Category: Second Life

2025 week #21: SL SUG meeting -SLua

Posted on by Inara Pey
Chaos and Calm – Chaos Theory, March 2025 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. The notes were taken from my chat log of the meeting. Pantera also recorded the meeting, and that recording is embedded at the end of this piece – my thanks to Pantera, as always, for providing it.

Meeting Overview

  • The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • 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.

Simulator Deployments

  • There are no planned deployments to any channels this week, only restarts.

SL Viewer Updates

SLua Updates

I’m going to write up an implementation of better event handling in pure SLua so that people can get a feel for the API and make suggestions before we commit to actually implementing a specific implementation in the server.
Got sidetracked improving setlinkprimitiveparamsfast perf with many PRIM_LINK_TARGETs since I saw that bogging down the SLua alpha sims but I’m back on track now 🙂

– Harold Linden (SLua development contractor)

  • It was reiterated that the plan remains to move SLua to a more open beta on Agni (the Main grid), once further updates have been made by LL. (Such as the event handling and memory management mentioned). When this happens, it will initially be to a “handful of regions” prior to gaining broader deployment.
  • Harold Linden indicated that most of the current Canny Feature Requests for SLua will be implemented during the beta phase of the project – although some, such as “require” will take time to “do properly”, and so there may be stopgap solutions “similar to the ones people already use for LSL that uses local pre-processing.”
Not ideal but there’s a lot of yak shaving that needs to be done to get proper “require” working with new “library” type assets and don’t want to block the rest of SLua on it. 
  • In responding to a comment about an possible inter-script dependency system, he further noted:
There would be no inter-script dependencies per-se, this is more akin to pure modules that can just export types and functions etc with no shared state. More like a statically linked library that only gets evaluated when the script is compiled. It’s essentially just enabling something that people already tend to do with pre-processors, the only difference is the assets live with the rest of your stuff.
  • This sparked a debate on the use of libraries, plug-ins ,etc., a lot of which is “still TBD”, other with matters of object update handing, etc. This discussion ran through must of the remaining 40 minutes of the meeting. Please refer to the video for specifics (as I am not a coder, and far from qualified to interpret all of the discussion!).
  • One important additional point was raised by Harold Linden:
Oh right, I feel like I should mention, we’re trying to track down a couple potential memory corruption bugs in SLua that we’ve had trouble reproducing on our dev machines. We’re going to look at pushing a version of the server with debugging instrumentation (AddressSanitizer) to the SLua sims on beta grid. It might make things slightly slower, but it’s only temporary.

In Brief

“Missing Content on Login”

We had a repro recipe for “missing content on login” and I was able to kinda fix it. It was semi-reliable (would happen maybe 20% of the time) for one our viewer dev contractors, but I couldn’t reproduce it myself. It is “kinda” fixed in that I have eliminated some unnecessary resets during login that would help trigger the bug, with a subsequent savings of effort and bandwidth of object update data on arrival. However the root race condition that is being avoided… I didn’t actually figure that out. 
So… I would expect improvements (reduction of missing content on login) but I don’t think this fixed everything. In particular, I thought maybe it would help reduce the rate of missing attachment items on avatars, but upon more thought I realized this fix is not relevant to that problem. Anyway, heads up: this fix is expected to be in Fig Pudding [the next simulator update].

– Leviathan Linden

TP Failure and Log-in Issues

  • Reports suggest that that has been a “big increase” in TP failures and login failures over the last week (I can attest to the former; having had around a 40% TP failure rate on first attempts to get somewhere on several days). Viewer logs and times incidents occurred, submitted via Canny, would be helpful in debugging issues.
  • It was also noted that LL is engaged in making some network infrastructure changes, so again, a request was made for those “experiencing connectivity problems not of the usual sort or frequency” to file a Canny report would be useful. Times, places, names, and log files.
  • The game_control capability remains on-hold. Leviathan Linden is currently engaged in other work, and unfortunately, game_control is is “near the bottom of” the stack of work he has on-hold as a result.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

