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Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

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doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Hi folks,
I had to replace one of the trusty old POS computers used for lighting at work. It died of old age and a lot of abuse. Let's have a moment of praise, it worked flawlessly for close to 10 years, 24/7 on. Legendary machine.
So I found the exact type of system (Shuttle X50V2 AIO, old Atom based POS) and went to work installing my favourite workhorse Windows XP pro. Fitting for these old things and very lightweight and stable. And fast.
I kinda knew that Freestyler went to 64bit some time ago, I run the latest one on my daily driver.
The thing that struck me was that I cannot find any info on what the latest and greatest "last hooray" 32bit version is. I found an old setupX2 one, ver 3.6.49 on a usb stick that worked fine.
I was just wondering if there's an even better one, a later revision of that, anything. Or do I need to downgrade to some older version that is more stable & less buggy, something like a bugfix only/no new features inbetween version? An earlier 3.6.x perhaps? Any suggestions or experiences with particular versions that are known to be great would be very welcome,
Thanks,
DrZ.


Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
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djSupport
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Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by djSupport »

Either way you'll find old version on our sister sure thedmxwiki.com
Heather Trott, You Babe! I Drive a Dacia Duster and Explore! Check it out
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

That's not a complete list of versions, the last "official" 32bit one 3.6.49 isn't there. Also, no info on revisions, improvements, known bugs or even if they are 32 or 64 bit.
As was always the thing with FReestyler, it could run on old hardware which made it great for recycling old POS systems, netbooks and AIO's. I get it, we've moved on to 64bit win10,11,12,xxx but why is the legacy not maintained or well documented? My question above isn't that hard, is it? I've seen people ask the same thing over and over again, getting bullied because YOU CANNOT USE XP anyore yada yada. How about a good answer for all of those out there that DO use old junk, to save some money, to save a planet or just because the old croc is the only thing that will fit in the case.
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
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djSupport
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Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by djSupport »

So like there's one developer, one man, that creates this for free who has a busy family/work life and it's under alot of pressure, he makes FS in his spare time so relies on others to help FS users out, your the first person to ask this question that I recall so the best thing for YOU to do is to start downloading, trying out the installs and then telling us (the community) what you found instead of expecting it all to have been done for you! If you can't find the answer on this forum use your common sense, work out the answer for yourself then feed it back. So the previous versions listed were found by us the community and re- uploaded the DMX wiki is free to edit by anyone, put your findings on there...
Heather Trott, You Babe! I Drive a Dacia Duster and Explore! Check it out
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Would you please leave this thread alone? I've seen the same thing happen in another thread, searching on google came up with that thread: by surfvill » July 29th, 2018, 3:37 pm
There, a certain Remco bullied the guy away with the " Stop using xp, buy a new pc" schtick and not helping anyone with a good answer.
You are doing the same here. it's a simpel question directed at the Freestyler community, not at you or mr. Wellekens. Please don't produce more crap on internet and the googlemachine, it's not good for spreading information on a great program and effort. These old versions are there, I do not have much time to review every one of them nor do I have the knowledge to edit webpages and such. I just happened to have an old usb stick with that version on it, lucky me. However, anyone else with an old machine might not be so lucky. Is it really that hard to help someone out with a simple answer? If needed, I can send you guys a mail with the mentioned ver. 3.6.49 but that would be crazy, I'm pretty sure mr. Wellekens has a very special little corner on his server with all that he has produced. You might have that as well:
You reply that all can be found on the dmxwiki, in your bio it says you're on ver. 3.6.49 yourself. So where did you get that? Not from the wiki, it's not there. It's a very minimalistic list without info. Imagine the poor fool trying to get into lighting and having to weed through that to find a version that works for his old rig. 3.5.xx would work, 3.6.51 won't. A simple (32bit) addition would solve all of that. A small annotation with bugs and improvs would be even better.
Heck, even if I'm a busy man I would do it, load 'm up, check 'm. For the Freestyler community I would.
But still, a simple answer from some expert would be more convenient, right?
Here, it looks like this:
" Version 3.6.49 is the last 32bit version, however that contains bug(x) and you'd be better off with the older version 3.5.xx which is superstable and bugfree"
Now THAT would be a great response from a mod.
Have a good day sir.
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
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djSupport
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Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by djSupport »

