Updates from the week ending Sunday, May 22nd, 2022
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.
- Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
- Release viewer: version version 6.5.5.571282, – formerly the MFA RC viewer, dated April 26, promoted Wednesday, May 4th – No change.
- Release channel cohorts:
- Performance Improvements RC viewer updated to version 6.6.0.571939, on May 20th.
- Project viewers:
- No updates.
LL Viewer Resources
- SL release viewer download page – LL
- SL viewer release notes – LL
- SL Alternate Viewers page – LL
- SL available viewer index – LL
- Starlight alternative viewer skins page (not officially supported by LL)
- Viewer release process overview – this blog
- SL Viewer updates and reviews – this blog
Third-party Viewers
V6-style
- Black Dragon updated to version 4.0.6 on May 21st – release notes.
V1-style
- Cool VL viewer updated to version 1.28.2.71 (Stable) and version 1.29.0.7 (Experimental) on May 21st – release notes.
Mobile / Other Clients
- No updates.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
The biggest news for me is that this is the third week in a row that there was an update to the Performance Improvements RC. That suggests that LL is pushing really hard on that project and hopes to make it the next release.
I think people are really going to enjoy it when it goes gold. LL has been underselling how much difference it makes; it yields a big frame rate improvement on some modern computers, sometimes as much as DOUBLE. It also decreases the performance penalty of shadow rendering, so a lot more residents will be able to enable it without the viewer becoming unacceptably slow.
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As per my CCUG / TPVD summaries, the Performance Improvements viewer is the focus of viewer efforts at LL. And even after it goes out, there are liable to be updates to it as the Performance Improvements Floater viewer moves forward (it is this viewer that incorporates LL’s Auto-FPS feature). There are also discussions going on between LL and Beq Janus from Firestorm on how the work she has done on viewer auto-tuning and LL’s work can be smoothly integrated.
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