2025 SL viewer release summaries week #20

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, May 18th, 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: 2025.03 7.1.13.14343205944, issued April 9th and promoted April 15th – No Change.
  • Release Candidate: 2025.04 – 7.1.14.14911904105, May 13th 2025 – Updated.
    • Includes the following new features:
      • Chat Mentions (Early Support): Type @ then pick a name. To follow: audible alerts and highlight colour pickers.
      • My Outfits subfolders: now supports the use of subfolders.
    • Key updates:
      • Build Floater improvements: increase to scale boundaries; Physics Material Type now updates when selecting linked objects; Repeats per Meter value no longer incorrect for non-uniform sized objects
      • Hover height: the minimum/maximum is now +/- 3 meters.
      • Snapshot floater: L$ balances can be hidden independently of the rest of the UI.
      • Preference Search bar: general usability and readability improvements.
    • Refer to the release notes for full updates and fixes.
  • Second Life Project Lua Editor Alpha, version 7.1.12.14888088240, May 13th – Updated.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL Viewer Stable: 1.32.2.48, May 17, 2025 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2025 Raglan Shire Artwalk in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Raglan Shire Artwalk 2025

Raglan Shire, Second Life’s Tiny community, is once again opening its doors to people from across the grid, as participating artists and visitors are invited to the Raglan Shire Artwalk 2025.

This year, the the event runs from Sunday, May 18th, through until Sunday, June 15th, 2025, inclusive. It  offers an opportunity not just to appreciate a huge range of2D art together with a selection of 3D pieces, but to also tour the Shire regions and enjoy the hospitality of the Raglan Shire community – one of the friendliest and fun-seeking groups in Second Life.

A non-juried exhibition, the Artwalk is open to any artist wishing to enter, and has minimal restrictions on the type of art displayed (one of the most important being all art is in keeping with the Shire’s maturity rating). All of this means that it offers one of the richest mixes of art displayed within a single location in Second Life, with 2D art is displayed along the hedgerows of the Shire’s pathways and tree platforms overhead and 3D art among the community’s parks.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2025

Over 100 artists are participating in 2025, many for the first time. As such, the depth and range of art on display is guaranteed to keep visitors exploring the paths and walks around and through the hedgerows – and if walking proves a little much, there are always the Shire’s tours to ease the load on the feet, together with the teleport boards to help move visitors swiftly around and through the different display areas. But that said, I do recommend exercising your pedal extremities and doing at least some of your exploration on foot – just keep in mind people do have their homes in the regions as well.

Given the number of artists involved, there isn’t a published list of participants, but anyone interested in the world of SL art is bound to recognise many of the names of the artists here. The Artwalk is also a marvellous way to see art from both our physical and digital worlds and for catching artists both familiar and new to your eye. Just don’t try to see it all at once; the Artwalk is open for a month, which gives plenty of time for browsing and appreciating the art without feeling overloaded.

Raglan Shire Artwalk 2025

SLurl Details

All of the Raglan Shire Artwalk regions are rated General)

A walk around Calland in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Calland, May 2025 – click any image for full size

While we have never met, Jeannie Schimmer is a woman somewhat after my own heart; someone driven by curiosity and the need to create. It was a drive that started with a single goal which – as I’ve found myself, as doubtless have many others – evolved into something far greater. In this case, an entire public region.

I wanted to learn how to make a proper wharf. After the wharf came a little village, then came the countryside and so much MORE! Feel free to wander around and explore.

-Jeannie Schimmer on creating Calland

Calland, May 2025

Called Calland, the region is a pleasing mix of open spaces, waterside spots, a little village and pleasant walks. It’s is also a place which appears to be going through continuous evolution – again the mark of a creative mind twiddling with ideas and updates.

