Author: Inara Pey

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

2025 SL viewer release summaries week #36

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, September 7th, 2025

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 2025.06 7.2.1.17108480561 – August 29 – NEW.
    • Inventory Favourites System, plus assorted new features.
    • Improvements to avatar system; camera and movement; chat; voice; content creation tools.
    • Mesh uploader updates.
    • Text & UI polish.
    • Fixes for Environment and Rendering; stability and crashes; UI.
    • System improvements.
  • Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha (Aditi only), version 7.1.12.14888088240, May 13 –  No Change.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • Kokua: 7.2.1.57692 (no RLV) and 7.2.1.61405 (RLV variants)  (2025.06), September 6 – release notes.
  • Megaphit Release – 7.2.1.54496 – August 28 – changelog.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable: 1.32.4.4, September 6 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Exploring a Lost Swamp in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lost Swamp, September 2025 – click any image for full size

Designed by Philippe Brora (brutal), the Lost Swamp is a Homestead Region recently added to the Destination Guide, where its description attracted my attention as a place to visit and explore.

Surrounded by off-region mountains caught in a distant mist when seen using the region’s default environment settings, it presents a rugged setting rising from east to west; one in which water has played a role in its formation.

Lost Swamp, September 2025
Lost Swamp is a quiet and atmospheric destination where misty waters and whispering trees create a backdrop for reflection and photography. Visitors can explore its calm paths and find inspiration in its timeless setting.

– from Lost Swamp’s Destination Guide description

The Landing Point sits on the eastern extent of the region, atop a small dock with a motor launch alongside. The latter gives the impression that those teleporting in have in fact just arrived aboard the old but functional boat. Close by is the mouth of a narrow river, exiting the land after flowing outwards from the uplands to the west.

Lost Swamp, September 2025

A large tree house sits across the river. It is not the only structure on the island, but it is the largest and best-kept, the others looking a little more careworn in nature. Open to the public, the house sits close to the tower of an old brick-built lighthouse which has seen better days – although exactly what has befallen it is open to visitors to consider for themselves.

Both sit on the edge of the swamplands which presumably give the setting its name. These lie to the north side of the region, between the river and the open waters surrounding it, although neither appears to feed into it.

Lost Swamp, September 2025

Mist-wreathed, home to mangroves, swamp pines and dead and rotting vegetation, the swamp is the populated by crows, bats, snakes and vultures. An aging shack and barn clearly suffering from the swamp’s damp air sit within it, but again, who might live here is up to the imagination to decide.

South of the river the land is partially flooded; channels of water cutting it into small islands sufficiently high above the waters so as to be dry rather than swampy, but perhaps damp enough to cause the corn here to rot as it grows (or perhaps it has simply been abandoned).

Lost Swamp, September 2025

Bridges and wooden walkways offer the means to cross the various channels, making for multiple routs of exploration, including the boat shack on the southern coast. The latter has again seen better days, but is again open to the public.

To the west, the uplands are rugged, the home of high waterfalls and largely naked in terms of flora. The northern hills are home to stairs rising to a plateau where more ruined and makeshift buildings stand. These offer table-top games and the area appears to be a possible events space – with the latter promised as “coming soon”.

Lost Swamp, September 2025

Southwards, and hidden by surrounding hills and cliffs, lies something of a secret heart to the setting – but I’ll let you find that in a visit of your own and determine what its story might be.

With multiple places to sit scattered throughout the region, coupled with enough to encourage the imagination to start conjuring possible backstories for the setting, the Lost Swamp offer a lot to see and plenty of opportunities for photography.

Lost Swamp, September 2025

SLurl Details

Linden Lab offers comment on acquisition of Blush AI

Posted on by Inara Pey
Via the Blush AI website

Towards the end of August 2025, I was contacted to ask if I knew anything about a recent acquisition by Linden Lab – that of Blush AI, a dating simulator  available for both Android and iOS that (quote) “helps you learn and practice relationship skills in a safe and fun environment”.

Blush AI was originally developed by Luka Inc., the company behind Replika, an emotional artificial intelligence (AI) companion chatbot first released in 2017, and which has proven highly popular with a claim of over 30 million users – although it has not been without its share of concerns around user data protection.

