Hi all,
PixInsight version 1.6.0.592 is now available on all supported platforms: Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.
This is an important release with numerous improvements, new tools and bug fixes. We encourage all our users to update their current installations as soon as possible.
Most of the new features and tools included in PixInsight 1.6.0 have already been described on the
Release Information board. Please refer to that board for detailed information on the new and enhanced features introduced in this version.
DownloadsPixInsight 1.6.0 is now available for download from our Software Distribution System:
http://dist.pixinsight.com/You must use your user account to access this system (user name and password provided with commercial and trial licenses).
InstallationBefore installing PixInsight 1.6.0, it is advisable to uninstall a previous version. This is the recommended procedure:
Linux 1. Exit all running instances of the PixInsight core application, if any.
2. Delete the whole directory where a previous version of PixInsight was installed.
If you have created files of your own within PixInsight's installation directory, please don't forget to backup them first.
3. Unpack the .tar.gz file on a suitable directory, preferably one under the user's home directory (for example, $HOME/PixInsight).
4. To launch PixInsight, run the PixInsight.sh shell script from the bin installation directory.
Mac OS X 1. Exit all running instances of the PixInsight core application, if any.
2. Delete the previous version of the PixInsight.app application bundle. If you installed it on the standard location, it should be on the /Applications folder.
3. Double click the .zip installation archive for version 1.6.0. This will create a new PixInsight.app application bundle. PixInsight can be executed from any location, but we recommend copying PixInsight.app to the standard /Applications folder. You may want to add it to the Dock as well.
4. If you are a commercial Windows or Linux user, your existing license file works fine on the Mac; you do not need to reactivate your license to use it on Mac OS X. Do the following:
4.1 Locate your PixInsight license file. It is the .pixinsight-license file or pixinsight-license file (with or without the initial dot) on your personal folder of your Linux or Windows machine.
4.2 Make a duplicate of your license file, and preferably rename it to pixinsight-license (that is, remove the initial dot character if there is one).
4.3 Copy the pixinsight-license file to your home folder on the Mac. Now you can run PixInsight for Mac OS X with your commercial license.
Windows 1. Exit all running instances of the PixInsight core application, if any.
2. Uninstall PixInsight. There is a
Start > PixInsight Platform > Uninstall menu item that should be used. Never try to uninstall PixInsight by manually removing files.
If you have created files of your own within PixInsight's installation directory, please don't forget to backup them first.
3. Run the PixInsight installation module for version 1.6.0.
4. To launch PixInsight, go to
Start > All Programs > PixInsight Platform > PixInsight Core.
New ImageCalibration ToolOf special importance is the new ImageCalibration module introduced in PixInsight 1.6. This tool has the following main features:
* Released under GPL version 3. The complete source code has been included in all PCL distributions. We plan on creating a thread on this forum (development board) to discuss all community contributions to this tool.
* Image calibration with optional overscan (4 configurable overscan regions), master bias, master dark and master flat frames.
* Batch calibration of an unlimited number of target disk image files. Target frames (e.g. light or science frames) and calibration frames can irrespectively be monochrome or multichannel images.
* Fully multithreaded implementation. Each target image is calibrated by an independent logical processor (physical processor, processor core or virtual processor on hyper threading systems). The tool has been designed to maximize total processor load during the whole batch calibration procedure.
* Automatic optimization (scaling) of master dark frames, using a wavelet-based noise estimation algorithm and a robust function minimization routine.
* Support for CFA images and Bayer images (DSLR raw images and proprietary OSC FITS images). Dark frame optimization works well right now for CFA images, although it will be further improved in future versions.
Important: Vicent Peris has authored a tutorial where he describes a methodology to generate master calibration frames optimized for the new ImageCalibration tool in PixInsight.
Click here to access this tutorial on our website.
New FeaturesBesides ImageCalibration, the most important new features in PixInsight 1.6.0 have already been described on the
Release Information board. There are however a few important features that have not been announced on that board:
* The DSLR_RAW file format module supports now monochrome CFA images. To select this feature, open the Format Explorer window, select the DSLR_RAW module, and click the Edit Preferences button (or double click the DSLR_RAW item).
* Multiple process categories. A process can now be assigned to multiple categories. For example, the StarAlignment process belongs now to the ImageRegistration and Preprocessing categories.
* New Obsolete module. This module has been created to facilitate uninstallation of some processes that have been deprecated on the PixInsight platform. One of them is DigitalDevelopment (DDP). The Obsolete module is installed by default; you must manually uninstall it if you wish.
* Improved Script Editor with new syntax highlighting functionality for XML files, highlighting of the current line, and a dynamic cache that stores and remembers the cursor position, the include directories and macro definitions for all opened text files.
* Integration of Script Editor with the History Explorer and ProcessContainer interfaces. Automatically generated script and XML source code is now syntax-highlighted on these interfaces.
* Improved compatibility with the KDE and GNOME desktop managers on Linux.
Along with all the new features and enhancements, there are hundreds of bug fixes and stability improvements. Refer to the
Bug Reports board for detailed information.
Known Problems* We are still unable to release a 64-bit version of PixInsight for Mac OS X. On Mac OS X, PixInsight is still a Carbon-based, 32-bit x86 application. Unfortunately, the Cocoa port of Qt 4.6.2 (the latest Qt version) is still too unstable and buggy to release a 64-bit version of PixInsight for the Mac. We are working to fix this problem as soon as possible. We ask for a bit of patience to all our Mac OS X users.
* On Mac OS X, sometimes the File > Print dialog doesn't let you change the physical printer resolution in dots per inch. While we figure out how to solve this problem, please preconfigure your printer with the desired resolution before opening the File > Print dialog for the first time.
* On Mac OS X, printer color management still doesn't work correctly. This is because we still have not implemented PostScript ICC profile support in PixInsight (on the Mac, all printing is made through PDF files). Please ensure that you manually convert your images to the target printer color space in PixInsight before printing them. Use the ICCProfileTransformation process.
* On Mac OS X, sometimes the File > Quit menu item gets disabled. Although actually a very minor issue, because you can exit PixInsight by simply closing its main window (red sphere button), this is an ugly glitch that must be fixed ASAP.
* Linux/X11: On the KDE4 desktop manager, the full screen mode (View > Full Screen) doesn't seem to work correctly. This only happens when fancy compositing-based and OpenGL-based effects are enabled on the desktop (window transparencies, window animations, 3D effects, etc.). Disabling these effects (which does NOT imply disabling compositing extensions on the X11 server) solves this issue.
* On Windows XP and relatively slow/old machines, the new translucent process windows may cause some screen drawing problems. To disable translucency, you can use the Preferences process: Select
Edit > Global Preferences > Special GUI Effects and disable the
Translucent Workspace Windows option. Naturally, translucency works without any problem (and nicely!) on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
ErrataI forgot to include the latest version 0.9 of the
CanonBanding script by Georg Viehoever.
I forgot also to include the new
Batch Debayer script by Ken Pendlebury.
My apologies to the authors of these excellent scripts. They will of course be included in the next release.
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I hope you'll like it. Nice processing and clear skies to everybody!
