StarTools

Ivo,

I want to open with a big thank you for this great product. I tend to acquire images all summer and process in the cold months so I'm getting into ST once again.

Because I work long hours and I only have 30 to 60 minutes each night to work an image I have to hibernate my computer so the program can keep running. On occasion things go awry and I'm left pulling the log and redoing the work. I understand that any work saved while tracking is active would be in a proprietary format, but it would be great for those of us who can't do the full tracking workflow in a single sitting.

I second the dual monitor request with a subtle tweak. I process on a blade server with poor video support so I use remote desktop to get full 32-bit color out of the screaming fast computer. With remote desktop it looks like I have one huge monitor at 900 by 3100 pixels. This really stretches across three monitors on my desktop. I would like this implemented so I could "unpin" the controls like you can in Photoshop and drag them where ever works.

Also, because I have an 8 core machine the more you can multi-thread the better performance I would see. Being a programmer myself I know this may be the hardest ask so I understand the way I do process is rather unique and I should not expect that my needs are common.

Keep up the great work.

Mark

Thanks Mark,

1.4 will be all about architectural updates to StarTools, which includes exactly some of the stuff you mention! A while back I mentioned project saving which should do waht you're asking for (and more). It's early days for 1.4 - I'm just happy I got MacOSX 64-bit support finally mostly dealt with - but you should see more improvements like these as we go along.

As for increased usage of multi-threading, multi-threading is not always a silver bullet and is highly dependent on the algorithm. Single-threaded algorithms that are memory intensive can faster under some circumstances than their multi-threaded counterparts. It all depends on how long threads have to wait for access to the memory bus and/or cache versus the gains made in processing speed. It's a delicate balance with sometimes less than intuitive results. ST in particular is much more memory-heavy (e.g. Tracking) than other programs which compounds this. It's also the reason why using the GPU (for example by employing OpenCL) is less appropriate for StarTools than it might be for other, less complex filters/programs such as those in PhotoShop or PixInsight.

Cheers!

I'll second the request for saving progress during tracking! Great to hear you have plans for this, Ivo. As I become increasingly familiar with ST, I'm enjoying spending longer and longer on tweaking the processing. Multi-session operations would be terrific. Thanks for the ongoing development of this fantastic toolkit.

Any update on 1.4 and project saving? I ask because I am having issues with stability with 1.4 on my mac

I know it's already on your list, just posting to support the suggestion to be able to save work in progress with tracking still active. I too have limited time for processing so to be able to save and pick up later with tracking still on would be brilliant.

Great package btw Ivo, the more I get into it the more I am impressed, I've worked in application development for over 30 years and am amazed at your genius

Mid