An example of this comes with the local church; original shots of the setting show the church to be modest, traditional affair with white wood sidings and a tiled roof and steeple. The current church is a far more modern design, its wooden-beamed sides and general form making a strong statement whilst also fitting with the surrounding fir trees and those growing across the hills behind the north of the village.

Calland, May 2025

This village sits just back from the Landing Point – a paved waterfront quay marked by boat moorings, houseboats and a parade of shops. The quayside also give the first indications that there are activities to be enjoyed here: a bubble rezzer sits next to a bicycle rezzer, the pair of them giving visitors the choice of floating or pedalling around the setting if they wish.

The church mentioned above sits to one end of a road paralleling the quay, and which might be considered the village’s main street. It is home to the local garage, movie theatre and more shops sitting with their back to those on the quayside. Facing the church at the far end of this street are parkland offices – the park presumably being the open lands above and to the north of the town.

Calland, May 2025

An old mine tunnels under the hills of the park as a means to to reach the region’ northern side. It is actually one of four routes for doing so. The second takes the form of a boardwalk at the eastern end of the quays, and which passes between the park offices and a large house boat. The remaining two lay a walk westward alongside the quayside from the landing point.

The first of these latter two takes the form of a footpath meandering its way through a formal garden; the second a walk north along the region’s western edge. This passes by way of a deserted bar and a 1950’s style diner, together with a floating pier and a shingle waterfront which runs between the water and a small bungalow (possibly a private home; I’m not actually sure) and a walled garden respectively.

Calland, May 2025

The formal garden, meanwhile, offers places to sit and pass the time, games, including mah-jong within its small auditorium, and dancing. Beyond it, the path continues on to the parklands, sandwiching the bungalow and walled garden (which again offers places to sit and is popular with the local rabbits and birds!) between itself and the west-side coastline.

The northern landscape offers winding paths, horse grazing (and horse riding), an impromptu shindig, a Hobbit hole home(!) and outdoor seating. The east side of the park is particularly hilly and semi-rugged, the paths and trails slithering between the higher peaks, with bridges spanning streams, water falling from the higher slopes, with the local bears keeping their eyes on things.

Calland, May 2025

Two islands complete the setting. The larger, sitting to the north-west, is connected to the rest of the region via two bridges. A large house and grounds take up its space. Again, I’ve no idea if it is intended to be a private residence or not; however, as I did not wish to invade privacy were it to be so, I didn’t dally there.

The second island sits within a bay on the north side of the region. Cut off from the rest of the landscape by water, it is home to the Racoon Creek camp ground. The best way to reach it without flapping your arms and taking to the air is via the zip line that extends down from the hills in the middle of the mainland area to the pier at the entrance to the camp site. For getting back across the water after a visit, try using the local bubble rezzer on the arrival pier.

Calland, May 2025

Tranquil and with considerable details throughout (there is much I’ve intentionally not mentioned here), Calland is a charming place to visit, offering a fair amount to do and a lot to appreciate.

SLurl Details

  • Calland (Calland II, rated Moderate)

Sunday, May 18th: Bay City turns 17 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bay City 17th Anniversary, 2025

Bay City, the first major project undertaken by the Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), will be turning 17 on Sunday, May 18th, 2025. Citizens of Bay City will be joining in celebrations to mark the anniversary, with a parade, music and entertainment, and residents from across of Second Life are invited to visit Bay City and join in the celebrations.

Activities will kick-off at noon SLT, with a parade line-up at the band shell in Bay City – Harwich. At 12:30 SLT, the parade will commence its way along the City’s Route 66, and proceed to the Bay City Fairgrounds in the North Channel region for an afternoon of entertainment and fun.

Bity City Parade Route 2024

DJ GoSpeed Racer will be providing the music throughout the parade, which will be followed by at live concert from 13:30 SLT onwards at the fairgrounds. The line-up for the concert this year comprises (all times SLT):

  • 13:30-14:30: Aubryn.
  • 14:30- 15:30: Mimi Carpenter.
  • 15:30-16:30: Jesie Janick.

