2026 week #22: SUG meeting summary

Sojourn Spring, March 2026 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 26th, 2026 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. These notes form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. They were taken from the video recording by Pantera, embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks to Pantera 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 is held every other Tuesday at 12:00 noon, SLT (holidays, etc., allowing), per the Second Life Public Calendar.
  • The “SUG Leviathan Hour” meetings are held on the Tuesdays which do not have a formal SUG meeting, and are chaired by Leviathan Linden. They are more brainstorming / general discussion sessions.
  • Meetings are held in text in-world, at this location.

Simulator Deployments

  • No planned deployments for the week, just restarts.
  • Loganberry is moving forward, and is currently being reviewed by the Lab’s QA team. This should have:
    • The updates to deal with missing attachments on avatars / having perpetually cloudy avatars.
    • Workaround for mesh face_count mismatch between server and client (this will also require a viewer-side update to fully correct).
    • Harold Linden’s serialisation fixes to ease some region crossing issues.
    • Fix for llListen triggering multiple times.
    • A fix for script parcel permissions being calculated incorrectly and an old issue about rezzing on meshes.

In Brief

  • Rider Linden is working on:
    • A publishing pipeline for the VSCode plugin to make pushing updated versions to the marketplace easier.
    • Some proof of concept work on is the ability to “publish” objects that are rezzed in world and having them show up in the VSCode workspace as directories.
    • Working on some of the helper tables for a few of the APIs.
  • Leviathan Linden is working with resident WolfGang Senizen on improvements to the game_control capability:
    • A clean-up of the game-control UI.
    • Support for full binding of game control to any regular control, and vice versa.
    • Adding some semantics constants to the LSL game-control channel names (e.g. AXIS_FWD_BACK, AXIS_STRAFE, etc., instead of just AXIS_0 – AXIS_5, etc.).
    • Leviathan is also once again looking at the “avatar slides for a few seconds when standing next to a small obstacle” bug.
  • Harold Linden is hoping to make a new version of the Lua simulator code available in the next few days.
  • During the course of the meeting it was noted that LL likely will not have Lua grid-wide in time for SL23B, but it will be fully available “probably soon after”.

General Discussion

Please refer to the video below for  more on the following.

  • llGetRegionWorldMapTile was raised again, with a suggestion that it could be merged with Update Map Service to use ‘actual’ screenshots.
    • Rider Linden indicated that there have been internal discussions about how to make the former work with the asset system, but no actual coding has commenced as yet.
  • A discussion on Land Impact and the value of individual prims (see: 1 prim should be 1 Li – Even when it has a PBR), encompassing the different accounting system, how certain changes can impact the “cost” of rendering a prim, etc. The ran through the meeting from around 20 minutes in to the meeting and bubbles for around 20 minutes.
  • The issue of Random Regions Not Sending Full HTTP Headers was raised again.
    • This is an issue going back to at least 2008.
    • LL appear to have been under the impression it has been addressed.
    • A request was made for those experiencing the problem to raise a Canny report and include the relevant viewer logs.
    • This conversation was threaded in with the “prim” discussion above.
  • Add REZ_REMOTE_SCRIPT_ACCESS_PIN to llRezObjectWithParams is apparently on a “short list” for implementation.

Date of Next Meetings

  • Leviathan Linden: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026.
  • Formal SUG meeting: Tuesday, June 9th, 2026.

† 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.

2026 SL viewer release summaries week #21

Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, May 24th, 2026

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  – One-Click Installer = 26.1.1.23806384790 – April 10 – No change.
  • Second Life Release Candidate (RC) viewer: Flat UI – 26.2.0.25386466510, May 14 -“flat” UI and font update – NEW.
  • Second Life Lua Editor Alpha viewer 6.1.0.23768336784, April 29 – No change.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • Kirstens Viewer S24(7) Build 3400 (beta) – May 24 – release notes.
  • Kokua: 26.2.0.58527 (no RLV) and 26.2.0.62339 (RLV variants), May 24 – release notes.
  • Megaphit viewer version – 26.2.0.55049 – May 19 – changelog.