First off,
You can use what ever you like I've not told you to use a modern OS but most of us can't advise on previous versions because we've moved along and unless someone has the time to either find and send us the old installs we can't archive them, life moves on unless someone mentioned years ago as an idea 'oh why don't you also list which one is best for xp' then we would of done it but no one has so the only way your going to do that is by INSTALLING the best version that works for you and letting us know.
Heather Trott, You Babe! I Drive a Dacia Duster and Explore! Check it out
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Did you miss the part on the wiki page where it says, and redirects to, THIS FORUM to discuss the versions etc?
Again, you are not helping, only generating more mist in the google machine. Leave it, maybe somebody else might chime in and have an answer that not only helps me but also a lot of other people you are not aware of. Freestyler is used all over the world because it's free, lightweight and works with cheap hardware. Folks in Africa, India etc... often only have old systems for this kinda stuff.
-
On a side note, and this is my personal view not to be taken too hard:
Get help. Hire some coders. Take Freestyler to the next level. I feel for mr. Wellekens, it's a big responsibility to have created this beast and I think it's getting out of hand. It's too much for one guy to manage. I use FS for work and would gladly pay a premium for support like the question at hand.
I'd pay him per hour to implement certain functionality or fixes for specific bugs I encountered. I'd just as happily pay premium for a support team to do that. Entire industries have been erected on the platform that is FS, Enttec and other cheaper usb-dmx dongles on Amazon are sold with FS users as target audience, they give instructions on how to get those working in FS. It's THAT important to a lot of folks. I've seen quite a lot of shoddy implementations of it in shops and cafés as well, based on, again, discarded hardware from the office or the old cash register touchpanel. FS was built for that I believe.
Now, in this case, I'd do it myself if I only had the sourcecode for the now defunct 32bit versions, it's written in Visual Basic if I recall correctly which is great for anyone with some programming skills. Make those opensource if you haven't got time for it. It is the legacy of Freestyler, a great program for enabling anyone with an old computer to get into lighting bizz, which is kinda important since there is a massive shortage of lighting guys 'n gals, at least over here in NL.
Imagine a fork of the last 32bit version, opensource, that could be improved upon to get the most out of it for all those that need it. Fix the bugs, take it to it's final stage of completed, done, works for all, this is the one. Put that up here, in a special section for old hardware users.
There's way too much old hardware scrapped because the software isn't supported, maintained or documented. A growing problem in our world which I hate to see. I got the mentioned Shuttle All In One's off marketplace for 40 eu a piece, they are more than capable of running FS and are widely available. Most of them get killed because someone installed Win10 on it and then found out it's slow as a snail afterwards.
Get on that train, FS has it in it's DNA. All I'm saying.
My utmost respect for mr. Wellekens of course, he's a living legend in my book. It's his child, His decision to do with it whatever he fancies. Whatever may happen, I'm grateful for his work as it enables me to do great shows.
/endrant
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Oh, and I'd be happy to upload my copy of SetupX2 ver. 3.6.49 to that wikipage. How would that work, there's no upload or add button I can see?
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

It's there. It's confirmed working and virusfree. It's been running on our system since it came out, pretty stable but has some quirks and weird behaviour. If I remember correctly this was the time when "stop all sequences" became an option in the editor. Maybe the version just before that is slightly less buggy?
It's that kind of info I'm looking for here, who has experience with any previous version that works flawlessly, be it without some more modern functions? I don't have a complete library of all versions, only those that I used to update our systems, going back to version 2.x. I know those, I've worked with them for quite some time. All good but all in some way or another have their own little attitude.
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
Partyman
FS is my life
Posts: 772
Joined: July 11th, 2007, 8:39 pm
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Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by Partyman »

here ya go my man!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2mylt3u0jic6g ... 1.exe?dl=0
feel free to download and add anywhere you like
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Hi Partyman,
Can't test that right now, but isn't 3.6.51 already 64bit? I tried the one from the wikidmx site and it failed to install on XP, said it was not a valid program. I will try this one as soon as I have time and report back here.
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Tried it. Nope. Not a win32 file.
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
Partyman
FS is my life
Posts: 772
Joined: July 11th, 2007, 8:39 pm
FreeStyler Version: 4.01
I Use FreeStyler for: Nightclub Lighting
Twitter: twitter.com/
Contact:

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by Partyman »

sorry, i always held that one as it is the most stable Freestyler to date.
doctorzorro
Starting to get to grips with FreeStyler
Posts: 22
Joined: February 7th, 2018, 10:05 pm
I Use FreeStyler for: Eurovision

Re: Latest, most stable and best 32bit version?

Post by doctorzorro »

Too bad. I'm running the latest one on my "modern" machine, 4.1.1 and must say it's pretty nice. For now, the one I have 3.6.49 is also pretty good, it does some weird things when moving submasterlists or editing them but otherwise it's fine. Life finds a Way, show must go on.
Red lights are bad for ya, mmkay?
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