Stalling while stacking

[metastable]

I've been using the smart histogram lately which usually recommends an exposure time of about 15 seconds for my conditions. This made me notice that captures stall until the stacking process has completed. While on my desktop PC this isn't a significant amount of time, usually around 700ms, this becomes unreasonable if I'm stacking on the mini-pc as it can take anywhere from 6-13 seconds per stack. Is there an option to have the next capture continue while the stacking is in progress? Otherwise, it seems like longer exposures are the most efficient method as a way of reducing the lost capture time due to stacking.

[admin]

Hi,

that shouldn't be the way it works - if you have set a 15s exposure (for instance) then when the 15s frame finishes, SharpCap will start adding it to the stack and the camera will start capturing the next frame straight away. Now, the interesting part happens when the next frame finishes... If SharpCap is still working on stacking frame #1 then frame #2 gets discarded and you will get a warning in live stacking about the frame rate being too fast. When that happens it's time to set a longer exposure to give more time for stacking. Of course, if the stacking finishes before the next frame arrives then all should be well.

The above happens whether the camera is in live mode or still mode - in still mode SharpCap checks every 0.25s and if the camera is idle it starts a new frame.

If you are really seeing a situation where it is waiting for the stacking to complete before starting capturing the next frame then please give me as many details as possible, as it would be a bug.

cheers,

Robin

[metastable]

Okay, I do remember seeing that warning in a previous session but not the session where I noticed the stall. I'll see if I can reproduce the situation again tonight (assuming fair enough weather). Would some of the extra logging options be useful in highlighting the issue?

[admin]

Hi,

turning on the extra logging for 'Live Stacking' and 'Camera' would be gather enough info (possibly too much!). Another option would be to record a video of the screen showing the issue - that can also be very useful at times.

cheers,

Robin

[metastable]

I managed to get some logs from tonight that I believe shows the issue of the next frame not starting until the stacking process has completed. The live stack session starts around 19:15:37.871327. I can also get some video if you would like to see it happening.

[admin]

Hi,

yes, you're right - I can see the pausing in that log too, and I can see the code causing it. I will try to fix for the next update (ideally a smart fix that will only start the frame sooner if the processing is likely to be done in time for when it arrives!)

cheers,

Robin