2026 week #10: SL Open Source (TPVD) meeting summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hippotropolis Theatre: home of the OSD/TPVD meeting
The following notes were taken from:

  • Pantera’s video (embedded at the end of this article) and my chat log of the Open-Source Developer (OSD) meeting held on Friday, March 6th, 2026, together with my chat log of that meeting.
  • Please note that this is not a full transcript of the meeting but a summary of key topics.
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 2025.08 – 7.2.3.19375695301 – maintenance update with bug fixes and quality of life improvements – December 2.
    • Notable addition: new VHACD-based convex decomposition library for mesh uploads.
  • Second Life Release Candidate viewer  2026.01 – 26.1.0.22641522367 , March 5.
    • Legacy search; WebRTC improvements; QoL improvements.
  • Second Life Project Viewers:
    • Second Life Lua Editor Alpha viewer 26.1.0.21525310258, February 12.
    • Second Life Voice Moderation viewer 26.1.0.20139269477, December 12.
      • Introduces the ability to moderate spatial voice chat in regions configured to use webRTC voice.
    • Second Life One Click Install viewer 26.1.0.21295806042, January 26, 2026 – one-click viewer installation.

Upcoming Viewers

Viewer 2026.01

  • Was lined up for promotion to release status, but LL has ben seeing some suspiciously low fault rates – less than 1%, rather than the more usual average fault rate accounting for freezes and crashes being closer to something like 5-7%.
  • As a result, the view is going to be left at RC status through until early in week #11.

Viewer 2026.1.1 – One Click Install

  • 2026.1.1 is the new designation for the one-click install and velopack viewer (currently 26.1.0.21295806042).
  • This is unlikely to move to release status for at least a couple of weeks as it works through QA testing, particularly given this viewer represents a pretty big migration from the old updater to the new one. 

Viewer 2026.02

  • This viewer is about to undergo an “Alpha” update, designed to gather feedback from users.
  • This is the viewer with the new “Flat” UI updates, font changes and WebRTC voice moderation capabilities, and  might additionally receive some backported updates to texture streaming.
Example of the upcoming flat UI. Via: Geenz Linden / Github #4681/2

Viewer 2026.03 -“SL Visual Polish” (SLVP)

  • 2026.03 is set to include:
    • The “long baking” SSR improvements that were started last year. This version of the viewer will likely have a long beta soak time to allow feedback on these changes to be gathered.
    • PBR specular for residents who are more familiar with the old Blinn-Phong workflow. This will:
      • Include another texture slot (tint of the specular reflection).
      • Work with metallics.
      • Follow the glTF specification, but will likely initially be without glTF overrides, as this requires server-side work.
      • This work is currently being wrapped-up.
    • HDR controls in EEP so residents can decide how bright or dark things should be. This work does require simulator-side updates. This will likely initially have server-side support on Aditi (the Beta grid).
  • It may additionally include:
    • Further mirrors optimisations and a new “Ultra” quality setting that will enable a system mirror for water. A caveat on this work is that while this “water mirror” might up the quality of water reflections, it will do so at a performance hit; SSR for water will always be faster and less intensive.
    • Inclusion of an emissive strength setting for PBR.
    • Further performance optimisations.
  • The current repository for this viewer (valid March 6th, but may change) is available here.
  • This viewer may be in a head-to-head with the SLua viewer as to which gets promoted first when the time comes.

Grid-Wide WebRTC

  • A small deployment to the Preflight simulator Release Candidate channel was made on Thursday, March 5th, intended to address some server stability issues.
  • It is hoped that the deployment will quickly move to the BlueSteel RC.
  • There is still no Voice echo canyon for WebRTC for self-testing your own Voice system. However, one is still under consideration.

General Discussion

please refer to the video as well.