V1-style

  • No updates.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Second Life Mobile 2026.5.194024, May  (iOS and Android) – bug fixes.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2026 week #21: SL CCUG meeting summary

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, May 21st, 2026.
  • Please note that this is not a full transcript of either 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

Viewer Notes

  • 26.2.0 is now release, per the above. The code has also been merged into all viewers currently in development (such as the Lua Editor) with the exception of the Graphics Care Package (GCP) viewer.
  • Viewer 26.3.0 is the performance improvements viewer, intended to be the next release viewer and which is currently awaiting being issued as an alpha or RC viewer. This viewer:
    • Includes async inventory loading, which should further help with loading very large inventories; together with new texture streaming updates which should help those on SL minimum specification computers with constrained VRAM.
    • Is viewer is reported as providing good performance across a range of systems and scenarios.
  • As a part of the texture streaming updates mentioned above:
    • The viewer will not have: “a proper” texture quality setting (Low to Ultra) or the current LOD resolution drop-down.
    • The viewer will have a new texture resolution drop-down, which is more aggressive on its Low setting to optimise the use of VRAM on low-specification client systems; a Medium setting also doing more lower-resolution loading for textures at a distance from the camera (but high resolutions for those close-up); a High setting with resolutions slightly below their current levels; and an “Ultra” option that pretty much matches the current setting.
    • The viewer will also have a new (around 5 metre) “camera bubble” that follows the camera round and tries to load high resolution textures as best the client computer can manage
  • Lua Editor viewer:
    • There are “a lot of asterisks around” this viewer, both in terms of client-side work and server-side work.
    • This viewer may end up with numerous flags within it which can be toggled on / off depending on the status of server-side Lua support.
    • The availability of an official Linux remains tied to this viewer.
  • The Graphics Care Package Viewer (GCP) is effectively “on hold” as work continues on other viewers. However, when it does surface, it will likely include (but not necessarily be limited to) the following:
    • EEP post-processing settings, easing the work of setting-up EEP environments.
    • PBR specular support.
    • Updated and more performant Screen Space Reflections (SSR), including the ability to adjust SSR rendering to better suit the capabilities of the client computer (e.g. cranked right up on a very capable modern computer & GPU, or dialled down so it doesn’t choke older hardware).

General Discussions

  • It was asked if PBR (glTF) lighting is coming soon. Geenz noted that this requires server-side work, notably around the messaging service between the simulator and the viewer. Such work would need to be implemented before LL can fully commit to having largely glTF-compliant lighting. So, not in the immediate future.
  • A question was asked about artefacts occurring in varying levels when a gradient (slope) is applied in the construction of metallic materials, and whether anything was being done to correct this.
    • The question was related to gradients in normal maps, but was not total clear (i.e. was the gradient part of the normal map, or something added latter?). As such a canny report was requested on it.
    • There is a known issue with gradients on the diffuse map, and this is being addressed with the GCP viewer.
  • A request was made for PBR emissive map textures to load as the colour #000000 (up the receipt of the first discard level), as the current value – colour #808080 -, which  causes objects that use emissive to glow while they load – see this issue / Github).
    • Geenz Linden noted this could be so modified, but it would then cut across some of the texture loading work that has been going into the upcoming performance improvements viewer (26.3)
    • As such any change is unlikely to be implemented as a part of that viewer.
  • With the BonnieBots data collection system now banned from SL, a request was made for clarity on what is / is not permissible in gathering data from the grid, as there are a number of valid projects that require the use of specific data gathered from the grid via bots (e.g. in obtaining terrain heightmap data for use in producing 3D terrain maps). Geenz indicated:
    • He would try to get some clarity on this from senior management.
    • That including things like heightmap data into the map system is something the Lab is looking at, so as to make requesting this kind of data easier for those using it.
    • That additionally, LL is considering the use of things like object imposters and mesh proxies where applicable – but there is nothing solid to report on any of this at the moment.
  • It was asked if there are any further updates being planned for the avatar skeleton / avatar bones / blend shapes. Short answer: no; any work on the avatar / avatar skeleton would need to be relatively in-depth due to the risks of content breakage, etc., and so is something LL do not want to take on at present.
  • A question was asked about LL’s strategy for on-boarding and retaining new users. As previously noted in these summaries (and others), LL is not pursuing any single goal for this; there are several inter-related strategies (such as the one-click install on the viewer – making it easier to obtain; & the upcoming graphics improvements – which should make running SL a smoother, more predictable experience).
  • The subject of VR support was raised. The feedback from Geenz was that VR poses significant issues for SL, particularly in the area of being compelling enough to people already using VR headsets. For example:
    • Implementing a means by which people can simply put on a VR headset and look around SL or even move around with their avatar is not technically that complex. However, neither of these approaches would necessarily be compelling to people coming into SL who are familiar with using VR on other platforms.
    • By contrast, making SL interactive in a manner that is compelling to existing users of VR – e.g. being able to engage with, move, etc., in-world objects through hand  arm / body movements and to have things like full facial tracking and representation and having all of that packaged and streamed to everyone else in a region – is a considerably more complex task, potentially touching on multiple areas of the platform. As such it is not actually something LL is directly focused on.
  • The above led to a broader discussion at the end of the meeting on the Lab’s discontinued Puppetry project, its application in a possible VR project, together with alternate approaches, matters of IK, etc., all of which came down (again) to the view that providing a “good” and scalable VR solution in SL requires working on multiple moving parts / would have lengthy lead-times, and so is not something LL  wishes to commit to in the near-term  .

