The ancient-modern beauty of Marina di Luna in Second Life

Marina di Luna, April 2026 – click any image for full size

Occupying a Homestead region, Marina di Luna is the work of Miri (SilentChloe). It is a beautiful minimalist region design which mixes a sense of history with a twist of the modern. Highly photogenic, the setting offers much to see without overloading itself or the visitor’s senses, and offers opportunities for the romantics at heart.

Marina di Luna is a breath-taking island where modern architecture meets ancient charm. Surrounded by olive trees and a carpet of flowers, the air is fragrant with herbs and the salty sea. It’s a perfect place to relax and enjoy a romantic day out.

– Marina di Luna’s Destination Guide description

Marina di Luna, April 2026

The region is split into a main island to the east and with a north-south major orientation, and two smaller isles, each home to its own structure, of which more anon.

When seen on the map, the main island carries something of a left-pointing sock look to it, the lower part of the sock – from “toe” to “heel”, forms an open meadow, curving gently upwards from the rocky coastline on three sides, and running north towards the island’s main structures.

Marina di Luna, April 2026

This gently humpbacked meadow is home to the region’s Landing Point, the lush flowering grass coating it home to toppled columns and guarded by patient red-crowns cranes.

The “toe” of this sock-like island points towards the smaller of the two other isles, while the rocks on the coast at this point offer a place to sit and a flat “table” on which an artist has set up their easel to paint the larger of the two islands  as it sits further to the north.

Marina di Luna, April 2026

The smaller isle is home to a partially-ruined stone gazebo topped by a copper (or possible iron) domed roof which shares the damage as the stone of the gazebo. With its steps dipping their toes into the water, the gazebo has been turned into a little romantic niche, complete with cosy sofa, champagne and flowers.

The larger of these own isles is home to a large circular bath house. This shares some commonality with the gazebo, hinting at their joint age and Greco-Roman heritage.

Marina di Luna, April 2026

Like the gazebo, the bath house has a copper / iron roof, this one intact but suffering signs of rusting on its iron panels. Inside, the bath house is pristine and its waters clear, the walls split between four points of access and four small alcoves. Outside, the bath house is surrounded by a small garden space on the flat-topped island, where shaded loungers await, whiles a small beach of warm sand offers its own attraction.

Both of the islands can be reached via little motorboats which can be rezzed from lifebuoys to be found on the main island, with the boat house island having its own boat rezzer to aid in a return to the main island (I didn’t see a rezzer on the gazebo island).

Marina di Luna, April 2026

Back on the main island, the northern end is given over to a modern building built in a reflection of ancient Greek designs, and with what appears to be a garden terrace of much greater age, mirroring that of the bath house and gazebo.

Places to sit can be found around this terrace, dominated as it is by a large fountain and smaller fish pond. Broad steps connect terrace and the open waters below, where one of the boat rezzers can be found, whilst to one side, a raised deck offers a place for private dining.

Marina di Luna, April 2026

The front of the main building – a museum and gallery – is guarded by an infinity pool overlooking the open waters below. The museum houses a number of exhibits and a collection of photographs by – I admittedly assume – Miri herself. The museum is also home to a little café and a wine cellar below, complete with its own secret. The For both the exhibits and the “hidden” spaces, the museum is well worth taking the time to explore and appreciate.

All of the above – I hope – draws an outline of Marina di Luna; however, to fully appreciate the naturalness of its beauty, the attractive nature present in its simplicity of design, and to fill in all of the colours it presents, it is a place deserving of a visit; just be sure to take your camera with you. Should you need props when taking photos, rezzing in the region is open – just do please be sure to pick your things up afterwards.

In all, a recommended destination.

Marina di Luna, April 2026

SLurl Details

2026 week #16: SL Open Source (TPVD) meeting summary

Hippotropolis Theatre: home of the OSD/TPVD meeting
The following notes were taken from:

  • My chat log of the Open-Source Developer (OSD) meeting held on Friday, April 17th, 2026, together with my chat log of that meeting.
  • Pantera’s video of the meeting (embedded at the end of this article) – my thanks to her for providing it.
  • Please note that this is not a full No video this week, as Pantera was absent the meeting.
Table of Contents

Meeting Purpose

  • The OSD meeting is a combining of the former Third Party Viewer Developer meeting and the Open Source Development meeting. It is open discussion of Second Life development, including but not limited to open source contributions, third-party viewer development and policy, and current open source programs.
    • This meeting is generally held twice a month on a Friday, at 13:00 SLT at the Hippotropolis Theatre and is generally text chat only.
  • Dates and times of meetings are recorded in the SL Public Calendar.