  • Geenz Linden has not had time to address the much-requested alpha-gamma fixes due to a focus on the SLVP viewer. It is also anticipated this work will require a decent bit of scoping, including understanding what needs to remove server-side to avoid a potential permissions hole.
  • Geenz has also has made further commits for the reimplementation of SSR after he found a good way to get hierarchical Z tracing working in the viewer.
  • He has also finally got the separable SSR pass working from another branch, which leads to a ton of optimisation potential for SLVP. For example, this now allows rendering of SSR at half or even quarter resolution, while the output for glossy SSR can be filtered, leading to less graininess on PBR surfaces and water.
  • There is also now a mirror for water reflections – which as was noted above, requires the Ultra quality setting and will impact viewer performance. but which is independent to SSR for water reflections.
  • The long-awaited Appearance fixes, as supplied by Kitty Barnett, are being targeted for the 2026.03 viewer.
  • There has been some musing on re-working the viewer graphic settings to make them easier to parse (such as making options drop-downs grouped by the Low to Ultra quality settings, with only the relevant options appearing for each. However, this work is only at the musing stage, not something being pursued.
  • A general discussion of texture handling – including the option to add blank texture detection and reduced these to 1×1 to help reduce the RAM load with textures.
  • A general discussion on a number of issues bugs (e.g. the AMD bug which sees the avatar textures broken on newer AMD GPU drivers  – which is hopefully being addressed by AMD; MOAP input handling bugs on Linux & Apple, said to make playing some games in SL impossible, etc- see the last 15 minutes of the video for more).

Next Meeting

Cica’s Ordinary Day in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost, March 2026: Ordinary Day

The word ordinary tends to bring with it negative connotations, a suggestion that well, something might be OK, but really, something else could be far better., but until it comes along we’ll just have to make do. Even the dictionary defines the word in bland, downturned terms:

Ordinary /ôr′dn-ĕr″ē/ – adjective: Commonly encountered; usual; of no exceptional ability, degree, or quality; average; Not particularly good; not better than average.

But the fact is, ordinary can equally be positive in connotation: an ordinary route might sound like the same old, same old – but in fact it can give a rhythm to our daily lives, helping us get through the rush and rut more easily than having to panic thanks to unforeseen crises; the same is true for an “ordinary” day, when we can forget the pressures of work and the world and just be, simply sitting back, relaxing and let the minutes and hours pass at their own pace, allowing us time to breathe, to talk to the cat or the garden flowers or just be.

Cica Ghost, March 2026: Ordinary Day

For March, Cica Ghost reminds us of this through her installation Ordinary Day, which opened on March 6th, 2026. It presents  a peaceful setting under a peaceful, if grey (or perhaps “ordinary” might be the right term!), where nothing happens unless we want it to. In the garden, a big cat innocently eyes a couple of Mouse cars (just sit on one if you wish and use the arrow keys to move / steer), and is happy to watch them at play,

Within this garden, flower-topped palms rise, casting their fronds wide to provide any shelter that might be required, whilst stone circles mark flowerbeds with more blue plants and tall grass. A stack of not exactly ordinary buildings rises towards the back of the setting, various stairways and a ramp climbing up into them.

Cica Ghost, March 2026: Ordinary Day
Most of the latter lead to points of interest and curio – places to sit, including one where those so minded can maybe cheer up a sad-looking monster; a rooftop  plaza where visitors might join some of Cica’s hand-drawn spiders as they dance a jig as an equally hand-drawn Cica plays her fiddle; or pay a visit to a snail sitting on a ledge. One of the sit points might be a little hard to reach, but does offer a view down over the garden the the cat.

Ordinary day doesn’t carry any deep message or meaning, it simply reminds us that really there is nothing wrong with “ordinary” day or with “ordinary” things or in being “ordinary”. The reality it, that we need time off and days which we can make our own, because those days might appear “ordinary” to the world, but for us they are opportunities for magic to happen – be it dancing a jig, sitting at a table, or racing a mouse car around a garden, or even contemplating our sorrows and finding a way past them.

