Day: February 5, 2020

Kokua: 6.3.6 release overview

Posted on by Inara Pey

The Kokua team released Kokua 6.3.6 on Wednesday, February 5th, 2019. The release brings Kokua up to parity with the Lab’s 6.3.6 code base (to the 6.3.6.535003 release – formerly the Xanté Maintenance RC, promoted on January 27th), and includes a number of Kokua-derived updates and ported TPV options.

The following notes highlight the key aspects of Kokua 6.3.6.46311. For a full list of updates and changes, please refer to the release notes.

This release sees Kokua incorporates the ability to remember username/password combinations for multiple avatars via a drop down menu added to the user name field at login.

The ability to manage saved / remembered user names is via a new Preferences option, found a a button called Remembered Usernames in the Advanced tab.

  • When clicked, it opens a new floater that lists all user names recorded by the the viewer, together with the grid where they have been used.
  • To delete an unwanted user name, click on it to highlight it, then click the Forget button at the bottom of the panel. If you want to completed remove all local data for the user name, click the check box below the button first.
The new Preferences button and floater to manage remembered users names

This release of Kokua also includes the ability to set media to Ask before playing. As Kokua already has changes which separate parcel audio and other media playing, for the new Ask feature to work you must have parcel audio set to play automatically as well (via Preferences→Sound).

Text Display Options

Previously Kokua used standard size text on script menu text and slightly smaller for menu buttons.

It is now possible to switch between standard/small text for both using new drop-down menus on Preferences→Kokua→Script. The text size control also governs the text size for the informative text on text entry boxes (llTextBox).

The two text size drop-downs and text size options. Note only one or the other can be displayed at any one time. The above is illustrative only

Other Notable Updates

  • World Map land sale information: previously, when viewing land for sale on the World Map, the parcel price would only be displayed when clicking the For Sale tag. This has now been revised so that the sale information is displayed when clicking anywhere in a parcel highlighted for sale.
  • This version of Kokua includes a port of Firestorm’s enhanced World Map region captions
  • It is now possible to enter a land selling price by entering the desired L$/square metre price as well as the total price.
  • The date display for Group Notices has been changed to ISO-style YYYY-MM-DD format which avoids a very old bug where group notice sorting would go wrong for the first few days of each new year (because the previous sort started with the month number so 12 of the previous year got sorted ahead of 01 for the current year).

RLV Specific Updates

  • The mouse pointer in RLV will now only change to a the required icon (hand / sit, etc.), when the action is going to be permitted (adopted from RLVa).
  • If a user is under RLV IM restrictions, a hint is displayed in in the IM window to inform those trying to contact them that IM communications are going to be suppressed. This allows the message to be abandoned without being sent (if it is still sent, the usual RLV message about IMs being blocked will be displayed). A similar hint is sent to Group chats, etc, ahead of the person under IM restriction trying to message others.
Kokua now offers a hint to warn people when someone is under RLV IM restrictions

Other RLV updates in this release include:

  • The name anonymising code for @shownames has been further improved to cope better with situations where one name is a sub-string of another.
  • When ALM is enabled and RLV effects based on changing RenderResolutionDivisor are in effect this used to cause the CPU and/or GPU to sometimes start running at full speed and sometimes could even result in a crash. This is now prevented by automatically temporarily disabling ALM when the RenderResolutionDivisor value gets to a point where ALM would not give any rendering benefits because the whole scene is too “blurred”. This protective code is also in the non-RLV version however RenderResolutionDivisor is less likely to be changed there.
  • The recent introduction of keyword alerts meant that on some occasions where @recvim should have squashed an incoming IM it would get through unaffected

Additional Links

On a Lakeside in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lakeside, February 2020 – click any image for full side

Lakeside is an attractive and somewhat eclectic homestead region designed by Kimmy Sweetwater as a place for exploration and hanging out. The majority of the region is open to the public, but there are rentals to be found within the setting, so some care is needed to avoid invading privacy (or at least avoiding getting a security orb growling at you).

The region takes its name from the fact it is formed around a large lake, one with a central island complete with little holiday camp site. This limits the amount of landmass available to explore – but this doesn’t make the region any less interesting; rather the reverse: it requires a more creative use of the landmass that is still available., which in turn makes exploration more interesting.

Lakeside, February 2020

Visitors arriving at Lakeside are directed via landing point to the north side of the region and the waterside café located there. The landing point is guarded by an avatar mover that shifts arrivals away from it in order to prevent avatars landing one on top of / within one another. This helps prevent avatar stacking, but in this case the mover can randomly relocate the odd visitor into the bushes to one side of the trail running past the café.

Take this trail to the west, and it will lead you to a rocky dune that shelters a west-facing beach running the length of the region. Take the same trail eastwards, and it curls past a green hill overlooking the lake. Both the beach immediately beyond the dune and the top of the hill are home to five rentals units: two small cottages on the hilltop, three beach houses raised above the sand. I mention this because it is easy to miss the fact they are rentals, and get an annoyed security orb grumbling at you.

Lakeside, February 2020

Those wishing to reach the public beach to the west can do so in two ways: by scuttling past the beach houses or by following the edge of the lake to where a board walk points the way south, running past a small deck before climbing the spine of the hill to offer a way down to the beach, or onwards to where hills rise in the south-west corner of the region and extend along the southern side. The ridge line above the beach could perhaps do with a little more blending between mesh and terrain when seen from the lake, but while noticeable, it doesn’t massively interrupt the scenery.

The south-western uplands are home to a camp site amidst the trees and bushes crowning the hill, and to a hidden cavern reached via a single tunnel from the beach. This is home to a large club space, the far corner of which opens out to where a large deck area with seating has been built.

Lakeside, February 2020

The south side of the region is marked by further hills, which in part hide another rental property – easily avoided by following either of the two paths down the slopes and across the narrow tongue of water connecting the lake with the surrounding waters beyond the region. Rising once more on the east side of the region, the hills provide a open-air self-service weddings space (just pay the official L$500 to get started).

To the east, the land sits between southern and northern hills to form low-lying grasslands marked by what might at first appear to be another private cabin, but which is in fact open to the public, despite the surrounding fencing. This offers further places to sit, notably on the deck extending into the lake waters. Also to be found at the cabin is a Teagle horse rezzer for those who wish to ride around the region (those with their own wearable horses can obviously use them if they fancy a ride around the landscape). For those who want time on the water, there are rowing boats located at the various lakeside decks and offering places to sit, while the landing point café  has a bumper boat rezzer alongside its deck.

Lakeside, February 2020

Overall, a charming, easy-on the eye (and viewer) region, with a lot of opportunities for passing the time alone or with friends. Do note that as this is an adult region, nudity is permitted in places.

Note: the images here do not include the sim surround used with the region, due to issues with it rezzing / rendering.

SLurl Details

  • Lakeside (Roleplay Heaven, rated Adult)