Official Viewer Status

  • Default viewer  – One-Click Installer = 26.1.1.23806384790 – April 10 – NEW.
  • Second Life Release Candidate (RC) viewer: Flat UI – 26.2.0.24254827122, April 15 -“flat” UI and font update – NEW.
  • Second Life Project Viewers:

26.2.0 – “Flat UI”

  • Now at RC status, per the Above list.
  • More updates to be made to this prior to promotion.
    • LL is working through some font kerning problems that were seemingly made much more obvious with the new font choice.
    • It was also noticed that the official viewer has been rendering fonts ever so slightly different from FS – which kicked off the above investigation.

26.3.0 – Graphics Care Package

  • The is the viewer previously known as the SL Visual Polish (SLVP) viewer.
  • The performance tweak has been ported over, and the team is now looking at additional performance work.
    • Async inventory is being parted out into easier to review chunks.
    • LL is also looking at some CPU and GPU wins overall – Geenz Linden is working on getting texture batching working for the PBR and Blinn-Phong paths. There is potentially more work on these lines, and these will likely be incorporated prior to passing the viewer to QA.

Lua Viewer

  • The Lua Alpha update that it had been hoped would surface around the start of April is now being aimed for some time in week #17.
  • The current lean at the Lab is to move this viewer through to RC status and then release before the 26.3.0 GCP viewer, but no firm decision has been made.
  • Again, this viewer will also be the first new Linux release from LL.
  • As a reminder: LL have officially dropped “SLua” (“SL Lua”) and just going with “Lua”.

WebRTC Deployment

  • The WebRTC deployment is still underway. No firm end-date as yet, although it should now be across all simulator RC channels.
  • Anyone experiencing Voice issues with WebRTC is asked to file a bug report.

General Discussion

  • The vcpkg updates for the viewer build process will not be surfacing until “after Lua at the very least”.
    • Geenz estimates it will likely not emerge until late summer, due to dependencies on work being completed vis. KDU and the removal of the Havok sub-libraries from the viewer.
    • In terms of the latter: VHACD will replace the convex decomposition for mesh upload, and server-generated path-finding mesh will replace the Havok path-finding mesh loaded by the viewer for visualisation.
    • A major reason for removing the Havok sub-licences is the impact they have on TPVs, who have to go through the process of obtaining and signing sub-licence agreements via LL, which complicates the open-source environment.
    • In this respect, if LL had a truly open-source replacement for KDU on the graphics side, they would look to make similar moves there as well.
  • Physics shapes and why and what the viewer can do with them became a topic for conversation at around the half-way point in the meeting, and this continued for around 10 minutes.
  • During the above there was a general discussion on the mesh uploader and clarifying LOD numbers for those coming into mesh creation.
  • A question was asked on interpreting section 8 part of the Unauthorized Uses of Linden Lab’s Trademarks policy – a question perhaps best dealt with via a support Support Ticket.
  • A request was made for TPVs to receive stats reports once more (use, crash rates, etc). Geenz noted in reply:
Some of that is a bit of a black box to us as far as your specific crash rates, as for viewer usage we’re bottlenecked by a single person is responsible for that so it doesn’t always get done. I’ve been hoping to get a more automatic solution for this for a while, but our metrics folks have been booked up with other things for a good bit now.
  • The question was asked about the possibility of viewer-side Lua for building custom UIs to replace some of the HUD systems people use, and whether work on this is still moving forward. Geenz repliedwith:
That’s been on the shelf for a while. Dunno if or when we’re gonna bring that one back – I think what we’d need to really look at bringing that back with a significant amount of interest is gonna be how people would want to use [it]. There’s a lot of criteria that goes into making product level decisions like that, and with the viewer side Lua stuff it was increasingly being looked at something for internal use than something like a content feature.
  • The question was asked if the puppetry project was once and for all “dead”, to which Genenz again replied:
Lots of things were learned from that project, but I wouldn’t say it’s dead necessarily. Just not a priority. There’s a lot of things that would need to happen for puppetry, and I think it’s really increasingly more of a “when we need <x> we’ll work on that part of it” sort of thing. Because like joint streaming is just generally kind of useful, but we don’t have an immediate need for it. But who knows – maybe some day. Hell, if there’s any interest in having a proper poser viewer-side that ticks all of the privacy and consent boxes that might be a potential path. But we’re nowhere near there yet.

