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@dkulp dkulp released this 13 Jun 13:00
· 2977 commits to master since this release
4.0
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dkulp Daniel Kulp
GPG key ID: 858FC4C4F43856A3
Learn about vigilant mode.
8f9d6bf
This commit was signed with the committer’s verified signature.
dkulp Daniel Kulp
GPG key ID: 858FC4C4F43856A3
Learn about vigilant mode.

Enhancements

  • Interface/"Look and Feel" Updates

    • "Tab Based" settings page - we've tried to collect all the various settings to put them in one place.
    • Unification of style sheets, colors, etc... so look and feel is more consistent
    • Add icons onto various menu items and other links
    • "Interface Levels" - on the UI tab of the Settings page, you can select the "Interface Level" appropriate for you. We are trying to "hide" some of the complex/not frequently needed features from the casual user that gets confused by them.
    • Move storage settings to new Storage tab in settings (Advanced UI level) and remove advanced settings page
    • New status page to provide more insight into the currently running playlist
    • Ability to start a sequence directly from the status page

  • New Scheduler/Playlist editors

    • New Playlist editor to allow editing playlist entries, drag/drop, etc...
    • Allow offsets from SunSet and SunRise
    • Allow repeats to be on multiples of 5/10/15/20/30/60 minutes

  • New Multisync page allows easier/faster control of your entire network of FPP instances.

    • Allow column sorting and filtering
    • Allow excluding individual RFC1918 CIDR blocks from the list
    • Allow restarting FPPD on all/selected instances
    • Allow upgrading FPP on all/selected instances
    • Allow simultaneous rsync of sequences/media/etc... to selected remotes
    • Send "unicast discovery" pings to list of "Additional Remotes" to support advanced discovery across network subnets.
    • Advance mode - HTTP scan of subnets to discover controllers. Detect Falcon/SanDevices/ESPixelStick devices and display their version

  • Output updates

    • New optimized ColorLight output to handle larger matrices using less CPU load
    • Update Virtual Matrix to allow arbitrary widths (no longer restricted to multiples of 16)
    • Tighten ws281x timing on BBB Strings to be more accurate and allow full 800 pixels at 40fps.
    • New "Three to Four" output processor to expand RGB to RGBW
    • LED Panel page now has separate "Width" and "Height" fields to make setting up larger matrices easier
    • New media player - we've replaced the omxplayer media player with a new internal VLC based player for videos. This should be more reliable, particularly on the Pi4 where we are having reliability issues with omxplayer. In addition, the new media player allows syncing SOUND on remotes.

  • Hardware Capes/Hat updates

    • Add ability to upgrade/update eeproms on Capes/Hats
    • On capes/hats with 4 direction buttons, add ability to set the eth0 IP address and other network settings
    • Support for the I2C 16x2 and 20x4 LCD displays

  • Other major changes

    • FPPD is now run directly from systemd and will be automatically restarted if it crashes (although it shouldn't crash)
    • BUNCH of new API's available to Plugins. Several plugins have been updated/added to use them including the fpp-arcade plugin, fpp-HomeAssistant plugin, etc...
    • New Effects that can run on Pixel Overlay Models and trigger-able from FPP Commands. Currently only a few are available. More will come.
    • New GPIO inputs page to allow GPIO's to trigger any FPP Command. GPIO inputs can also control the FPP OLED menus. Also, support for various I2C GPIO expanders.
    • Support setting a different FPP instance as the source for "git pull" upgrades. (Advanced UI setting)
    • Internal updates for running playlists for enhanced position tracking to allow SMPTE/LTC plugin
    • New Kiosk mode image for the Pi that will boot directly to FPP's web page if HDMI monitor and keyboard/mouse is attached

Incompatibilities

  • We've removed some seldom used/obsolete outputs including the OLA, TriksC and Hill320
  • The Perl based API's have been removed. Scripts using the OLD API's should be updated to use the new REST API's
  • fppwss - WebSocket API has been removed. Use the REST API's
  • GPIO595 configuration has changed. You will need to reconfigure if using it.
  • mpg123, mpg321, and ogg123 are no longer installed. Scripts that use these should install them if needed or flip to using ffmpeg or vlc.
  • wiringPi and pigpio are no longer installed. Again, scripts that need them should be re-written or have them installed if needed.
  • Several playlist entry types are no longer available and should be auto-converted to the "FPP Command" equivalent.
  • Auto-upgrade flag removed.
  • Moved to jquery 3.5 and removed jquery-migrate. Plugins that rely on older jquery calls may need to be updated.
  • Removed support for the "MultiSync CSV Packets". Nothing uses them and the binary packets provide significantly more information.

Upgrade Instructions

It is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any FPP 2.x or 3.x version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

  • Re-image - you can backup your 3.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
  • In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 4.0-alpha3. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.
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