SharpCap 4.1 Beta now available for early testing

[admin]

Hi folks,

if you have been following the weekly update releases of SharpCap 4.0 recently, you will have noticed that the changes have been very small - mostly just bug fixes and the odd SDK update from a camera manufacturer. This is because I have been putting all the new good stuff into the code for SharpCap 4.1.

SharpCap 4.1 isn't finished yet by quite some distance, but there are now some interesting new features in it that I'm sure some people will enjoy using/testing/playing with, so I am now going to start making beta builds publicly available here on the forums. At a later stage I will put a beta version page on the main website.

Remember if you do decide to use the beta version that this is software work-in-progress, so there may be bugs ranging from subtle to serious in both the newly added features and in older features that have been improved or upgraded. Ideally test out each new version a bit before trying to use it on a dark, clear night, and *always* have SharpCap 4.0 installed too, so that you can quickly go back to a working version if you encounter a big problem. Also remember that each version of the SharpCap 4.1 beta that you install will have a time limit built in - a date sometime in the future after which it will stop working. If your current version hits the time limit then please come back here to download a newer version, which will have an extended time limit.

If you encounter any issues with SharpCap 4.1 beta, please send the bug report data if you are prompted to and also post further information here in the Beta Testing Forum. As usual, comprehensive reports of issues (screenshots, descriptions of what you did, SharpCap log contents, etc included) are very welcome as they often allow me to get straight to the cause of an issue.

For now, there will only be 64-bit versions of the SharpCap 4.1 Beta - there will be a 32 bit version later, but only having a single version speeds things up for me.

Right, enough of the intro... Next post : What's the download link and what's new?

cheers,

Robin

[admin]

The current version of SharpCap 4.1 Beta is 4.1.9730. It can be downloaded from

https://d.sharpcap.co.uk/download.html? ... 0&arch=x64

What's new in this update?

* Improvements to focus score calculations for planets, including ability to turn off corrections for frame brightness changing
* The outline box for the planetary stabilization feature is now only drawn on screen and does not affect the saved video
* Multi-reticules now have an option to lock each reticule and auto save and restore size and position
* Live Stacking - add the option of 'Maximum Value' stacking, which will detect and show meteor trails (and satellite trails, and planes...)
* Make bahtinov focus code show detected lines even when they do not match a classic bahtinov pattern
* 'Plate Solve Only' will use the zenith as the search start point if no other information is available and the zenith co-ordinates can be calculated
* Live stacking saved files can be accessed from Python scipting via SharpCap.LiveStacking.GetSavedFiles() - this will return all files saved during the current stack

Known Issues

* Python scripting was broken in 4.1.9729 and earlier, now fixed

What's new in SharpCap 4.1 generally?

* SharpCap 4.1 no longer needs a .NET Framework 4.8 install - it runs on .NET 6 and the .NET 6 components are all inside the SharpCap installer, so you don't need to worry about them
* Support for ASCOM Alpaca (remote ASCOM) devices is now build into SharpCap. They should be auto-detected if you have Alpaca servers running on your network
* Dithering in live stacking is largely re-implemented to allow an additional option of automatic recentering to be added. Recentering uses plate solving and a GOTO mount and cannot be used with actual guiding (which wouldn't allow drift), but can be used with 'dither only guiding'.
* Platesolve 2 and Platesolve 3 are now supported for plate solving. PS2 is somewhat slow. Both need to have the application location specified manually in the plate solving settings.
* A frame averaging option has been added to the 'FX' dropdown - will average multiple frames to reduce noise
* Improvements to focus scoring and autofocus scanning code
* Live stacking can log info about each frame to CSV for later inspection
* Addition of Julian Date versions of start/mid/end capture times to capture settings file
* The image can now be changed on Test Camera 2 (High Speed). Also, this camera can play back an SER file.
* Lots of small bug fixes and usability improvements (including those from SharpCap 4.0)

I will try to post more details on the new features shortly.

cheers,

Robin

[Menno555]

First test on Windows 11 22H2.
No problems with install. No testing yet with attached hardware.

One thing for the Plate Solving settings: the Test Selected Plate Solver button is not there. Maybe dropped down the window edge because the settings field became larger?

Menno

[admin]

Hi Menno,

yes, looks like I gave too much space to the detection box (needed a couple more rows for PlateSolve2/3, but got more), which pushed the button off the bottom. I will move the button up to the top block, so that doesn't happen again.

cheers,

Robin

[Borodog]

Looks like I will have clear skies maybe Sunday night; I will give this a go then.

Thanks for your continued development, Robin. .

[Menno555]

Robin

Had first session with the Beta and so far no problems.

Menno