The Kokua team released Kokua 6.2.4 on Friday, August 16th, 2019, and with it come some changes to general administration of the viewer’s website and management tools.
In terms of the latter, and for ease on management going forward, a number of changes are in the works including:
- The use of the Atlassian Confluence platform to provide:
- A blog capability.
- Release notes support.
- A master download pages.
- RSS feeds.
- The use of Atlassian Jira (as used by Linden Lab and the likes of Firestorm) for bug reporting and tracking.
The switch-over is still a work-in-progress, so the existing blog, wiki and bug tracker remain in operation for the time being, however, relevant links for the new environment are given as:
- Future Kokua blog posts: https://kokua.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KSL/blog/
- Kokua viewer release notes main page: https://kokua.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KSL/pages/1703976/Release+Notes
- Kokua downloads main page: https://kokua.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KSL/pages/1638583/Downloads
- This page provides links to the Kokua Source Forge pages.
- Kokua RSS feeda page: https://kokua.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/KSL/pages/1605906/RSS+Feeds
- Kokua Jira for issue reporting / tracking: https://kokua.atlassian.net/secure/Dashboard.jspa
- Existing issues have been imported to the Jira. However, note that while contributor’s names have been preserved as much as possible, the accounts have been set as inactive for easier management.
- Issue numbers have been similarly preserved during the import process, but are now prefixed KSL.
While the switch-over is in progress, users are advised against linking to individual sub-pages within these sections, as pages may change as things are bedded-in. For this purposes of this blog, the new Kokua home page is referenced in the sidebar links (right, under Maintained Viewers) and within my Current Viewers Release Page and the weekly release summaries drawn from that.
Kokua 6.2.4
Kokua 6.2.4 brings the viewer to parity with the most recently Linden Lab viewer release (version 6.2.4.529638, formerly the Love Me Render RC viewer dated August 5th, promoted August 12th). In addition, it updates the RLV version to Marine Kelley’s RLV 2.9.26.2.
As has been customary with Kokua releases of late, the viewer is provided in three versions for each of the supported operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, all 64-bit):
- Non-RLV – version 6.2.4.45881.
- “Standard” RLV (can be enabled and disabled via a viewer restart) – version 6.2.4.45882.
- “Full Time” RLV (RLV is active all the time) – also version 6.2.4.45882.
In addition to these updates, Kokua 6.2.4 includes a number of third-party additions, most notably from Firestorm, as noted in the sections below, and with due credit to the originators of the code updates.
Settings Backup
Sometimes when installing a new version of a viewer, there can be a recommendation to perform a “clean install” – removing all cached and settings files. This can make any viewer installation labour-intensive, as settings all need to be restored after the installation is complete.
The Settings Backup (Preferences > Backup) eases some of the pain by allowing users to back-up many of their global and account settings to a local hard drive. Once done, the back-up can then be restored to an updated version of Kokua (e.g. if a clean install has been required, or if some settings have become corrupted). Settings can also be backed-up at any time as changes are made.
Settings can be backed-up to any location on a local drive, and users can select those settings they wish to back-up by unchecking / checking the available options. It is also possible to save settings on a per account basis. So if you have several accounts, each with different settings, you can back-up each of them separately – just make sure each back-up has a unique location.
Restoring previously backed-up files requires the viewer is restarted after the restore – and again, this is conveniently taken care of by the viewer allowing you to quickly log-out following a successful restore – although you’ll have to manually re-start the viewer once you’ve been logged out.
Sounds Output Device Selection
Preferences >Sound and Media includes a new drop-down allowing users to select their preferred output device for playing in-world sounds.
When using it, note that:
- Selecting Default will always select the first output device in the list.
- If Default is selected but the previous device is no longer available, the viewer will automatically switch to the next available “default” device as defined by your operating system.
- Manually selecting an output device from the drop-down prevents the viewer from automatically switching to another device if the selected device is no longer available. Instead, the field will show “Unavailable Device” until such time as the nominated device is again available, or the drop-down is changed to Default or an alternate is manually selected.
Updated Debug Floater
Finally from Firestorm, Kokua 6.2.4 includes an improved debug settings floater with search and sanity checking of key values.
Other Updates of Note
Finally there are a number of fixes/improvements on the Kokua code base itself, notably fixing the pie menus so that the Hover Height command appears (i.e. was there but a mistake in the file concerned prevented it being shown). For details, please refer to the Kokua 6.2.4 release notes.
Feedback
Kokua 6.2.4 continues to maintain parity with the official viewer whilst also importing some additional updates from Firestorm that Kokua users will doubtless find useful and which are likely to help enhance Kokua as the go-to viewer for those who have used Firestorm , but who are looking for an alternative that offers reasonable familiarity.
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