At the time I was contacted, the acquisition of Blush AI from Luka Inc., was causing some concern within the forums and on social media, with some of the concerns being around the possible use of SL chat logs being used to train the AI. As there had been no official announcement on the matter, I contacted Linden Lab to see if they would comment on the acquisition. Due to matters of vacations, etc., it took a while to obtain a response, but this week I did receive an official statement on the acquisition, which hopefully addresses some of the concerns raised in the forum thread:

Linden Lab has always been a place where new ideas are explored both in and outside of Second Life. Blush is one of those explorations—a small, independent product with its own team and no connection to Second Life user data. Blush is a separate effort focused on AI companionship, while our focus in Second Life is on growing and improving the world our creators have built.
We have no plans now or in the future to use Second Life conversations or content to train AI systems. Any such use would require explicit disclosure in our Privacy Policy. Second Life remains our flagship offering, built around empowering human creativity, and we are continuing to invest heavily in it with recent updates like glTF imports, WebRTC voice, our mobile app, and Project Zero.

– Linden Lab spokesperson

The Blush App page on Google Play, listing the Lab as the new developer

Given this, it would appear that the intent is to have Blush AI continue to operate independently from Second Life using its own revenue stream via in-app purchases. Most particularly, it makes clear that conversation logs, etc., from Second Life will not be used to help train the Blush AI, nor is likely that there be any other connections between Blush AI and Second Life user data.

Obviously, the question remains why make such an acquisition in the first place. Without any direct statement from the Lab, anything relating to this question is pure supposition. On a personal level, I have no strong opinion on; AI tools / entertainment of this nature simply do not interest me at all. So long as the acquisition doesn’t interfere with /detract from the on-going effort to enhance and grow Second Life, which remains the Lab’s bread and butter, then I can happily ignore Blush AI. That said, given that past acquisitions by the Lab haven’t always gone that well (Blocksworld being the only real exception), I will admit to my curiosity being piqued as to how this one progresses and how long it lasts.

2025 week #36: SL CCUG meeting summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hippotropolis Campsite: venue for CCUG meetings
The following notes were taken from my audio recording and chat log of the Content Creation User Group (CCUG) meeting of Thursday, September 4th, 2025, and the official video is embedded at the end of this article. Please note that this is not a full transcript, 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.
  • Dates and times of meetings are recorded in the SL Public Calendar, and they are conducted in a mix of Voice and text chat.

Official Viewer Status

  • Default viewer 2025.06 7.2.1.17108480561 – August 29.
    • Inventory Favourites System, plus assorted new features.
    • Improvements to avatar system; camera and movement; chat; voice; content creation tools.
    • Mesh uploader updates.
    • Text & UI polish.
    • Fixes for Environment and Rendering; stability and crashes; UI.
    • System improvements.
  • Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha (Aditi only), version 7.1.12.14888088240, May 13.

Viewer 2025.07

  • This is now in development.
  • Will likely include (although the list is subject to possible change as the viewer develops):
    • “Proper Discord support” for those with a Discord account  – further clarification to follow as the viewer is developed.
    • Native Apple Silicon support, which should see a performance boost for those running Apple Silicon.
    • A Chrome Embedded Framework (CEF) update (used to power the in-viewer browser, media on a prim (MOAP), etc.), which should bring some performance and security improvements – although the former will not necessarily be observed in regions / parcels making heavy use of MOAP (e.g. in arcades, and similar).
      • This also might include a code contribution which enables  PRIM_MEDIA_FIRST_CLICK_INTERACT within the viewer, allowing the user to interact with a media without an initial “focus” click, as well as passes hover to the media.
      • As a side note: a code contribution included in 2025.05 7.2.0.16729091892 (current release at the time of writing) allows media Autoplay turned off, whilst still allowing it to work on HUDs using MOAP.
    • New performance metrics which should allow the Lab to gather data on the likely performance impact new features might have on the viewer. This should benefit updates such as the improvements to screen space reflections (SSR), which have been parked in a viewer branch pending the ability to better assess how these updates might impact the average user’s experience in terms of frame rate (speed, smoothness, etc.).
  • It was indicated that 2025.07 could act as a baseline for updates to SLua support in the viewer.

