v0.4.0rc1.dev0

At long last, the dev version of the release candidate is ready for testing! See this beta guide for installation instructions. I will continue to improve that guide and all associated guides during testing.

Leave all feedback related to this pre-release here. Your feedback is crucial to the getting this release ready for production, and is greatly appreciated!

I have been focusing on 3 items:

1. Print Quality - This is my #1 concern, and a ton of effort has gone into both reducing average impact and increasing the quality of the best case scenario.
2. Print Time - Lots of folks have complained about the print time impact of Octolapse, and this is a totally legitimate concern. This has been handled, pretty definitively, by the Smart Layer Trigger.
3. Simplify Setup - Octolapse prior to V0.4 was much more difficult to configure, especially for beginners. Incorrect setup leads to poor print quality as well as extreme frustration. This sad situation has been improved (but not solved) in several ways, including automatic slicer settings extraction and profile import/download/update functionality.

Enhancements

Automatic Slicer Settings Extraction

• It is no longer necessary to manually enter your slicer settings before using Octolapse! When using supported slicers, Octolapse will automatically extract all of the required settings directly from your gcode file.
  This should improve quality by eliminating data entry errors!
• Currently supported when using Slic3r, Slic3rPE, PrusaSlicer, Simplify3D and Cura. Note: Cura doesn't include the settings by default and therefore requires a minor amount of extra work to get this feature working (totally worth the minimal effort IMHO).
• If you are not using one of the supported slicers, this version still makes setup easier by reducing the number of slicer settings necessary to use Octolapse. This was accomplished by removing Feature Detection, which was causing a lot of problems for people anyway, and could never be made to work 100%.

Smart Layer Trigger

• A new type of trigger that examines your entire gcode file before any commands are sent to the printer, allowing Octolapse to more intelligently trigger snapshots.
• Preview your timelapse before your print starts. You can even animate the preview to get a good sense of what your timelapse will look like when it is completed! If you don't like what you see, you can cancel and change your settings without running to your printer.
• Reduce print time by choosing to trigger when the extruder is closer to the desired snapshot location.
• Increase quality both by reducing the travel distance and by picking better places to start any travel movements.
• Choose between several available smart layer trigger types, which allow you to control speed vs quality using several new Several options are available which involve speed vs quality trade-offs including: Fastest, Fast, Compatibility, Normal Quality, High Quality, Best Quality
• For even faster prints with even higher quality in most cases, use the Snap To Print option. This will prevent your extruder from leaving the print, which totally eliminates all travel distance added by Octolapse! It even works well with vase mode. Optionally you can disable stabilization entirely when using Snap To Print, for an interesting wandering extruder effect. Image capture must be fast (preferably under 100MS) for this mode to work properly, so it is not recommended for DSLR cameras or with long camera delays.
• See an estimate of how much travel distance saved by using the Smart Layer Trigger versus the Classic Layer Trigger.
• When using the Smart Layer Trigger you will be able to see, via the new Snapshot Plan Information info panel on the Octolapse tab, when, where, and, how your next snapshot will be taken.
• Because the gcode is pre-processed when using any of the 'Smart Layer Trigger' presets, significantly less CPU time will be used during the print, reducing stuttering to some degree in some cases.

Enhanced Custom Image Preferences

• The Raspberry Pi Camera (V2 tested) is now fully supported! Some configuration is required.
• The custom image preferences are now created dynamically, which will enable new controls that are available on some cameras but not others. It also will remove controls that are not supported by your camera.
• Some cameras have an optimized custom control page, which work with a specific set of camera or cameras. If you are using a supported camera (currently the Logitech C920 and the Raspberry Pi Camera V2, possibly others), the controls will be customized according to the specifics of the camera, making adjustments easier.
• See your changes happen almost instantly via an integrated camera stream preview.
• Restore the camera default settings if you get into trouble.
• Cancel your changes and revert to the previous settings.
• Stabilize your extruder right from the camera controls, which makes adjusting focus much easier.
• A camera image preferences shortcut has been added to the Octolapse Tab, which gives you a simplified screen dedicated to adjusting your camera settings.

