview feature (speed up);
Contrast:
- only 1 cpu core;
- no preview
There are some good reasons for the points you mention.
With regards to single core use in some places;
Multi-threading is used where it makes sense in StarTools.
For very memory intensive algorithms, the memory bus is actually the main bottle neck. In these cases multi-threading can actually have an
adverse effect on performance and cache hits; threads would spend a lot more time waiting for memory access rather than processing. In such cases the algorithm uses a single core to alleviate memory access times and cache misses, while simultaneously taking advantage of higher clock speeds for single core usage (e.g. frequency throttling features such as Intel's TurboBoost etc.).
With regards to the lack of a preview in some places;
Some algorithms require the whole image to be processed to work correctly; often a pixel's new value is dependent on values of other pixels very far away. In such cases, a preview area would not work and so, a speed up is not possible.
Denoise:
- where is zoom at grain size calibration?
The point of the grain size calibration is to look at the image 1:1 (e.g. at 100% zoom) and blur the image until noise grain
at the largest visible scale can no longer be seen. Zoom is not useful in this instance. Hope this makes sense.
Common problem:
- mouse wheel is not used. I mean better to use it for zoom;
Noted!
- sometime want to see percentage, not only "loading.." animation circle (perhaps ETA would be better);
It's a tricky one... Ideally the animation circle/spinner should not be shown very long (for things that could take a long time, a traditional progress/status bar is used). In StarTools, virtually every module runs multiple algorithms in parallel or in sequence with varying lengths and/or opportunities to report back a status. In virtually all cases it is not a simple 0% to 100% linear process, complicated even more by multi-threaded processing (with each thread having its own completion status). So what to report in such a small space?
- entering into deconvolve (for example) start view at 100% with left-top image corner aligned. Better to use previous zoom / pan, I think (or change pan to center);
Modules show the image at a zoom level that is appropriate for the task. 100% was determined to be appropriate for the decon module as, 1. it enhances small detail (requiring 100% zoom level or higher) and, 2. allows for specifying a preview area (requiring 100% zoom level or higher)
As you can hopefully see, a lot of decisions were made with a clear rationale or reason behind them!
Save dialog ask a filename, its ok. I try to write 'IC5146' and press enter. StarTools give me error - something like "Could only save at tiff / jpeg".
Sure no problem. Will choose it by hand. But see only 'All files' wildcast in dialog. Not tiff / jpeg choise.
Its not intuitive to type .tiff extension by hands.
You're absolutely right. This indeed needs fixing.
Thanks again for your thoughtful and comprehensive feedback - it is much appreciated.
Clear skies!