Next Meeting

LL announce Mainland changes & Town Hall to discuss

Linden Lab has announced changes to the standalone Gaeta 1 continent, and the Zindra adult continent. Via the SL Wiki

On Wednesday April 15th, 2026, Linden Lab announced some significant Mainland changes involving the Gaeta 1 continent and the Adult continent of Zindra.

The Changes

Gaeta 1

  • A transitioning of all current residents from Gaeta 1 to other Mainland continents. This is to start in April 2026, with an aim to complete by the end of 2026.
  • This transitioning will be handled carefully, with personalised outreach to residents on Gaeta 1 by members of the Lab’s staff.
  • Land holders on Gaeta 1 will be offered size-for-size parcel replacements, and LL will work with them to find a comparable parcel that suits their needs and preferences.
  • No region on Gaeta will be retired without due consultation with the land holders currently based on it. Time will be given for all land holders to plan, examine options and discuss matters with the Lab as the process commences and progresses over time.
  • The transition is expected to unfold “over many months”.
  • Once complete, Gaeta 1 will go offline as a continent.

Zindra

  • Zindra will see an expansion of approximately 90 regions.
  • This expansion will be rolled-out alongside the transitioning of Gaeta 1 – but does not mean Gaeta 1 land holders “must” accept parcels within Zindra.
    • However, if moving to Zindra is seen as preferable by any Gaeta 1 land holder, they will be given priority access to the new Zindra regions.
  • These new Zindra regions will include scenic waterfront, extended road networks, coastal water passages, and additional development that helps complete and enhance the Zindra continent.

Why is this being done?

To quote from the official blog post:

Adult mainland continues to operate at very high occupancy and shows consistent demand. At the same time, some General and Moderate mainland areas, including Gaeta 1, have seen lower overall use over time. Instead of expanding the total size of mainland, we are adjusting existing capacity to better reflect where Residents are most active today.
This change applies only to the unconnected continent named Gaeta 1. IT IS NOT PART OF A BROADER MAINLAND CLOSURE, and there are no changes to content policy connected to this announcement.

– From the Lab’s official blog post on the Gaeta 1 and Zindra changes

Town Hall Meeting

As a part of the consultation process and to answer initial questions  / hear feedback on these changes, Linden Lab will be holding an in-World Town Hall meeting on Monday, April 20th, 2026, commencing at 11:00 SLT. The Town Hall meeting area can be accessed using the following SLurls:

In addition, the Lab has opened a forum discussion thread on these changes, and invited users to join that conversation.

Related Links

2026 week #16: SUG meeting summary

Pususaari – Where spring feels gentle, February 2026 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. These notes form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. They were taken from the video recording by Pantera, embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks to Pantera for providing it.

Meeting Overview

  • The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas is held every other Tuesday at 12:00 noon, SLT (holidays, etc., allowing), per the Second Life Public Calendar.
  • The “SUG Leviathan Hour” meetings are held on the Tuesdays which do not have a formal SUG meeting, and are chaired by Leviathan Linden. They are more brainstorming / general discussion sessions.
  • Meetings are held in text in-world, at this location.

Simulator Deployments

  • No SLS Main channel deployments for the week, but the channel was restarted.
  • The WebRTC deployment will be expanded to Magnum, finally completing its deployment across all RC channels.
  • The next simulator update – Loganberry – will include (among other thinks) the performance improvement work Leviathan has been working on and the fix for avatars remaining a cloud Leviathan has also developed (which addresses causes of clouding on the simulator – viewer-side clouding is not touched).

In Brief

  • Leviathan Linden:
    • Has been ” removing use of Tilia (payments system) from our code.” Exactly what this means is unclear, given the use of the Tilia wallet and close ties between LL and Thunes, Tilla’s owners.
    • He has also spent a little bit of time trying to incorporate some suggested code changes for the game_controller code, as suggested by a user, but upon testing he found something isn’t working right, so some investigation is required.
  • Rider Linden has been working on viewer code to support the new language definition cap.
  • Monty Linden has been working with the Firestorm team on some of the TeleportFinish failure modes. One set of fixes, involving viewers simply walking away from the HTTP connection, is getting improvements so one subset of viewer-side TP/RC issues will be improved.
    • Kyle Linden noted that the SL 26.2 Flat UI Beta (releasing soon) also has a viewer-side TP disconnect fix.
  • Harold Linden (SLua):
    • There are a number of crash fixes and minor correctness fixes out on the Aditi (the beta grid), which should be coming to the Lua region on the main grid “soonish”.
    • As Rider mentioned, the scripting language definitions are going to be accessible to the viewer now, so you can always pull down the correct type definitions for whatever region you’re currently on.
    • Harold is additionally generalising his work for making llSetPrimitiveParams less annoying to use. Essentially it’ll be a fluent API where you can batch up prim params commands as you would do currently, but you do it through function calls rather than manually adding a bunch of stuff to a list.
  • Kyle Linden indicated there will be a “big push” on Lua documentation in the upcoming week(s).