As usual, celebratory goods are available at the Bay City Community Centre, in the Daley Bay region for those who wish to be a part of the parade. Ample viewing areas are provided, such as those at Orleans and Falconmoon. The event is also open to anyone who wants to attend, not just Residents of Bay City

About Bay City and the Bay City Alliance

First opened for initial viewing in May of 2008 and with parcels throughout the city being auctioned soon after, Bay City is a Mainland community which has shown itself to be one of the highlights of Second Life: a blending of Linden infrastructure and a strong, friendly community of involved residents who give the area its unique charm. It is home to the resident-run Bay City Alliance, also founded in 2008, to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

Each year, in honour of Bay City’s founding, Bay City residents come together with this special celebration.

Anniversary SLurls

2025 week #20: 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, May 15th, 2025. Please note that this is not a full transcript, but a summary of key topics, and timestamps are to the official video, embedded at the end of this report. .
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 and Updates

Viewer Status

2025.04 and Upcoming 2025.25 RC Viewers

[Video: 5:55-7:01]

  • The feature set for the 2024.04 RC viewer remains as per the currently available version:
    • Chat Mentions (Early Support): Type @ then pick a name. To follow: audible alerts and highlight colour pickers.  This does not support generic mentions such as @everyone or @here.
    • My Outfits subfolders: now supports the use of subfolders.
    • Hover height: the minimum/maximum is now +/- 3 meters.
    • UI Quality of life improvements.
    • Use the release notes link, above, for full details.
  • The upcoming 2025.05 RC looks set to include:
    • A “catch-up merge” of fixes and updates from the old Develop / Maintenance C branches.
    • Inventory Favourites (described at the meeting as “a little bit buggy”). As per [Video: 11:41-13:30], this is  a capability originally designed in 2024, and will see the addition of an Inventory tab where selected favourite items can be listed.

 glTF Mesh Uploader

[Video: 3:51-5:54 + as noted below]

  • The decision has been made to move this out of the upcoming 2025.05 RC viewer.
  • This decision also means that the Lab is evaluating what will be required to get PBR material imports working as part of the mesh upload process at the same time (rather than just having only the Base Colour uploaded).
    • Under previous plans, it had been stated that direct import of a full set of glTF materials as a part of a glTF mesh requires an large refactoring of code; so the initial release of the uploader would only support Base Colour, with other maps to be added in the future.
    • It also marks a switching away from discussions at the last CCUG, where creators expressed a preference to upload meshes with all materials and just have blank faces to which they could they apply their materials post upload. This is because the Lab would rather provide a complete drag-and drop solution, if this can be done.
    • The unspoken element of this update suggests that if direct upload of materials with meshes does prove to be complex, providing uploads with blank faces will likely be the fallback approach.
    • Either way, the ability for people to apply their own materials to objects that are Modify will remain unchanged.
  • [Video: 7:02-8:31] As to when an in which viewer the mesh uploader will surface is TBA, and subject to further internal discussions at the Lab.
    • There is currently a issue in getting rigged meshes (full avatars, as provided for testing by content creators, rather than individual items) to upload correctly.
    • LL is not opposed to shipping the uploader as a Project viewer once suitable for testing. This is liable to occur “sooner rather than later”, subject to the above mentioned issue.
  • [Video: 8:55-9:55] Will the glTF uploader support large meshes / those with more than 8 faces, rather than breaking them up?
    • The 8-face constraint a current system constraint and requires potentially significant simulator codes changes. As such, it is liable to remain “for now”
  • Implementation of a glTF mesh uploader will not mean the end of COLLADA (.DAE) upload support for SL – this will remain available. However, as modelling tools, etc., are deprecating COLLADA support, there is a recommendation that if creators wish to continue supporting their old mesh content, then they convert it to glTF .

