StarNet 2.01 plugin

for Astroart 9 / 8 / 7 / 6, version 2.01 - legacy, for Windows 7

LICENSE

This plugin is released as freeware.
This plugin is provided "AS IS". It's not guaranteed that it will work properly on all PCs and related hardware. This plugin and its documentation are provided without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including the fitness for every purpose.
About StarNet, see the README.txt and LICENSE in the StarNet folder for more information.
Please note that StarNet requires a modern CPU with AVX instructions (available since 2011) and Windows 64 bit. Memory and CPU usage is intensive.

ABOUT

This plugin connects with StarNet 2.0, a software which removes stars from an image using a neural network, e.g. artificial intelligence. See: https://github.com/nekitmm/starnet.

STARNET INSTALLATION

Visit the web site: https://www.starnetastro.com then click Command Line Tool / Legacy (on the left) and download "StarNetv2CLI_Win.zip".
When the zip file is downloaded (approx 200 Mb), open it and copy the starnet folder into a folder of your hard disk (don't copy it in ProgramFiles otherwise the following test "run_mono_starnet.bat" will not work, since ProgramFiles is write-protected). The path and the folder cannot contain SPACE characters.
In the starnet folder there's a picture called "mono_test5.tif", try to open it in a graphic program or in Astroart. To verify that StarNet is installed properly, execute the file "run_starnet.bat" which will run the software and create a starless version of the "mono_test5.tif" image. When done, open that image as well.

PLUGIN INSTALLATION

To install this plugin (after having installed StarNet, see above) copy the files pistarnet2.dll, p64istarnet2.dll and this guide (StarnetPlugin-readme.htm) into the Astroart installation directory, usually C:\Program Files(..)\Astroart.

USAGE

In Astroart, click the menu "Plugins" then "StarNet plugin". The first time, select the folder where you installed StarNet.
StarNet requires an image with a real 16 bit dynamic (approx 0..65000, so displayed in Astroart with a range approx 0..65000). Below 10000 ADU the plugin will refuse to start. If your image has a lower dynamic you may use the Astroart menu command "Arithmetic / Scale / Transfer function" or "Multiply constant" to fix it. It's also possible to use the command "Histogram Stretch" with dynamic 65535 or just the DDP filter.
If you are processing a 8 bit image (for example, a JPEG), you may scale the image automatically with the option "Image is 8 bit".
As a first test, use an image smaller than 2000x2000 pixels, because the processing is slow and CPU intensive, and cannot be stopped. You may crop a region from an your image (bigger than 512x512, which is the minimum size).

HISTORY

2023/07/31: 2.01 Configuration is now always saved, improved documentation.
2022/05/13: 2.00 Compatible with StarNet version 2.0, can be launched by scripts.
2020/11/08: 1.00 The first release.