General Discussion

Please refer to the video below as well.

  • It has been again reported that large linksets of prims or meshes that have alpha scripting (LSL and / or Lua) against Blinn Phong materials (apparently PBR is reported as working as expected) for certain parts of that linkset are failing to change alpha state or are slow to change. Copies of suitable linksets / a formal bug report on this were requested.
    • This sparked something of a discussion on probable causes, length of time the bug has been around, means to repo, etc., running through the mid-point of the meeting through to pretty much the end.
    • As a part of the discussion llSetLinkGLTFOverrides fails to clear alpha override was raised. No updates were given.
  • A WebRTC question was asked: the current settings seem to be 60m range, no distance attenuation. Is that the only option available?
    • Response: there should be distance attenuation. The curve is different than Vivox, though. If you’re not experiencing any distance attenuation, bug fixes are required with more details so LL can try to replicate what you’re doing.

Date of Next Meetings

  • Leviathan Linden: Tuesday, April 21st 2026.
  • Formal SUG meeting: Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

SL23B: volunteer applications now open

via Linden Lab

June 2026 will mark the 23rd anniversary of Second Life opening to public access – and as we’ve all come to expect, the month will mark the start of several weeks of events and celebrations running into July under the umbrella of the Second Life Birthday (SLB) otherwise know for this year as SL23B.

Dates and Theme

This year the SLB festivities will open on Friday, June 18th, 2026 and will run through until Sunday, July 19th, 2026. The theme for 2026 is The Golden Age of Hollywood, which the Lab describes thus:

Think classic cinema, red carpets, vintage glamour, and the magic of the silver screen. While the theme may inspire many builds and performances, exhibits are not required to follow the theme. We encourage you to share what makes your Second Life experience meaningful. Your interests. Your communities. Your creativity.

However, as has been the case over the last several birthday events, exhibitions are not confined to the theme itself, with the Lab additionally noting:

Every year, we celebrate because of the incredible Residents who bring this world to life. The birthday celebrations are an opportunity to showcase what inspires you and what keeps you coming back.

Volunteer Applications

On Tuesday, April 14th, 2026, Linden Lab announced that Volunteer applications have opened and remain so through until Monday, May 18th, 2026. As noted, exhibitor applications are now open. Key requirements for volunteers are noted below – however, for the full list of requirements, please refer the the exhibitor application form, via the link following these notes:

  • Volunteers are asked to commit to at least two hour shifts at a time, and to note that as SL23B spans 11 days, LL prioritise applicants who can participate across multiple days. Stage Crew are expected to contribute a minimum total of 8 hours.
  • Training sessions will be provided across multiple times. All volunteers are expected to complete a training session, regardless of whether they have been volunteers at previous Birthday events. Those failing to complete the required training will be removed from the Volunteer group.
  • These are volunteer positions, and as such, volunteers will not be paid. Additionally, volunteers cannot rez/wear tip jars or solicit for tips.
  • Stage Crew:
    • May not act as personal hosts for performers. You may only host if specifically scheduled as a Stage Host under the official guidelines.
    • Members should report any issues to their Stage Manager first. Stage Managers are responsible for assigning roles, tasks, and timing.
  • Greeters should report any issues in the Greeter group and a Mole or Coordinator will assist.

Volunteer Application Form.

Please note: All enquiries about hosting exhibitions, staging performances or volunteering at the event should be directed to Linden Lab, not this blog.

Related Links

2026 SL viewer release summaries week #15

Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, April 5th, 2026

This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy.
  • This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
  • Outside of the Official viewer, and as a rule, alpha / beta / nightly or release candidate viewer builds are not included; although on occasions, exceptions might be made.

Official LL Viewers

  • Default viewer  – One-Click Installer = 26.1.1.23806384790 – April 10 – NEW.
  • Second Life Project Viewers:

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • Kokua: 26.1.0.58180 (no RLV) and 26.1.0.61942 (RLV variants), April 6 – release notes.

V1-style

  • No Updates.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links