Hey everyone!
Big progress update. I finally have something to show you.
Let me tell you, this was quite a journey to get working.
The funscript ordeal
To actually test anything, I obviously needed a funscript. And that's where the real fun began. I tried using existing ones, but I had no way to tell whether the toy was behaving incorrectly because of my code or because the funscript itself had bad timing. So I decided to make my own from scratch.
This is my first time working with funscripts and auto strokers in general, so I had zero experience. It turned out to be way harder to get right than I expected. As you can see in the demo below, even my final version still drifts a bit and isn't 100% accurate.
Since I was still struggling with the timing, I had a brilliant idea... Let me just watch some other videos with funscripts to see how it's supposed to look. For work and research purposes, of course. 😅
So I went to a site I'd rather not name (not the orange one, but we know Patreon is sensitive about these things), connected the toy, and watched a few videos. And honestly? The funscripts I found were not accurate at all. I'm not sure if I was just unlucky with my picks or if this is genuinely the "standard" quality out there. Either way, it was a surprise. Compared to those, my janky first attempt is actually doing pretty well.
That said, this was only a test funscript. Given the ridiculous amount of time I spent on barely 5 minutes of video, I'm absolutely not going to be making more funscripts myself. At least not until I find a much more efficient way to do it. So you'll need to bring your own funscripts. (And if you're a talented scripter... As mentioned in the previous post, I'm still looking for collaborators!)
How the connection works
My goal was to make this as simple as possible. Ideally, no extra software required.
I managed that, but only for Lovense devices. If you have a Lovense toy, you can connect directly from your browser. All you need is Bluetooth on your laptop/PC (or a BT dongle).
If you don't have a toy yet and want to be ready when this feature launches, you can grab one here:
Through that button link you get 55% off on listed items, and there's also a 60% off deal on Max 2 and Nora. Definitely worth checking out.
If you have a non-Lovense toy, don't worry. Intiface Central is fully supported as an alternative connection method. Having a Lovense toy is not a requirement, it's just the simplest path. A proper setup guide will come with the release.
The mobile problem 📱
There's one frustrating issue: mobiles.
The only official way to use the extension on mobile is Firefox. But Firefox doesn't support Bluetooth. Which means direct connection from the browser is a no-go on phones.
There are two (or possibly three) paths forward:
Use the Intiface app (extra setup, but works)
Use the Lovense Connect app, which is something I could also integrate as many of you might already have it installed
Or, if you are okay with just joi db, than this will work natively there as the extension is integrated directly in the site
Adding Lovense Connect support means extra development time and will delay the release a bit. So I'd like your input if is mobile support important enough for you to want me to build this, or are you okay with the Intiface setup workaround?
Cast your vote in the poll!
🐧 Infrastructure news - goodbye Windows!
And finally, some important behind-the-scenes news.
TJC currently runs on Windows Server 2019 machine. But as we all know... Windows sucks. Lately I've been getting more and more frustrated with how badly it runs. The server has been running for over 6 years without a reinstall and has become completely bloated with Windows-related nonsense.
So I've finally decided to migrate from Micro$lop to Linux.
Not only is Linux hosting significantly cheaper, but for less money you also get a much more powerful machine. It just makes sense in the long run, even though it means stepping pretty far out of my comfort zone. TJC is actually the simplest app with least dependencies there among many others I host so it should be relatively easy to migrate.
Please bear with me, there might be some outages during the transition process.
That's all for now. The toy integration is shaping up nicely and I'm genuinely excited about where this is heading. Thanks as always for your support! ❤️