What are “Hyper Casual”
“Hyper Casual” users are users that have a 3d printer but don’t have any knowledge in 3d printing.
This kind of users were created by Bambu Lab pushing to get 3d printers to everybody and although it might seem good at first it has serious flaws.
Basically they can only go through makerworld and click to print a model they like.
They don’t have the knowledge on how to edit any parameters in a slicer, they don’t know how to transform the 3mf file to their own printer needs and in fact they don’t even know what a 3mf file is.
A big source of these users is the bambu handy app that is only there to send prints to your printer and remote access it (it isn’t a slicer).
My explanatory ranking would be:
- hyper casual: can only print what already exists
- casual: hyper-casual that can do slicer edits
- normal: casual that can do simple CAD edits
- advanced: normal that can do advanced edits and/or use more advanced tools
The issue
In an ideal world any 3d model on makerworld should be able to be printed by a hyper casual user, however this isn’t the case.
Print profiles are notably 3d printer specific, profiles for an P1S can’t ,for example, be printed on a A1mini.
And while in Bambu Studio there is the possibility to convert the printer setting, this can’t be done by a smartphone user for example.
As a small creator, some have already asked me to convert the file for them and to add the profile to my created model but this is, officially, not always possible.
Indeed, at the moment, to publish a print profile, it requires to have used it previously to successfully print the model. While this is only a checkbox to tick, it exposes us to repercussions should we lie.
The problem is that we don’t necessarily have all the printers required, but we might still have enough knowledge to propose a possible solution and it is a waste to not allow us to try.
(we don’t have any solution as we can’t simply send the 3mf file either in the case of smartphones)
Possible solutions
I can see three main solutions:
- Create a smartphone slicer and make hyper casuals disapear
(similar idea here: Bambu Studio for Android Mobile - #2 by StormDragon6139) - Allow creators to upload print profiles whithout a previous make*.
(similar idea here: Ability to upload profile and mark it as not printed) - Make a smart print profile conversion tool build-in makerworld
I would suggest at least option 2 as it is easier to implement and could be useful in other cases as well. However, (*) to avoid misuse I would only allow users to make such a profile if they have at least made one profile that was posted with a make on this model previously.
This could be implemented as such:
The checkmark for “safe” profiles (posted while made previously) and the question mark (could also be a yellow caution sign, yellow exclamation mark,…) for “unsafe” models (user takes the risk, could become safe after a rating for example)
Note that this would be user (and model) specific, you need to have a safe profile on the model before being able to put unsafe ones onto the same model.
This can also be interesting when we want to provide print profiles for different kind of setups like: No MMU (using filament swaps), MMU in layers (automated filament swaps) or regular MMU for example.
All of them will have similar results and we might not want to print them all: making one safe and two unsafe could be handy.
Side note
While I have nothing personal against lower rankings I consider that everyone should at least be at “normal” tier and be able to make basic edits to their models.
Otherwise (wanting to open the hobby to the extreme) this results in constanly lowering the level and ultimately destroying the hobby.
A great example is video games where now most of the major AAA games are bland, easy and are basically the same. Removing the gameplay and logic of games (in the name of “progress”) was nonsence and without drastic measures it won’t get better.