General Discussion – In Brief

  • Alpha / Gamma issues (linear alpha blending):
    • In order for PBR lighting to render anywhere close to correctly, alpha blending had to be switched from SRGB to linear colour space. This can cause some older content using Blinn-Phong, to look either more opaque or more transparent than in did pre-PBR.
    • A suggested fix for this would be to give people the ability to adjust the alpha/gamma on per texture entry for the object (including no mod items), and this had been scheduled in 2024 for release “after the  ExtraFPS viewer”.
    • However, as this was essentially a “permission hack”, the update got held-up. It has now been decided to default all old content to gamma space blending, to bring back some of the “old” alpha blending functionality
  • Extracting Sky and Water Settings assets from a Day Cycle was filed a year ago and noted as tracked (also: https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/2887), but progress may have stalled. As such, a effort will be make to raise its priority, although it still likely will not surface in a viewer until at least the 2025.09 release.
  • Issues with updating alphas on PBR materials was raised (currently, it is not possible to change the alpha without also changing the colour/tint. llSetLinkGLTFOverrides can be of some help with certain issues, and Brad Linden indicated that a Canny on the matter is working through the system, which should also help.
  • Custom Skeleton support: Geenz noted that the move to glTF mesh import was primarily to address the fact that COLLADA .DAE is increasingly unsupported by content creation apps, and thus SL needed to update to a “newer” format.
    • However, the manner in which the work has been done could support the use of custom skeletons in the future.
    • But, in order for this to be possible, several other hurdles would have to be cleared first (such as updating the internal SL mesh file format to support custom skeletons and without breaking existing content).
    • As such, any such support would need further consideration and prioritisation against other updates / projects before getting on the roadmap.
  • Vulkan support: this was referred to as still being “some way off” and requiring some extensive work, including cleaning-up how the view handles OpenGL.

General Questions

  • Questions were asked about both segmenting regions / parcels into vertical zones; the status of further work on Combat 2. and on Land impact calculations. These were questions more specific to Rider Linden (who was unfortunately unable to attend the meeting) / the Simulator User Group, and as such were redirected to the latter.
  • The question was raised if the developing Lobby capability for SL Mobile (which will eventually allow people to use some aspects of the Mobile app such as chat without them appearing as on-line to others) could be implemented within the viewer.  It was indicated that this might be possible in the future, although there is no current work in this direction at present.
  • This above encompassed a conversation on where conversation logs are currently stored (on the local device, be it computer or Mobile) vs. being stored in a manner that makes it accessible to all devices a user might employ to access Second Life. This is something the Lab is looking at, allowing for the privacy / data protection concerns of storing logs on third-party services, and would likely be an opt-in service
  • Additional questions on cashing-out, lifetime memberships, etc., were similarly pointed towards the relevant user group meetings, as no-one from the Lab at the CCUG in involved in these areas.

Next Meeting

Studies of shamanism at Nitroglobus in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Annex at Nitroglobus: Miles Cantelou – Shamanism

Miles Cantelou is an artist whom I have covered on numerous occasions in these pages, most recently in terms of Miles’ return to Second Life after time away, when I wrote about his Homestead gallery space Scirocco Art Galleries (see: The art of Miles Cantelou in Second Life).

But I’m not the only one appreciative of Miles’ work. Dido Haas, the operator / curator of Nitroglobus Roof Gallery also visited Scirocco and, like me, was struck by the intensity of Miles’ studies – particularly (I hope I’m correct in assuming) those found within the Galleria Polynesia. As a result, Dido invited Miles to exhibit at Nitroglobus, and on September 1st, 2025 they opened Shamanism.

The Annex at Nitroglobus: Miles Cantelou – Shamanism

Located with The Annex at Nitroglobus, this is a further richly engaging exhibition of paint-renderings by Miles, this one on the subject of Shamanism, with a focus on the (mainly female in this case) Shaman. Produced through a process of ink line sketches scanned into a PC and subjected to photographic and post camera blending, prior to being printed and painted, before an image of the finished piece is uploaded to Second Life.

Shamanism is a spiritual phenomenon centred on the shaman, a person believed to achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experience – the Shaman, a person regarded in many cultures as intermediary between humans and the spirit realm, performing roles such as healing, divination, guiding souls, and maintaining spiritual balance within their communities. The term comes from the Manchu-Tungus word šaman, a noun formed from the verb ša- “to know”; so a shaman is literally “one who knows.”

