2026 week #31: SL CCUG meeting summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hippotropolis Campsite: venue for CCUG meetings
The following notes were taken from:

  • My chat log and audio recording  of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting of Thursday, July 30th, 2026.
  • Please note that this is not a full transcript of the meeting but a summary of key topics.
Table of Contents

Meeting Purpose

  • The CCUG meeting is for discussion of work related to content creation in Second Life, including current and upcoming LL projects, and encompasses requests or comments from the community, together with related viewer development work.
    • This meeting is generally held on alternate Thursdays at Hippotropolis and is held in a mix of Voice and text chat.
  • Dates and times of meetings are recorded in the SL Public Calendar.

Official Viewer Status

General Viewer Notes

  • While viewer 26.3 is now available as a Release Candidate viewer, it does not include all the hoped-for performance improvements (particularly with some of the texture streaming work.
    • This was because of time constraints in getting the updates tested across as many hardware configurations as possible.
    • As a result, this work will be held over for the Graphics Care Package (GCP) viewer.
  • The GCP viewer is a lot of fixes and improvements around PBR and correcting issues within it as far as possible. It is hoped that this viewer, which has been suffering a lack of resources, will start to move forward once more in the near future.
  • Various pull requests (PRs) are now being looked at and worked on (e.g. semi-transparent media on a prim), but no guarantees as to when these might surface in a viewer.

Lua Updates

  • There is a new versions of the Lua editor viewer, as noted above.
  • This includes a new version of the VSCode plugin.
    • This has a much tighter integration with the viewer.
    • It is possible to select multiple objects in-world and open them for examination in a Visual Studio panel and then manipulate them (e.g. stop scripts, remove scripts or notecards) subject to permissions.
  • These new features do need to be enabled for use in the viewer:
    • Preferences → Advanced → Script Development → Script Development Settings floater → check VS Code Tight Integration.
Enabling tight VS integration on the most recent Lua editor viewer
  • Rider Linden is actively looking for bug reports on both the viewer and the VS Code plugin.
  • Note that the above does not mean that Lua is grid-wide.
    • Server-side support for Lua scripting remain available only in those regions with the required back-end code.
  • Currently, the hope is to:
    • Have the Lua editor got to beta / Release Candidate status after the 26.3 viewer is promoted to release status, with the caveats again being a) viewer priorities may change; b) at the time the viewer reaches beta / RC, Lua code support in the viewer still may still be restricted to those regions running on simulators with the required back-end support.
    • Have the back-end support for Lua deployed grid-wide “some time” during quarter 3 2026 (e.g. between this meeting and the end of September 2026)
  • Official Linux support remains with the Lua editor viewer as its first release.

General Discussion

  • Discussion on mesh improvements are continuing internally at LL. This is something the Lab wants to get done, but it may not be something that surfaces in the near future. Once the internal discussions have led to decisions, then more details will be put to the CCUG for discussion.
  • The game_control code now might not ship with the Lua editor viewer given the additional back-end work Leviathan Linden has agreed needs to be done (see my notes from the previous Leviathan Office Hours meeting).
  • A demonstration of a means to export scripts from a HUD to an external app to assist with HUD creation / positioning / testing was demonstrated (videos here, here, here and here). The end goal for the project – making it available to others and how, was not too clear.
  • The above led to the subject of SVG support in the viewer being again raised.  This is seen by Geenz as being “something that could be interesting at some point”, but the Lab is “a ways off” of having time for the work outside of MOAP.
    • In the meantime, Callum Linden is looking at MOAP + SVG support and what can be done there.
  • Viewer-native (aka “official”) PBR support for Bakes on Mesh (BoM):
    • Geenz noted there is interest at LL in providing this, but there there are various pre-requisites and consideration to be worked through, together with priority.
    • One example of this is: considering how to combine PBR BoM with Blinn-Phong, with a prerequisite being PBR specular support in the viewer (which is due to be a part of the GCP viewer).
    • There is also some need for work on BoM in general, such as improving elements of the UX.
  •  glTF lights:
    • glTF lights are described as “still a ways out”, but SL is getting radiometric units per the glTF specification for the Sun and Moon as a part of the GCP viewer.
    • Point and spotlights are a “much bigger ask” requiring additional wire protocol work and updating object parameters. As such, there is work in advance which needs to be completed in order to make point and spot lighting “doable”.
  • The above touched on shadow casting, which was seen as a combination of being something that might have to wait for the graphics API / Vulkan work, and as requiring sufficient controls and settings so as to allow users to adjust it for performance on their hardware.
  • A pull request (PR) to add the ability to take screen shots with a transparent background only showing avatars, Animesh, particles from the avatar, objects sat on, and selected objects (eliminating green screens) has been put forward and looks like it is going to be accepted.
  • A question was asked if the consensual system at the Adult Welcome Hub (see my review here) will be made available to content creators for use grid-wide. There is apparently a Feature Request asking for this, and it is under review.
  • Geenz requested that if people know of regions  parcels with pre-PBR EEP settings which look “broken” when viewed on a PBR viewer rather than a non-PBR viewer (e.g. things seem to be unnatural dark or objects are unnaturally glowing, etc., when see on a PBR viewer but not on a pre-PBR viewer such as non-PBR versions of Firestorm), to please for LMs to him for investigation. This does not include PBR EEP settings looking differently on pre-PBR viewers, etc.

Next Meeting

Unknown's avatar

Published by Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

Have any thoughts?