Cica Ghost, March 2026: Ordinary Day

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A Sojourn Spring in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Sojourn Spring, March 2026 – click any image for full size

Vally (Valium lavender) sent me a personal invitation to visit the latest region design she and Dandy Warhlol (terry Fotherington) have put together. Once again, things being what they are, it took me a while to get to a point where I could visit – apologies to Vally –  but I did finally manage to do so!

Occupying a Homestead region, Sojourn – Sojourn Spring is a ruggedly handsome setting, a hump of rocky and grassy land rising from a calm sea. The western side of its back largely flat and with a single, gently-sloping incline running down to the west coast with its narrow ribbon of sand and moorings for boats pointing their fingers out to sea.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026

To the east, the back of the island is more elevated, exposed rock seeming to shore up the land above as it forms another plateau of grassland.

Where it the world you might like to put this setting is up to you. The trees suggest somewhere in a northern temperate zone – which would be in keeping with most of the builds  Dandy has put together down the years, many of which I’ve had the pleasure to write about. Similarly, the buildings on the island suggest more northerly / temperate climates, but where you prefer to picture this island as being is up to your imagination.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026
Escape into a breath-taking spring landscape perfect for unwinding and capturing stunning photos. Frame your shots with gentle flowing streams, vibrant wildflowers, and charming wildlife as your backdrop. Region Windlight settings shine here for that magic.

– Sojourn Spring About Land description

This is an occupied island – a house formed out of the split, inverted hull of an old ship sits up on the highest plateau, whilst a couple of single-room cabins lie on the lower expanse of the island’s top, together with what appears to be a long-deserted old stone cottage.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026

A lighthouse points towards the sky from a blunt promontory in the south-west corner of the setting, standing proudly above the western strand of beach running alongside the boat moorings and a second, slightly deeper beach on the southern side of the isle.

The old cottage, tucked into the north-west corner of the island, forms the setting’s Landing Point and offers a grand view inland over the island, a view which immediately draws one into wanting to explore.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026

Were I to paint a possible back-story to the setting, I would guess that the “house boat” up on the higher part of the island is home to whoever keeps the lighthouse, perhaps together with their family. As well as maintaining the lighthouse, these folk would appear to have turned the island into something of a little homestead for raising horses whilst also keeping chickens for eggs and bees for honey, even though, giving the pizza box in evidence at the house, this place must not be too removed from all the conveniences of mainland.

Wind turbines share the landscape with the local trees, presumably providing all the power needed for the house, lighthouse and cabins – and perhaps elsewhere as well. Who might use the cabins (both of which are actually unfurnished inside) is anyone’s guess, but the multiple moorings and the presence of a little café overlooking them and close to the lighthouse suggests the island has its share of at least day-trippers – and maybe folk who want to make a weekend of it by using the cabins as places to sleep.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026

To this end, there are multiple look-out points and places to sit on the island – including a VW camper van some enterprising soul has brought to the setting, where it now (permanently?) sits on a narrow self of land on the east side of the island between parallel cliffs.

These look-out and sitting places encourage people to spend time on the island doing what the About Land description suggests: making an escape and simply unwinding; allow the beauty of the setting, its flora, fauna and birds to carry them away from the worries and concerns of life.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026

In this, the island is absolutely perfect, the details are highly photogenic and offer a lot to see and give life to the setting. I particularly like the way water has been used, from broad ponds upon which rowing boats sit to the tumbling of falls to the sea below and the meanderings and tumblings of genuine brooks – so rarely seen when streams and rivers seem to be far more popular.  No wonder the island is a popular stopping-off point for egrets as they commute back and forth with the changing of the seasons.

All of this makes Sojourn Spring a visual delight to see and an engaging place to explore. Highly recommended.

Sojourn Spring, March 2026

SLurl Details

Sojourn Spring (Sojourn, rated Moderate)

March 2026 SL Web User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Web User Group meeting venue, Denby

The following notes cover the key points from the Web User Group (WUG) meeting, held on Wednesday March 4th 2026. These notes form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. Pantera’s video is embedded at the end of this article, my thanks to her for providing it.