Given this etymology, the terms apply in the strictest sense to the spiritual systems of the people of northern Asia. However, shamanism has played an important role among Australian Aborigines, some African groups, Arctic peoples and Native American Indians.

The Annex at Nitroglobus: Miles Cantelou – Shamanism

Shamanism presents fourteen richly emotive portrait studies startling in their intensity and depth. Given the headdresses apparent in all of the images, they might be taken to lean towards Native American shaman. That the majority of the images appear to be female in nature reflects the fact that shamanism has no gender exclusion.

For me, however, what is particularly striking about these portraits is the intensity of intelligence and vitality they carry. It is hard not to be drawn to the eyes of those pieces which appear to be looking directly at you and not sense the depth of knowledge and wisdom lying behind them. The result is a series of images that suggest they have not originated from within Miles’ head and sketches, but with the subjects physically allowing their likeness to be captured.

The Annex at Nitroglobus: Miles Cantelou – Shamanism

In order words, a marvellous selection of evocative art.

SLurl Details

September 2025 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 September 3rd, 2025. These notes form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. The official video is embedded at the end of this summary.

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.

Announcements

  • The AI Character Generation beta has been spun down. See: LL announce a pause in the current SL AI character designer project for more.
  • All of the original Linden Homes micro-continents have been decommissioned.
    • Remaining holders of these homes have been transitioned over to the current Linden Homes selections.
    • All of the V1 Linden Home regions have been removed from the grid and the associated Linden Home V1 web-based home control pages have been archived.

Updates

  • As the August Web User Group was ending, the Marketplace the third-party Elastic Search instance experienced a significant failure, causing a very significant Marketplace outage. This caused some merchants were mistakenly charged multiple times for Product Listing Enhancements, which were all refunded.
    • If any merchant believes they are still out of balance, please open a support ticket.
    • The Marketplace team is working to stabilise the Marketplace and add more resiliency to MP systems to handle external outages.
  • Various bug fixes with Marketplace Responsive Search have been released, together with various clean-up tickets around support, land, and region store
  • A further tease  – without specifics – of an upcoming announcement “in the next few weeks” related to balancing-out the economy and providing more Linden Dollar sinks (see: An Update from Linden Lab – Linden Dollar Exchange Rate and the Economy – July 2025).

General Discussion

  • Open question from Juniper Linden: If you could remove one feature/aspect of Marketplace, what would it be? Responses went beyond the scope of the question and included:
    • Revert the change that makes “classified” ads at the top of search returns less obvious than they used to be (e.g. re-add the border around them or highlight them).
    • Refining the best-selling items section of the Marketplace (e.g. break it into price ranges / prevent it showing items which were on a short-term offer – e.g. L$75 for a day or so, but have since reverted to their full price, etc., or resetting an item so it doesn’t appear in the Best Selling list for the week in which its listing has been altered).
    • Improved filtering for searches (e.g. by body type).
    • Filtering-out AI generated content (assuming it is properly self-reported as such within the listings, which currently isn’t possible, nor is how AI been used in a product  – for example, is the item itself created using AI tools, or only the scripts within it?).
  • The default for the number of items shown on a Marketplace Page (e.g. following a search) has been altered from 96 to 48 (with the drop-down offering 24, 48 and 96 items per page options).
  • The above led to a discussion on further redefining the Marketplace product categories – notably around the avatar (e.g. having an Avatar category, with sub-categories such as Body Parts, Shapes, Hair, etc.).
  • Web map (maps.secondlife.com) and following-on from the August meeting:
  • This is a reported issue where, if you have been given the ability to see a friend on the in-world Map and can teleport to them, the teleport may fail if they are on a region with a space in its name, as the space breaks the SLurl.
  • A request was made to have a web page in the nature of the Land Auctions page, but specifically for rentals, rather than relying on search / the in-world world map. This was seen as a good idea for the Lab to consider, but would need further consideration in order to fit-in to the development roadmap.
  • Note: during the above question, a group of unicellular organisms attempted to disrupt the final ten minutes of the meeting. However, as the majority of the topics had been discussed, Pantera has wisely cut the attempt from the meeting video, which jumps to the closing remarks.

Next Meeting

  • Wednesday, October 1st, 2025.