Profile Import/Export/Download/Auto-Update

• Export all of your settings, or individual profiles for backup purposes, or to share settings with a friend.
• Import settings from a single profile or all of your settings all at once either from a file or by pasting settings text.
• Download settings from a new Octolapse-Profiles repository when creating or editing an existing profile and optionally customize these profiles. All profile types are supported.
• Configure your printer by choosing the Make and Model (available for some printers, but the list is growing!)
• Profiles imported from the Octolapse-Profiles repository can be automatically upgraded (with confirmation) when newer profiles are available.

Improved Tab Layout

• larger snapshot preview makes it easier to see.
• Enhanced timelapse preview rewinds time before running the animation, preventing jerky looking starts and stops.
• The Play button on the snapshot preview now works properly.
• An Edit button now exists on the snapshot preview, letting you adjust your camera image quickly and easily.
• Links to the profiles page now take you directly to the Octolapse profiles settings pages, letting you add/download/delete/edit profiles without going through the OctoPrint settings menu.
• Improved icons, tool-tips and cursors.

Ultra-fast c++ gcode parsing and position processing

• The gcode parsing and position processors are orders of magnitude faster than the previous version of Octolapse. This greatly speeds up gcode preprocessing when using the new Smart Layer Trigger, and lowers CPU utilization when running the Classic triggers.
• A reduced CPU load means Octolapse is less likely to impact print quality by causing stuttering. It will also run better on slower hardware (but maybe not perfectly).

Built-in Help System

• All help links within the Octolapse settings now open a popup box, and will display formatted help information written in markdown (rendered via the excellent showdown.js library). No more switching browser tabs to get help!

Printer Profile Enhancements

• The redesigned print and build volume settings now match OctoPrint's printer profile, giving you a familiar interface when configuring a new printer that does not exist in the new profile repository.
• Restrict snapshot positions to a smaller volume if you desire. This can be used to prevent snapshots while priming, or to prevent Octolapse from taking snapshots on the first or last few layers.
• Experimental - By disabling Snapshot Gcode Axis Compatibility Mode, you can greatly reduce the number of gcodes generated by Octolapse by preventing Octolapse from changing the axis modes via M82/M83 or G90/G91. This can also help some plugins (like current layer detection plugins) that don't completely support relative axis modes.

Rendering Profile Enhancements

• The output frame rate is now respected. Previously there was a bug that capped the output frame rate.
• A default font* is now included with the installation for text overlays, allowing you to use the text overlay even without fontconfig installed (which is not currently installed on any version of OctoPi that I'm aware of).
• Text overlays now supports (a rather primitive form of) text outlining, making it easier to see the overlay text when the background color changes. You can control the color of the outline and (to some extent) the thickness.
• Remove frames from the beginning or end of the timelapse. This can be really useful depending on your start/end gcode. For example, by default my printer lifts Z and extrudes a bit after the print completed, which created an odd jump at the end of the timelapse. This option can resolve this issue without changing the end gcode at all.
• The overlay preview has been improved, and works as expected in most cases.

Greatly reduced image capture time

• Individual snapshots are captured more quickly, reducing printing time and increasing quality, especially when stabilization is disabled, or when using the new 'Snap To Print' option of the Smart Trigger.
• Background Image post processing is now performed on a separate thread, further reducing image capture time, especially when using the Rotate, Mirror, Flip or Transpose Snapshots setting.
• Experimental - Stream image downloads, allowing your print to continue even when the snapshot has not been completely downloaded. The efficacy of this setting has not been confirmed.

Debug Profile Enhancements

• Debugging now uses module level logging, making it look a LOT like the built in OctoPrint logging scheme.
• Control the log level on a per-module basis.
• Snapshot gcode is now tagged by both snapshot phase (initialization, snapshot, return, and end), and by gcode phase (queuing, sent, etc), making it easier to interpret the log file.

Enhanced Layer Detection

• Octolapse can now detect layer changes before any extrusions have occurred, reducing the number of retractions required to take snapshots in many cases.
• The improved layer detection has allowed some improvement in the Classic triggers that existed in all previous versions of Octolapse.