Q Light Controller+

2017 is over, and the idea of this Christmas holidays for me was to relax and shut my brain down.
Instead, as it always happens, I can't find my brain off switch, so I'm spending a lot of time on advancing with QLC+ 5. I really hope to be able to publish some new update videos in the next days, cause there's a TON of cool stuff I want to show you.

Today though, I decided to relax a bit and have some fun by producing a pretty nerdy video showing the history of the QLC/QLC+ project.

Back in 2002, Heikki Junnila started the QLC project and since then A LOT has happened.
Thanks to him, we now have an open source lighting software running on 3 operating systems.

After a bit of playing around with SVN and GIT, I've been able to reconstruct the whole history of the project, starting from revision 1 committed in January 2002.
I extracted the tags (basically release points) and with an awesome tool I discovered recently, named Gource, I've created a video showing every single change made on the code up to yesterday. Every dot of the graph represents a file.
The video is kind of divided in 3 phases:
- 2002-2008 QLC 2.x
- 2008-2012 QLC 3.x
- 2012-2017 QLC+ 4.x

The fun fact I wasn't aware of, is that in 2008 QLC has been almost completely rewritten ! Most likely Heikki did a giant port from Qt 3 to Qt 4, and with the occasion he decided to rearrange the software architecture as well.
Interesting to notice also that when I picked QLC up in November 2012, people were starting to use the software. In the end I found QLC with Google myself !
It was already gathering users approval and as a consequence, we went from 166 fixtures to 936 fixture in 5 years.
But fixtures is not the only relevant point of the whole thing. Here's some more interesting numbers of the last 5 years:
- raw C++lines of code (including comments): from around 87000 lines to 174000 lines
- RGB Matrix scripts: from 8 to 31
- Input profiles: 8 to 25
- around 1000 gobos pictures, 4 MIDI templates and 14 channel modifier presets were introduced
- 7 new plugins were introduced (ArtNet, E1.31, Loopback, OSC, GPIO, SPI, UART)
- a limited, but still useful, web interface was introduced
- the QLC+ 5 code is contributing with 16000 lines of C++ code and 25000 lines of QML code (all written by myself)

So, this project is a monster

I really do hope 2018 will be the year of QLC+ 5. I'm almost at a point where I can think of releasing a very alpha version, even though the amount of missing things compared to QLC+ 4 is still enormous (especially in the Virtual Console area)

Let's see what happens.
In the meantime, I wish everyone reaching this line a happy new 2018 !

Thanks for everything Massimo. I wish everyone a very good 2018.
Us desitjo un molt bon any 2018 a tots.

Should have a "Like" button on this forum, I am too lazy to even type this line~~ Thanks for the 174000 + 25000 lines of code, but don't slack off on the version 5 release!
Thanks, man, really appreciate your work.

I’m a recently new user of the QLC+ software and am loving it. Introduced by our community theatre director it’s been perfect for our shows. Thank you and keep up the great work. I am looking forward to what version 5 brings.

Happy New Year to you as well, Massimo and thank-you for your work on this project. It is much appreciated.

Fun watching how software is behaving almost organic. Maybe a sweat and head-aches counter should be added too... just to point out the amount of work Massimo et all have put into this project. Cheers to that.
Happy 2018

My headache (migraine) counter would surely overflow any variable type lol

mcallegari wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:17 am My headache (migraine) counter would surely overflow any variable type lol

That one made my day
Jokes aside, thank you for all your effort - it is highly appreciated.

This is unbelievable. Fun to watch. And this news with the version 5...
Wish you all the best and there are no words to say thank you for this project development. This is the best software to control lights. It has infinity of use cases, beautiful UI and that unique "spirit" that you won't find in alternatives such as crappy Freestyler!

Thank you for all of your hard work @Massimo!

Thank you! Love this software.

Thank you for the software! It's amazing!

Thank you for the work you have done and what you will do. I tried a lot of DMX software, but none easy and complete like QLC. I look forward to QLC 5.
AUGURI!

Thank you so much for your dedication and hard work!

Just to introduce a bit of myself -- hopefully to make this thanks more personal.
I got my start with lighting a bit a go, first board I toured in '96 was a Celco 30, second board I toured with was a Celco 60! That was all par cans and acl's. Had this old Show Lites dimmer that I moved around with the band. Since the band was a little unconventional, maybe in a church, maybe in a theatre. We used Genie lifts as ground support and Thomas 1 ft mini beam. I couldn't believe I would climb up and down those lifts and across the 1 ft truss, since most of our stage hands were volunteers( this was a christian band ), I couldn't ask them for a focus. I had these extension clamps to double rig the six bars on the upstage mini beam.

Most memorable night was playing with King Diamond. Caedmon's Call, a Christian act I worked for played first. I was LD, Rigger, Electrician and sometimes truck driver for the christian folk band.. The venue ( House of Blues - Hollywood ) closed after our show, kicked everyone out, re-opened, then King Diamond came out, splitting that huge bar to open the stage a second time that night!.

Now many many years later, I am using your software, and am sooo happy that it feels very good and intuitive. I am not working professional anymore, I have given up my touring days for a steady programming job( c++ ), but use your software with a band I play in now. QLC+ is on par with an Avolites board or a Grand Ma rig, I was happy to donate some money for your Rasperry Pi image, it's the perfect controller for my stage show.

Thanks sooo much for your hard work, I love to use it with my hard work.

Cheers, can't wait to see what 5 will bring!

--John