Meeting Overview

  • The Web User Group exists to provide an opportunity for discussion on Second Life web properties and their related functionalities / features. This includes, but is not limited to: the Marketplace, pages surfaced through the secondlife.com dashboard; the available portals (land, support, etc), and the forums.
  • As a rule, these meetings are conducted:
    • On the first Wednesday of the month and 14:00 SLT.
    • In both Voice and text.
    • At this location.
  • Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
  • Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Friday February 27th Marketplace Outage

On Friday, February 27th, 2026, the Marketplace suffered an outage resulting in delays to item deliveries, background check-outs and viewer notifications for approximately 5 hours. This was apparently caused by a degradation in the MP asynchronous workers during a deployment, resulting in a backlog in the MP queuing system. The backlog should be clear now, and there have been no recent reports of missing / delayed items or notifications.

Updates

  • Changes are being made to the email verification prompt that comes up on the Second Life dashboard – those who have verified their email won’t see anything (“for a while”). Those who haven’t verified their email address for contact are advised to do so.
  • Updates to the web maps to allow searching by region name is still “slotted” for implementation.
  • Updates are in progress for the buying land experience – the look and presentation of the pages, UI changes, etc. – not changes to current land pricing.
  • The viewer splash screen will be changing soon as a part of the viewer UI / font changes contained in the upcoming 2026.02 viewer.
  • Work on making the Marketplace home page more responsive on Mobile devices is continuing, with small changes already made to the sidebar.
  • Quality of Life / Internal updates:
    • Further guardrails have been placed around Marketplace Product Listing Enhancements (PLEs) to prevent users being double-charged.
    • Multiple bug fixes related to wishlist displays, language selections and display name synchronisation, and similar.
    • Upgrades are being made to some web-related AWS services.

Marketplace

  • Th question was asked if people felt it would be worth a break of 12-18 months on work on all Marketplace development (bug fixing, etc., still continuing), in order to get variants / styles (e.g. multiple colour options, etc.,) in a single listing produced and released.
    • Whilst stated that a “year / year-and-a-half” was “very conservative”, it was still something of a surprised given that in late 2022, Reed Linden stated variants would be the “first deployment” in 2023.
    • Spidey Linden noted that the biggest hurdle with the project is actually migrating users as smoothly as possible from having multiple listings for the same item (but in different colours) to having all options in the one listing.
    • There was support for the idea and variants  / styles is something that has long been promised and has been a popular request.
  • The above spun-out into a discussion on “Marketplace 2.0”.
    • Currently there are no plans for a “Marketplace 2.0”, so this was more a “throw out ideas” session.
    • This discussion also spun out into requests for “social” elements to be included on MP listing, such as a indicator as to when a store owner last logged-in to SL, the date any item was posts to the MP (already available via some 3rd party browser plug-ins, support Firefox, Edge and Chrome and its variants – I use it with both Brave and Gener8).
  • An alterative question regarded on “Marketplace 2.0”, were it to be developed, is whether merchants would access not having any migration mechanism and having to go through and manually re-list all their items on the new version.
    • This caused something of a divided response, with some seeing it as not being a problem for MP stores with large inventories, as it was argued (not unreasonably in the case of clothing), that the reason for many stores having large numbers of listings is because they have multiple colour version of each item, each with it own listing – which any new Marketplace would solve by allowing multiple variants in a single listing.
    • Others felt any requirement to manually upload to a new MP would slow adoption.
    • Still others felt that having a new MP with “more features” would still be worth the effort to give them a new, cleaner & more functional store.
  • It was suggested that some of the pain in moving to a “new” MP could be eased by offering an extended transition period to allow creators to gradually make the move.
    • However, it was pointed out that running two systems side-by-side will incur additional cost and so a) would have to be factored-in to the transition period; b) would likely preclude both the current MP and “MP 2.0” running side-by-side indefinitely; sooner or later merchants would have to move.
    • There is also the risk of consumer confusion over where to find items if the transition period is drawn out to the point where creators migrate their listings in small quantities (“one or two a week” was mentioned), which could then impact sales.
  • Calls were made to simply delete stores from the Marketplace on the basis of the creator not logging-in to SL for a given continuous period (currently, listings are made “inactive” if the owner has not logged-in during a certain period). This is a potentially damaging approach, as it could unfairly penalise users who are forced into a more restricted ability to log-in to SL due to social circumstance, illness, etc.
  • The discussion on “MP 2.0” spun out to include integration of CasperVend and the ability to see through the MP and via in-world vendor kiosks.
  • A request was make to solve the “translation issue” whereby automatic translation of products leads to things like the wrong colour being delivered (e.g. a translation referencing the “pink” item for delivery, whereas the listing shows the “red” version.

