the main new feature this week is a bit of an odd one, since it's not related directly to imaging or astronomy at all
What I have done is added new functionality to allow you to* Export SharpCap settings to a file
* Import SharpCap settings from a previously exported file
* Reset some or all SharpCap settings
This should help out with a lot of situations, like transferring a working SharpCap setup to a new PC, or clearing settings back to default if you have somehow done something horrible and nothing works any more
You can launch all 3 actions from the normal settings window - see the new buttons in the bottom left corner.
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Export/Import will save/restore the following
* SharpCap settings (except for the SharpCap Pro license key which must be entered separately on the new PC)
* Capture profiles
* Autosaved camera settings
* Sensor analysis data if you have performed your own sensor analysis
* Sequencer and Deep Sky planner autosave information
* Custom deep sky annotation catalogs
The idea is that this copies all the things that you cannot easily see - it's up to you to copy things that you have saved yourself like captured images, dark/flat files, sequencer saved files etc.
Reset is slightly more complex since you get to chose what to reset:
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* SharpCap saved settings - choosing this will undo any changes you have made to SharpCap settings from the settings pages (and things that SharpCap might remember automatically for you like Live Stacking settings)
* Settings from previous versions of SharpCap - you can also wipe settings for older versions like 3.1, 3.2. Selecting this will wipe settings from all older versions
* Settings from alternate instances - this applies to alternate copies of the SharpCap settings that can be created using the '/instance' command line parameter
* SharpCap Pro license key - this will wipe the license key
* Capture Profiles - this will delete all capture profiles, including autosaved camera settings
* Sensor Analysis data - this will delete any sensor analysis measurements that you have carried out (it will not affect sensor analysis data installed by default with SharpCap)
* Sequencer and Deep Sky planner autosave files - these files are saved each time you close either the sequence editor or deep sky planner to allow your settings to be restored next time.
* Custom annotation catalogs
You may not be able to select all of these items - SharpCap will only enable the checkboxes for the items where there is actually data to be cleared.
It is probably a good idea to use the 'Export Settings' functionality to create a backup before using Reset, just in case.
Note that you can also use the command line option '/resetsettings' - this will reset only the SharpCap saved settings (the first item above) - it may be useful if you have somehow adjusted the settings in a way that stops SharpCap from running at all.
Other Stuff
As well as the usual range of bug fixes, this week's update includes
* A minimum contrast filter for center of mass feature tracking - tracking will stop if the image contrast drops below the set threshold
* An update to the SVBony SDK to version 1.9.4
* A fix for a crash where the seeing monitor could try to start capture after the user had already pressed the 'Start Capture' button
* Increased maximum dither step
And finally...
This is going to be the last version of SharpCap that includes the 'Old UI' option to go back to the older user interface. If you are still using the old user interface please check that the new user interface option works for you (if you have issues then update your graphics card drivers or try turning off hardware acceleration in the SharpCap settings).
cheers,
Robin