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Hi Mabula –
Regarding the file locking – FYI, I do have a local network (Windows 7) with some mapped drives. Perhaps something about this configuration enforces stricter file locking?
My startup times for APP are fine – usually around 5 seconds. However, I have had some occasions when I receive a message that my license could not be verified. If I had to guess, these usually seem to coincide with times when I’ve shut down APP and started it up soon thereafter. If it helps, the most recent time I had this trouble would have been within a few minutes of 18:08 UTC on 5/17.
Also, I tried shutting off my wireless on my laptop and opening APP. I received a message telling me I didn’t have an internet connection (which would have been correct). I still think it would be worthwhile to have some method to allow users to run APP when they don’t have an internet connection – perhaps only verify licensing every few days or maybe even as long as a week?
Hi Mabula –
I wouldn’t worry too much about the error I was receiving. I eventually found that the problem was coming from trying to integrate the mosaic with the Integrate mode of Reference. Once I changed that to Full, I stopped receiving those errors and the combined panels were no longer ending up the size of a single panel. So, this one was entirely operator error.
One suggestion – I imagine there isn’t a scenario where someone would choose Mosaic in 4) Register and then want to use Reference in 6) Integrate. Perhaps it would be helpful to have a sanity check in Integrate that pops up a message if someone has chosen Mosaic and then Reference – something like “are you sure you want to use Reference? Mosaics usually should be integrated with “Full”.
I did find that APP could complete the integration if I chose overlap of 3 panels (in this mosaic all of the panels touch a panel on either side, except the end panels only overlap with 1 other panel).
As far as the 88%, what I was seeing with the error was that APP would try to do the 1st LNC correction. At the end of that initial pause, it would NOT go on to the normal subsequent LNC steps. Rather, it would advance from 30% to 88% and then issue the error. Again, this is a user triggered error, but I thought you may want to know the sequence where it was occurring.
I’m still having some problems with this Mosaic in having the panels properly register and then have the projection look correct. These 14 panels are portrait oriented side by side along the horizon line for about 210 degrees (give or take). I’ll be combining them with a similar mosaic of the landscape below this to make a panorama of my surrounding mountains with the night sky.
Using Equirectangular or Rectilinear projections ended up creating significant warping of the panels on the ends of the mosaic. I was able to use Photoshop’s Photomerge with a Cylindrical projection, and that seemed to align the panels as I expected. However, I’d certainly be interested in finding out how I might do something similar with APP.
I know you’re very busy, and this is not a priority in any way. But, I did upload the 14 panels (I reduced them to 50% size, but they’re otherwise unaffected. I also uploaded a jpeg of the Cylindrical projection so you can see what it should look like.
Ok, I’m sorry to keep wasting bandwidth on half solving my own problems, but it’s been a learning experience at least! I just found that my problem with the mosaic not expanding as I add frames is that I had chosen a mode of “reference” in 6) Integrate. Changing that to Full solved this problem as well as the majority of the registration problems.
I’ve successfully integrated 4 panels. I’ll try to do more and report back later.
Sorry again for all the unnecessary comments.
A followup to this message. I think the problem I’ve been having may be related to the # of overlapping frames. I’ve been able to get past the message by choosing the same number of overlapping frames as the total number of frames to be integrated. So far, I’ve been able to integrate 3, 4, and 5 panels. I tried doing 9, but it failed with a different error (I didn’t take note). And, I don’t have an option to choose more than 9 panels, anyway.
Now, I say I’ve been able to integrate 3, 4, and 5 panels, although that means that it’s completed without any errors. However, it’s not really mosaicing these panels (and the registration isn’t good, either). As I add panels, the mosaic should grow vertically (I’ll end up rotating it 90 degrees). Each of the stacked frames as an aspect ratio of roughly 3:2. So, when I have 2 panels it should be 3:4 (it’s less because of overlap), 5 panels should have an aspect ratio of 3:10 – with some overlap, maybe 3:7 or so. However, virtually all of the integrated mosaics still have aspect ratios of 3:2. So, I think I’m still doing something wrong.
Maybe it’s not handling the slightly elongated stars from the 10 second untracked 50mm subs?
Thank you for that info, Mabula. I wasn’t sure if the 1 core was correct, so I’m glad it’s working as designed. From what I know about you, I’m not sensing that you’re particularly slim on algebra courses, though!