Other Items

  • Community Pages / Forums Changes:
    • Concerns were raised over recent changes to the Community pages (e.g. the official blogs) / Forums — notably around logging-in.
    • These concerns took two parts:
      1. The fact that the logging-in process has been changed by the third party providing the community pages / Forum platform (Invision) to use OAuth as their authentication method, rather than the Lab’s own MFA;
      2. There was no announcement of the change by Linden Lab via blog or Forum post, in advance of it being made by Invision across their services.
    • The concern over the use of cookies seems to be (in part) born of misunderstanding: cookies are a “standard” means of maintaining login session IDs. However OAuth appears to be retaining the cookie after a user has physically logged-out from the Community pages via the sign-out option (which does not mean logging-out of SL), which appears to be the problem.
    • Kermit Linden offered to look into the authorisation flow.
Invision has implemented a new verification process outside of the lab’s MFA (which not everyone uses) for accessing the Community pages (official blogs, the forums, etc.), they host on LL’s behalf. The process was introduced without any communication from LL, and utilises cookies, which has raised concerns.
  • The issue of  SL wiki thumbnail images not displaying has been partially resolved, but more work is required to completely resolve it.
  • A request was made to add a further SL Discord generic category for those whose blogs fall outside the current three categories of  fashion, home & garden and bloggers-streamers.
  • Complaints that 2 clicks to reach a person’s transaction history on the SL dashboard, and Marketplace is too hard and the labelling is not precise (which is fair).
  • A general discussion on web search and its perceived drawbacks (such as being unable to exclude display Names from People searches, thus leading to “false positives” when seeking user names etc.)..
  • A discussion on being able to “register” brand names with LL to prevent things like copycat stores using the same name, or having stores using the sane name / word in their keywords coming ahead of registered stores in MP searches.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, April 1st, 2026.

A trip to Planet M’s Tula in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Planet M – Tula, March 2026 – click any image for full size

As I work to catch up on a backlog of invitations, I pulled up one from Myrdin Sommer, inviting me to visit his Full region build of Planet M – Tula.

The invite actually came in mid-February with a note that it would likely only be around “for a few more weeks”. This being the case, my apologies to Myrdin for not having been able to visit sooner, and my hopes that this article finds its way to readers with sufficient time for them to visit the build before it vanishes.

Planet M – Tula, March 2026
Planet M’s Tula is a surreal red-earth valley shaped by organic forms, roaming animals, and a ceramic studio at its heart. Tula invites visitors to wander, pause, and look — offering a calm, dreamlike environment with Room to Dream, and perhaps make a picture or two. Tula welcomes you with open arms.

– A description of Planet M – Tula

As might be gleaned from the description above, this is a strange, alien environment – albeit with many touches of Earthly familiarity. The undulating landscape is marked by strange tubular-like extrusions and rising tendrils of clay ground, some of which are bent and bulb-headed, almost as if they are organic in nature whilst others end in lightbulb forms that provide local illumination together with some of the horizonal tubulars extending outwards from hillsides. In addition, flat-topped, mushroom-like islands rise on stout stalks to provide raised platforms, and honeycombed humps provide another form of illumination for their surroundings.