In Brief

  • [Video: 13:32-15:00] Feature Request Add Custom Tags to Inventory Items – was raised at the end of 2024, and is currently marked as Tracked.  It was raised again at this meeting. Kyle Linden confirmed that a design for such tagging in on the viewer roadmap.
  • Terrain:
    • [Video: 15:15-16:12] Potential for better terraforming tools: Described as something LL would like to get to, including higher resolution texture support; the (currently on-hold) Terrain Painting work, etc. However, nothing is currently being worked on, and suggestions for terrain improvements request through the Feedback Portal.
    • [18:04-20:26] New terrain textures for Mainland: seen as a “nice to have”. However, given issues around enabling HDR skies to make PBR look good on Mainland (and the resultant “dim/dark” look to the skies) + the number of people still not using PBR-capable viewers (although this number is falling), LL is cautious about making widespread changes to Mainland. Nevertheless, updating terrain textures is something (per the above) LL “would like to do” in time.
    • [Video 44:41-46:26] WRT terrain and texturing a question was asked on whether it would be possible to have a “grass” functionality at so point, allowing land holder spawn grass on their land, rather than just having a texture. This does (to a point) exist in the viewer through the Build floater → plant rez option, although this is admittedly old and can be LI intensive, so likely needs revisiting in the future to update. Canny requests on what people would like to see with this were requested.
  • [Video: 17:10-17:45] It was asked if there was any further news on feature request: Make Appearances Height = Prim Height, noted at the last meeting as “something that could be looked at”.
    • Short answer: no.
    • The discrepancies in height are something LL would like to address, but involves where they are and what needs to be done (even different viewers can report different heights for the same avatar). But is it not something currently in progress.
  • [Video: 20:33-24:39] A discussion on being able to “share” attachments (e.g. one person being able to have a pizza box attached to them, and others being able to “take” a slice of pizza from the box a) without any complex means of taking an attachment to inventory and adding it (or similar) and b) having the corresponding slice of the pizza “vanish” from the box.
    • Rider Linden confirmed two approaches (to meet different use-cases) are “on the drawing board” to address this. One involves the use of Experience capabilities; the other enabling attachments to be made directly from an object’s inventory. However, neither option is currently being worked on.
  • [Video: 24:51-29:21] A request was made for further attachment points.
    • Providing additional attachment points is seen as sub-optimal, simply because of the additional rendering load / script processing requirements doing so will bring.
    • Rather, and while not currently on the roadmap, LL might look towards allowing customs skeletons (when supported) to have their own attachment structures, with a proxy system to offer back compatibility with the existing attachment point system.
    • This discussion touched on the Permissions system (e.g. allowing no modify items to be linked to others), which is really a no-no among many (although subject to debate within and without LL), as so unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, if at all.
  • [Video: 29:50-31:20] The above flowed into a discussion on the proposed permissions “bypass” that had been put forward by Geenz Linden for resolving issues of alpha/gamma issues causing some hairstyles to look “wrong” under PBR lighting.
    • This would have enabled uses to make a change through the viewer to enable “legacy” blending on the hair, even if it was No Modify. However, this was not seen as an optimal route to take by some at LL.
    • As such, the fix remains on hold until either those at LL can be persuaded that allowing such a bypass of permissions is not so bad, or an alternative solution can be determined, which could be used to detect all instances where legacy alpha blending is required.
  • [Video 33:22-34:55] Imposters and mesh proxies:
    • It is acknowledged that the current avatar imposter system is looking increasingly outdated.
    • The idea of providing some form of proxies (e.g. “visible triangle only” when seen from a distance) has been discussed internally at LL, however, this is not something being actively worked upon, nor is it part of any scheduled future work.
  • There were also general discussions around Gacha (more policy than content creation) and this Canny report; new user on-boarding; content being ripped from SL (or other platforms) and (re)uploaded to SL for sale (file a DMCA Take-Down request); LL addressing quality of life issues (usability) – being addressed, file Cannys!; items awaiting better prioritisation (e.g. dynamic Landmarks). Please refer to the last 20 minutes of the video for more on these.

Next Meeting