TL;DR
We finally released Omni Ops (formerly Robo Ops)! It’s a feature-rich tournament companion. The link can be found below. We hope you like it and would love your feedback and ideas.
Hello everyone,
I’ve posted here a few times about an app we’ve been working on. After over half a year in development, we are finally ready to release this app to the community.
Before we get into it, we need to go over a couple of things. First, we realize that summer is when this community is most inactive. That’s why this post is Pt. 1. We plan to release Pt. 2 to this topic sometime in September with a major update to the app. Secondly, the app has been going by “Robo Ops” for the last few months. However, after careful consideration, we’ve decided to change the name to “Omni Ops.”
Okay, now without further ado, we present to you (sorry, mods redacted)
Omni Ops has a lot to offer, so we’ll give a quick overview and go over all the features before we talk more about the journey of developing this app and our plans for the future.
Like we just said, there’s a lot this app is capable of, but all of its features work toward the same goal. The goal is to provide this community with an app they truly want and are a part of creating. The app’s purpose is to be a team’s ultimate companion at competitions. It does this by offering many tools and the ability for teams to share data and notes.
Features
Events Hub
This feature uses the VEX Events API to show you all tournaments, their teams, rankings, and matches. While Events Hub does work well, we still have a good bit we want to change and add. Development of Events Hub was slowed down quite a bit with the VEX/RECF split, so we apologize if it still feels like it’s lacking a little.
Game Rules
This feature contains an easily searchable Game Manual. It is regularly updated to show the current version of the game manual.
Notes
This was the original feature that started it all. We have multiple note templates that allow the user to log matches, scout teams, upload photos, and more. Notes are easily shared with teammates.
Calculator
This feature is pretty straightforward and nothing too original, but we couldn’t leave it out in an all-in-one VEX app. The special thing about our calculator is you can save the calculations and later add notes/photos to them.
Stats
This feature shows you all you need to know about a team. Another capability it has is to compare two teams’ stats head-to-head.
Scouting
The scouting tool pulls up all of the teams at an event for extensive scouting. You can view their important stats and any notes you’ve written on them. You can also rate teams, which will help our algorithm create a leaderboard of the teams for you.
Field Viewer
This feature allows you to easily view the field and draw directly on it. This is really useful for things like talking about strategy with an alliance partner when you have limited time.
Pit Pager
The Pit Pager feature was an absolute nightmare to code, but it was completely worth it. It allows you to message your team easily. Pit Pager also allows you to see your match schedule and will notify you a certain amount of time before the match’s estimated start time.
Checklist
It can be hard to keep track of everything that needs to be done at tournaments, which is why we made this feature. It allows you to create custom checklists or choose from a couple of pre-made ones.
Customization/UI
Omni Ops has always been designed to meet the needs of every user, and we’ve always strived to make everyone feel like the app was tailored for them. So, when it comes to the UI, it only makes sense it would accomplish the same thing. To do this, we designed a system that allows the user to choose between dark or light mode. Yep, I know—for the first time ever, you can choose between dark and light mode! Apple, Microsoft, and Google have all contacted me to get the rights to use my idea. (Obviously, I’m joking.)
Yes, Omni Ops allows you to choose between dark and light, but there is so much more customization. The user can choose between 6 different style options to transform the look of the app. While this already allows the app to be completely transformed to fit your preferences, we have also made 4 different color themes: Red, Blue, Gold, and Black & White. With dark/light mode, different styles, and different colors, Omni Ops has 48 different possible style configurations.
If that wasn’t enough customization for you, we added one last thing: a custom color selector so the user can choose literally any accent and background colors they want. Theoretically, that gives Omni Ops over 3 quadrillion different style configurations!
This is where we’re at right now, but we don’t plan to stop. There’s so much more to add, and we want to implement your ideas into Omni Ops. We want to collaborate with this community to make something actually useful. There’s no way for us to do this alone; we need your help. Please let us know about any bugs you find and anything you want to see added. We’ll always strive to make this a tool built for the community.
A few things that are going to be added soon are: a Desktop UI and availability on the Play Store.
Our Challenge For You
If you read the Customization/UI section, you know there are a lot of ways to change the look of the app. Besides wanting your feedback on what needs to be changed or added, there’s something else we want to know: What’s your favorite style configuration?
Here’s the challenge: create the best configuration you can, screenshot it, and post it here along with the details of the configuration. The best one will be added as a preset to the app! Here’s one of my personal favorites that I’ve made:
Retro, Accent Color: #456da1 Background Color: #000008
Review/Wrap Up
Developing Omni Ops has been quite a journey. It started as something incomparable to what it is today. I’ve had so much fun making it, and I’ve gotten to meet some awesome people. This app has been shaped into something much greater than anything I could’ve thought of by myself. I really hope you find Omni Ops helpful; we’ve worked a lot on it and are just getting started.
Okay, that’s almost everything I have to say. I just have a couple of things left (sorry for this novel of a post!). Right now, Omni Ops has 3 developers. We all do it in our free time, and it takes a lot of work to make something like this. We’re looking for help in all areas. @Jedi_53787N is going to talk more about how you can join our team, so if you’re interested, stay tuned for that reply!
Last thing: I mentioned earlier a Pt. 2 to this post. The idea is that based on this initial release, we will gather ideas from the community to improve the app. Those will all be released sometime in September as a major update alongside Pt. 2, allowing more people to discover Omni Ops.
Thank Yous
Omni Ops would not exist without these people. Throughout its development, there has been so much help from the community; we are where we are today because of them.
Thank you @2775U-Hw. If it wasn’t for you, this would still just be a tiny tool for our team only. Besides being the one who convinced me to share this app with the community, you were also the original Alpha tester who really helped shape the app.
Thank you @Jedi_53787N. I was in the deep end making this app by myself. If you hadn’t asked to help, there’s a good chance I would’ve burnt out and quit. Your contributions to Omni Ops are outstanding.
Thank you @vulcan. Bringing you on as a dev was probably one of the best choices I’ve made. Most people didn’t get to see the app in Beta, but if you did and compared it to what we have now, you’ll see a massive difference in UI/UX. The app feels so much better thanks to you—and you didn’t even get a chance to do that much to it yet!
Thank you @Iris_2775u. Every time I’d show you the progress on the app, you’d say things like “Bro, you’ve cooked” and “This is so cool.” Those comments really helped fuel me to continue development.
Thank you @LeoT-10743B. Your ideas for Omni Ops have been outstanding. Without you, Omni Ops would be lacking features that I now consider fundamental to the app.
Thank you to our beta testers: @haonp, @1064B, @Rip3tide, @Stratigen, @2775Josh, @LeoT-10743B, and @Wagalad. You’ve all helped make Omni Ops what it is today.
Thank you to everyone in the community who supported Omni Ops. Your support really means the world to us.
Sincerely,
The Omni Dev Team
