Smoother lines and Status
Things continue to progress towards release
We are sailing towards release. Wanted to give a bit of an update and show a little of what I've been doing.
First, I have trouble not adding more features than I mentioned when they are “easy”. As a result, STL import is back in. This means you can color old lithophanes you have already printed and lost the source image for. It will always be better to start from the image, but if you can't, you can't.
This means you can also import things like Tabletop Dungeon Tiles and color them.
If this is a feature you think someone you know might be interested in, would you mind sharing this post with them?
Because in this case the colors are only used at the top, the base layer depth can be set however high you want. Use this power responsibly, but it makes adjusting the sliders much easier and still gives a good mm value…. The layer number will be wrong. I will be updating the STL import tools after release, but this will get you there if terrain or dungeon tiles are what your are here for, just not as comfortably as can be.
Basically everything is done except the filament library (because I keep putting it off) and licensing (just a simple one time key). Deployment will be from my Shopify storefront.
In the meantime, I added a few features for ease of use - When saving a project, by default, the STL will have whether it is front or back and the dimensions in whole mm added to the filename. This makes saving several variations easy.
I also added user controlled mesh smoothing to image generated meshes. In my tests, 9 out of 10 images benefited from some level of smoothing, but the last one is destroyed by it, so it will remain a slider that can be turned off.
I'm still squashing bugs, some around switching from STL to image mode, but added a Remesh button that fixes most issues if they aren't handled automatically.
Now let's talk release plans -
Early adopters for the first 60 days can get the tool for $10. It will go up to $20 over time. I'm also launching a subscription tier - this tier gets new features earlier (plus commercial rights to sell products using the tool) and more access to drive the selection of the new features to add first (I will put out a tentative roadmap before release). Expect a 1-2 month testing and feedback period before new features are released into the main tool executable. No feature currently in the works will be subscription only.
Bug fixes will ALWAYS be released immediately into the non-subscription tool (obviously unless they address issues in sub only features).
The plan is to price the subscription at $3/month or $30/year. If you do the $30 early (probably the first 30 days) I will waive the $10 for the base tool. Basically you will get a year long subscription to new features as soon as they come out for $20 which is less than $2/month. This is to reward early supporters who will likely have a month of just bug fixes before I get around to really new features.
I'm always open to feedback on this so let me know what your think about this plan and especially which option if any you think you will choose. Oh and I can't promise this, but I will do my best to allow people to change their minds and add the subscription for only $20 if they decide within the initial time period they want to upgrade.
If that's not what you expected and you aren't subscribed, maybe consider subscribing now that you see this isn't so easy to do.