Skybrush Live 2.9.0 is finally out. It has been a very long time since we last released an official version from Skybrush Live, but that does not mean that we were dormant. Actually, it was just the opposite. New features were coming at such a high speed that it was very hard to pull a solid line for a stable release.
We are grateful to all community members who provided test feedback, took the energy to describe issues in the issue trackers or even committed code suggestions in the form of pull requests. We have a truly great and inspiring community, and in return we did our best to release a version with exciting novelties. Lets see in detail!
Superior safety through better UX #
- The UAV list and the UAV details dialog now show the RSSI (signal strength) of each drone if the server provides this information. Thanks to @mwd-sean for implementing the first version of this feature!
- When loading a show, we now validate the minimum distance between takeoff positions and the minimum distance between landing positions. An error will be shown if any pair of takeoff positions or any pair of landing positions are too close to each other. The minimum distance between takeoff positions is also shown there so you can quickly check and validate it.
- There is a new UAV panel for monitoring and controlling one specific drone and its devices.
- The total number of UAVs are now shown in the UAV status summary header widget.
- The RTK dialog got enhanced with details on which messages are forwarded to the drones, which one got filtered by the server.
- There are new widges in the header for monitoring the minimum and maximum distance from home, and for the maximum horizontal and vertical speed of the UAVs.
Performance optimization #
- We performed major code optimization to minimize delays and lagging when using Skybrush Live with larger shows (>800 drones).
- There are special UX optimizations now for single-UAV operations and touchscreen usage (see Settings->Display).
- The maximum number of concurrent show upload tasks can now be changed from Settings->UAVs.
- Confirmations can now be disabled for single or multi-UAV operations (see Settings->UAVs).
- We removed “Assigned” and “Spare” categories from the UAVs list and implemented range selection instead, which is a more general tool together with column sorting. Click on one UAV item and then hold Shift while clicking on another one to select everything between them.
- The width of the show upload dialog is now tailored towards larger shows as it now includes 20 drones per row.
- The show start can now be authorized automatically when setting the start time.
- The “Flash lights” button became latchable. Hold Shift while activating it to try.
- We prepared Live for wireless Firmware updates. This will be a Pro feature in one of the next releases.
Multi-language support #
Multiple languages are now supported. Translations are community based. Please visit our Weblate-based translation page to take part in supporting your own language!
Great applause for the following users (in alphabetical order) who already helped translating Skybrush Live into 10 different languages partially or entirely:
- Cedric Schaller
- Davide Lentini
- Dimitri Marker
- Kazusumi Ogihara
- Krzysztof Makuch
- liangpeiyi
- Nan Liu
Other user experience upgrades #
- The UAV list can now be filtered to show drones in low-power mode only.
- Cleaned up the start time setting dialog for more precise control.
- Filtering for drones with “No telemetry” now also includes drones in the “GONE” state.
- Shapefiles now can be imported into features on the map.
- … and several small bugfixes, thanks to the feedback of many users worldwide!
For a detailed list of changes, see the official changelog or even browse the codebase.
Providing feedback #
Skybrush Live is fully open-source. If you like it, use it, and wish to continue using it, please consider a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a professional license. We will use your support to keep Skybrush Live open in the future as well with new and new features that best suit your needs.
Please also give us feedback on our Discord server or directly in the Skybrush Live issue tracker on GitHub.
Thank you!