Well, I’m having some issues trying to get it all to work, but I want to try a few more possibilities before I come to you to resolve any problems. I’ve been using some of the information you gave to Wei-Hao when he was having problems with his large mosaic. Mine isn’t near as large as his – it’s 14 panels from the Canon 6D and the same 50mm lens that I used for the North cirumpolar data. This one will end up having the panels side by side, so they should create a mosaic of roughly 210 x 40 degrees when I’m done. I’ll let you know if I can’t solve my problems.
Thanks as always!
Mabula – I’m not sure if this is new with 1.038, but I’ve been seeing a few processes that I would expect to be CPU intensive that don’t appear to be using all cores. I’ve been working on a 14 panel mosaic, and when I was having it create a distortion model, the CPU usage was pegged at 25% on my quad core machine. The same thing appears to be happening when it’s doing LNC modeling. I haven’t seen it rise above 25%.
Just thought you ought to know.
As far as IP using the bias for dark scaling – I believe the methodology is to subtract the bias from the dark so that only the dark signal is left. Then the dark can be scaled. So, let’s say I have a 5 minute dark and want to use it for a 10 minute light. If I subtract the bias from the dark, I can scale the dark x 2 to match the (presumably linear) dark signal in the 10 minute light. Then I can separately subtract the bias from the light.
Personally, I’m wish you – I avoid these “short cuts” and much prefer to use properly matched calibration frames.
Maurice, Mabula – When I was using a DSLR, I also liked to capture my lights at ISO 1600 and Flats at ISO 200 (longer exposure means that each flat has better SNR). What I would do is to use Bias frames at ISO 1600, and flat darks at ISO 200 (and, of course, same exposure time as my flats). I had used Images Plus for calibration, and it would default to applying the flat darks to the flats. I presume that IP only used the bias frames for dark scaling.
Mabula – Would APP by default use such flat darks for calibrating the flats? Would this be a good method for Maurice to use?
Hi Mabula – way back when (early 90s), I wrote a database application when we were running a real estate multiple listing system and charging monthly “subscriber” fees to each of the real estate agents. I was concerned about them sharing the application and not paying my monthly fees. The solution I had at the time was to tie the licensing to a single computer. Basically, when they started the app, I had it run a separate program that grabbed (if I recall) some serial number from the CPU. The first time the program ran, it wrote a config file that had this info. Subsequent times verified the system CPU serial number and compared it to the config. In this way, the application could only be run on one computer.
What you might want to think about is having your regular APP version and then having a separate “requires no internet connection” version. The difference would be that the requires no internet version could only be run on one computer. It would require additional work on your part, but when someone wanted this version of the app, you would first send them some little program that would parse some hardware specific info (maybe a mac address) and generate a file to send to you. The user would send back that file to you, and then you could send them a version of APP that checked for that hardware specific identifier. In this way, the user couldn’t share the program, but also wouldn’t require an internet connection for authenticity check.
It’s a bit more of a pain, and the vast majority of people would not require this version (they could easily accommodate the internet connected version). For the relatively small percentage that want to run it on a never connected computer, you would give them this version (you could even allow them torun it on the 2 or 3 computers by having them send you the hardware specific file for 2 or 3 computers). They’d need to understand that any computer change would necessitate them contacting you for an updated version. And, you’d need to figure some way for distributing updates that left their config file intact. But, it might be an adequate compromise solution.
To clarify the “– Little bug: The progress bar during registration does not update during the processing. (Rob)” – when I click on “Start Registration”, the progress bar works correctly. When I click on “Save”, it displays 5% progress and stays there until it’s done saving.
Minor interface suggestion- when doing various processing steps, APP displays a progress bar and window showing the percentage completed. When done, the progress bar goes away and you’re often left with a screen that looks much like the screen that started that process. If the progress bar/window stayed on the screen showing 100% with an OK button the user had to click, it would be clearer that the process completed.
Hi Mabula – in your notes, you mention that “APP will always need an internet connection to verify your license”. I think it might be useful if you change that behavior to something like “APP will need to connect to the internet once a week (when you start APP) so that it can verify your license”. The problem I foresee is that someone may be out at a remote site without internetservice, gathering data at night and wanting to process during the day. In this scenario, they wouldn’t be able to use APP. The other possibility is that someone wants to use APP while they’re having problems with their internet connection (it does happen!). By changing APP to only verify the license periodically, you avoid this potential problems while still ensuring that licenses aren’t abused.
Hope this helps.
