4.0-alpha3

This is a pre-release/alpha image of the forthcoming FPP 4.0. As a pre-release, there are things that are still under development, still some rough edges, etc... However, there are also a lot of new features that need testing as well as feedback from users.

More details about 4.0 are being tracked at: #653

Enhancements

• "Tab Based" settings page - we've tried to collect all the various settings to put them in one place. This is still a work in progress.
• "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.
• 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 only on remotes.
• 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.
• 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 Playlist editor to allow editing playlist entries, drag/drop, etc...
• New Scheduler editor - more changes planned
• Bunch of updates for detecting and configuring some upcoming capes
• New optimized ColorLight output to handle larger matrices using less CPU load
• New status page to provide more insight into the currently running playlist
• Ability to start a sequence directly from the status page

Incompatibilities

• We've removed some likely unused 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.

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.