At OctoEverywhere, we constantly experiment with ways to make our free and unlimited OctoPrint, Klipper, and Bambu Lab remote access even faster. Today, we are excited to share that we have made our 3D printing remote access up to 60% faster AND compress 40-300% more efficiently with Zstandard compression!
Compression?
The modern web uses compression on almost every webpage to make the overall size of the data transmitted smaller. There’s a trade-off between compression and CPU time, but when the compression ratio is high enough, the trade-off is well worth it. Especially on slower networks or unreliable networks like cellular networks, reducing the amount of data transfer required can result in drastically faster loading times.
OctoEverywhere uses compression from our servers to your browser and between the plugin and our service. We must use standards-compliant compression algorithms like brotli, gzip, and others for web browsers. But for our plugin-to-server protocol, we can go wild.
Previously, our plugin-to-sever protocol used gzip, an old but sturdy compression algorithm. However, with our recent upgrade to Zstandard, we can now compress up to 60% faster AND compress the data 40-300% more efficiently. That means your OctoPrint, Fluidd, Mainsail, and Bambu Lab remote access will load faster than ever!
But How?
Zstandard is the new kid on the block when it comes to compression. The algorithm developed by a team at Facebook uses a hybrid modern approach to compression, which is where many of the gains come from. Beyond the new technique, the algorithm is also remarkably optimized to run efficiently and use multiple compute cores when possible. We won’t list the details here, but the Zstandard has a fascinating write-up with all of the details.
Another unique feature of Zstandard is that it optimizes small data sets, where there is insufficient data to exploit redundancy for good compression. Zstandard allows systems to define pre-computed data dictionaries, with which the small data is compressed, allowing much better compression ratios. This gives OctoEverywhere one of its biggest performance gains since the critical web socket connection established by OctoPrint or Moonraker is vital for loading the website quickly.
What This Means For You
That’s cool and all, but what does it mean for you? As of OctoEverywhere plugin version 3.4.0, Zstandard compression can now be used for the plugin-to-server protocol. After updating your OctoPrint plugin, Klipper plugin, or Bambu Connect plugin to 3.4.0, Zstanard will go to work for you!
You will find that your OctoPrint, Mainsail, Fluidd, and Spoolman web portals load faster than ever. Your Live Links will load faster, Quick View is… well… quicker?, and more.
OctoEverywhere is 100% community funded. Your support allows us to continue pushing the envelope and building the best 3D printing cloud community platform possible. We sincerely appreciate everyone who’s part of our community, gives us support, and sends feedback!
Happy Printing!
