Day: July 25, 2026

2026 week #30: SL Open Source UG Summary

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

  • My chat log of the Open-Source User Group (OSUG) meeting held on Friday, July 24, 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.
Table of Contents

Meeting Purpose

  • The Open Source User Group (OSUG) meeting is an 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: Flat UI – 26.2.0.25386466510,  -“flat” UI and font update, dated May.
  • Second Life Project Viewers – Lua Editor Alpha viewer 6.1.0.23768336784, April 29.

Viewer Notes

  • 26.3 is heading towards a beta  / Release Candidate release, but with the texture streaming work removed. The latter will now form a part of the Graphics Care Package (GCP) viewer.
  • The next alpha version of the Lua viewer (with Linux support) is seem to appear “soon” – it is just awaiting the OK to be allowed into the wild.
  • Overall, the viewer release schedule is “a bit up in the air right now”. The hoped-for plan remains:
    • 26.3 issued as an RC and progressing to release status.
    • Lua/Linux progressing to beta / RC shortly after 26.3 releases release status and then itself moving to release. However, this is not guaranteed as yet.
    • On-going work with GCP so that it can be more fully discussed at the next OSUG.
  • Vcpkg (under-the-hood viewer packaging to replace the current Autobuild process used to build the viewer):
    • Currently, LL is trying to figure out where to land this work, but currently it is unlikely to be introduced with the GCP viewer builds.
    • One thought is to try to land it in develop at some point in the coming months.
    • However, feedback was requested from TPV developers relying on the existing autobuild infrastructure as to what they would like as the preferred path towards adoption.
    • Geenz requested TPV Developers should contact him with their views; in lieu of feedback, he’ll also post something on this on Github .

The SL Wiki

From Kyle Linden:

We’re reviving the Wiki. Our goals are improved moderation tools, a theme refresh and it will be the new central repository for Lua documentation, complimenting the LSL Portal in the Wiki. That means we also want to re-open editor access to all SL accounts that have logged in world. Enabling the Wiki to be a Wiki. Along with a more robust moderation toolset we’d also like to have dedicated residents who are interested in helping, be part of the human moderation team. Please IM me if interested.
  • Kyle also noted that the Second Life Creation Portal is to take a “new direction” and that the scripting information currently there is to be migrated to the SL Wiki. 

Other Items

  • Monty Linden noted that Lua/Luau documentation is sparse at the moment, so LL will be leaning on external materials and contributions to support Lua.
    • In this regard, those interested should refer to Suzanna’s SLua Guide, developed by Suzanna  Linn, which includes documentation and details on in-world Lua scripting classes.
  • It has been noted that there is code on the SL Github repositories written around CEF to replace the current plugin model.
    • The advice was given to keep whatever the new plugin architecture might be running in a separate process.
    • Linking directly the CEF library to the viewer was seen as causing issues with memory allocations as CEF/Chromium uses its own allocator; would expose the viewer to all of the vulnerabilities and exploits discovered weekly in Chrome; open the viewer to crashing each time CEF crashes.
    • Additional concerns were raised on this, including the idea that perhaps LL should investigate a means to push CEF updates to all users, regardless of the viewer they are using.
    • Callum Linden indicated that the work in the SL Github referenced is a research project – LL are looking at ways to improve memory and speed + cookie sharing with CEF that would remove some of the issues associated with it. However, the concerns raised were noted.
    • This led to a technical discussion on CEF and how best to approach its use in the viewer- please refer to the video.
  • Geenz noted the work to simplify the means by which developers can contribute code to LL (e.g. shifting from a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) to a DCO – Developer Certificate of Origin) has been on hold due to time and availability, but he hopes to be able to get back to it in the near future.

Next Meeting