Planet M – Tula, March 2026

Amidst all of this water flows and pools and animals from Earth graze and roam: horses, cows, elephants, cats, birds, goats – even a couple of sauropods. Some of these can be found on the ground, others keep themselves to the island-like  tops of the “mushroom” islands.

Also waiting to be found are signs of human habitation. These are located in several of the caves found below the hills (and one of which sits behind a curtain, so to speak!). These are both primitive in form let cosy in nature, with human seating, furniture and so on. One of these is also the home to an artist’s studio.

Planet M – Tula, March 2026

The Landing Point sits towards the middle of the region, watched over by flamingos, a nearby signpost pointing the way to various attractions. These include the Octopit (find out for yourself!), and a memorial to director David Lynch. Note that the Landing Point is on a small island of its own, but the waters surrounding it are shallow enough to wade through.

Getting around the ground level is easy enough. However, exploring the “floating” islands without resorting to flying up to them is a matter of finding the rope ladder to the first and then using the interconnecting bridges and rope ladders to work your way around the rest.  Exploration of these will also allow you a view of  a group of dogs happily gathered on a white cloud complete with its own waterfall and a rope ladder to climb up to it.

Planet M – Tula, March 2026

With Earthly trees, grasses and lily pads making up the majority of the setting’s flora, Planet M – Tula is, as its description states, a surreal place, complete with a Moon floating just off the ground between two horns of rock, and a series of tiny floating “suns” to add to the illumination. It is also engaging in design and discovering all there is to see does cause you to travel its length and breadth, while the habitation spaces in the caves present places to rest awhile.

In all, an interesting visit with a fair amount to see and do. My apologies again to Myrdin for taking a while to make a visit.

Planet M – Tula, March 2026

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The art of Janine Portal in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal

In February, I received an invite from Astella Warrigal to visit her gallery, A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery. It was actually to attend the venue’s grand reopening, which was held on February 22nd, 2026. However, things being what they were for me at the time, I was unfortunately unable to attend that event; but I certainly wanted to make sure I got to see the exhibition of art by Janine Portal which formed a part of the re-opening.

I first encountered Janine’s work back in 2018, an immediately found it captivating. As I noted at that time:

Utilising animations and prims to present remarkable collage pieces with a surrealist edge that are quite captivating to see … some of the most unusual art and effects I’ve seen in Second Life for a while, each piece offering an unexpected view of what might otherwise appear to be and ordinary scene or photo or presenting a melding of ideas and / or narrative that is quite engaging.

– The artful collages of Janine Portal in Second Life

A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal

This is very much the case with the exhibition of Janine’s work at A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, where it can be seen on the upper levels of the building. On display are some 13 collage images, all of them comprising found and manipulated (by Janine) art and photographs, including reproductions of artwork by the likes of William Blake, Hilma af Klint, Richard Diebenkorn, and Second Life photographer Ajax Ogleby.

Janine says of her work:

I’ve been making art in Second Life using a technique that involves layering transparent prims to create works with shifting collage images. In RL, long before I made an account in SL, layered transparent paint to express similar ideas, using many of the symbols you see here. 

– Janine Portal

A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal

Janine goes on to note that her art reflects ideas which have woven their way into her thinking and approach to art ever since her time at art school: ideas of the metaphysical and personal symbols of transformation. This gives her work a layered set of interpretations; whether one views them purely as visually engaging works of art or seeks to find those metaphysical ideas.  In this, Janine adds her own view on the art:

On a conceptual level they represent, to me, the endlessly shifting nature of reality, the ways in which we move through time and space and the nature of growth, change, and transformation.   

– Janine Portal

A Thousand Words Coffeehouse and Gallery, March 2026: Janine Portal

A genuinely captivating exhibition, one definitely worth the time in visiting.

SLurl Details