KWC 1.3: what needs doing

[Amiryu Hosoi]

I don't understand, I always run on max settings and have no lag whatsoever. I run on an old Dell XPS Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6850, 8GB ram with a single Geforce GTX 580 and Windows 7 professional. Graphics are set to ultra and view is set to 1024. And I know my textures can be on the heavy side;-) Only think that bothers me is flickering of the water layers in the far distance.

Ami

[Dot Matrix]

KWC 1.3 is just about complete, BUT...

The skins in the Linda Kellie freebie avatar packs need to be updated to match the Kitely guidelines for "General" -- see Maturity Ratings Guidelines.

The sooner this is done, the sooner the events boards and the expanded merchants hall appear in the official Kitely Welcome Center.

So if you are keen for your store or your event to be advertised more widely, would you consider volunteering to amend the skins as shown in the maturity guidelines? They are all based on Eloh Eliot's templates.

Thanks!

(In the meantime, the skins have been deleted in the packs so that KWC Stage 1 meets the guidelines for General rating. Apart from this the packs work as before.)

[Dot Matrix]

Chav has come to the rescue by making three different skin tones, male and female G-rated skins based on Eloh Eliot's templates -- many thanks, Chav!

The outfits will need adjusting now to ensure coverage of underwear. I'll work on this today.

[Dot Matrix]

Update on the avatar area:

Oopsee and Deuce have provided tees, spaghetti tops and tank tops as undershirt layers -- thank you to both of them.

The sandals worn by the basic LK female avatars in KWC Stage 1 are scripted to allow adjustment of skin colour.

HELP NEEDED! I'm no good at this sort of thing. Could someone wear the new avatars and work out which skin colour setting to use for each new skin, please? Then the sandals could be set ready for wearing in the avatar boxes.

Thanks in advance!

[Freda Frostbite]

I could do that, Dot, assuming you mean just try on the avs and match their skin tones to the shoes. I mean the other way around. I will do this in my alt, Amanda Zurivost, so objects would need to be given to me there. I can bring Amanda in later today.

Freda/Steph

[Dot Matrix]

Thanks, Freda. However, in the meantime, Paislee and I revisited the avatar area and reworked it to match the new design of the information area. The avatar packs are now dispensed via a six-sided kiosk, so there are three female and three male packs, all with shoes rather than sandals (which avoids the skin colour match problem). Deuce's tee-shirts are available via a crate close by.

So, sorry! The problem has been sorted in a different way. I appreciate the offer of help, though. Thank you.

[Dot Matrix]

Time for another update.

There's been some discussion about events boards. Here's a few screenshots of the board being developed by Dundridge, and a bit more on how it will work.


Events board at KWC 1.3


Close up of lower two events
The text below each event poster (designed by the event organiser) gives the event time in two different timezones (Pacific and UK) plus a countdown timer to the event. Pacific time is given in 12-hour clock, and UK time uses the 24-hour clock.


Result of clicking an event poster
Clicking the image opens up the map to where the event will take place. You can use this to teleport to the event.

Clicking the text below the event poster will take you (eventually) to any web page associated with the event.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

In addition to the in-world display boards, I have also built a system to display events on the web. This one is from a familiar, specific Event being displayed...
(the background theme texture is repeated throughout Kitely Welcome Centre)




It also can be used to display the next few events on the web (which the in world system does.)










As Dot mentioned, you may notice that the text shows specific timezone information and a countdown to help remove timezone confusion. If you'd like a quick look there is one on display in the coffee/snacks area in KWC 1

For those who are curious, during the initial development of the KWC I had experimented with reading from the Google Calendar system (and prior to that with the older API) and found that the standard setup could not adequately store information for any kind of useful in-world system unless it was posted and read by matching custom software - thereby making a standard Google Calendar post from phone/web almost useless in-world. It did not support the fields needed, it did not support formatting, maps were unusable, it could not filter adult content or private worlds, could not detect groups, could not filter worlds, and simply using the description was very unfriendly to machine reading. The last thing I wanted to see was broken links or unattended events or places that could not be visited.

The custom posting API is currently under development and will be made available soon. It is intended to be as simple as dropping an object in the world to host the event, giving it a time and title, preferably a texture Of course, you'll be able to edit it online with more options

** This is just one part of a larger system **
More to follow

[Dot Matrix]

At the Kitely Community Meeting of 30 April 2014 we nearly ran out of seats, so we need to look at increasing the number of them in the KWC meeting area.

Some things to keep in mind:

• The size of the current meeting area is deliberately just less than 20 m in diameter (the ring with the columns) so that everyone can "hear" what is typed in local chat. This means that the seating must be contained within the ring with the columns (seats can be added between the columns -- I've tested this with Marstol's help in KWC Stage 1).
• Having the seats in a single circle helps to communicate an intended lack of hierarchy, but we might need to move to two concentric circles.
• The current meeting area was a quick fix using existing components and could be vastly improved upon (I'm not a builder).
• At the meeting an ampitheatre was suggested.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

[Deuce Halsey]

I don't see a problem with two concentric circles. The only person who would get a "saved seat" on the inner ring for a Community Meeting would be Ilan, Dot, or whomever was hosting the meeting that day. Everyone else who shows up after the inner ring is full must sit on the outer ring. That is the normal custom in most human cultures - with non-assigned seating the early birds get their choice of the best seats. Late comers get whatever seats are left, or might even be forced to stand at the back. (And let's face it, our avatars don't actually get tired if they do have to stand for a long time.)