Next Meeting

2026 SL viewer release summaries week #20

Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, May 17th, 2026

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  – One-Click Installer = 26.1.1.23806384790 – April 10 – No change.
  • Second Life Release Candidate (RC) viewer: Flat UI – 26.2.0.25386466510, May 14 -“flat” UI and font update – NEW.
  • Second Life Lua Editor Alpha viewer 6.1.0.23768336784, April 29 – No change.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V7-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable: 1.32.4.30; Experimental: 1.32.5.0, May 16 – release notes.

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

2026 week #20: SL Open Source (TPVD) meeting summary

Hippotropolis Theatre: home of the OSD/TPVD meeting
The following notes were taken from:

  • My chat log of the Open-Source Developer (OSD) meeting held on Friday, May 15th, 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 OSD meeting is a combining of the former Third Party Viewer Developer meeting and the Open Source Development meeting. It is 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  – One-Click Installer – 26.1.1.23806384790 – April 10 – No change.
  • Second Life Release Candidate (RC) viewer: Flat UI – 26.2.0.25386466510, May 15 -“flat” UI and font update – NEW.
  • Second Life Project Viewers – Lua Editor Alpha viewer 6.1.0.23768336784, April 29..

26.2.0 – “Flat UI”

  • A new beta RC was issued on May 14th – see the list above for details.
  • Unless a significant blocker arises, this viewer is likely to be promoted in week #21 (commencing Monday, May 18th, 2026).

26.3.0 – Performance Improvements +

  • 26.3 is still in progress. The new texture streaming updates should be merged already.
  • Work is continuing on getting the async inventory updates included.
  • Geenz Linden is working to get the new material and texture batching work in a good state for it as well.
  • A beta /RC viewer should be appearing on the Alternate Viewers page “soon”.

26.3.1 Maintenance Update

  • The second of the maintenance viewer updates – bug fixes, etc., – is now in preparation.
  • Expect to see this appearing on the Alternate Viewers page “soon” as well.

Graphics Care Package Viewer

  • This is somewhat “on hold” at present, but work will hopefully resume in the near future, as there are a number of bug reports stacking up.
  • There is a reported mirror breakage within the GCP viewer.

Linux Support

  • Linux support in the official viewer is to return with the Lua viewer.
  • LL is targeting the more common Linux systems for support.
  • There is a noted issue with Linux systems without PulseAudio crashing WebRTC versions of the viewer. It has been requested that the WebRTC SDK is fixed to correct this issue, or to provide fallback code PulseAudio to ALSA.
  • It was noted that is a patch or PR was supplied to address this issue, LL would consider it, but LL currently doesn’t have the internal resources to implement a fix themselves.

WebRTC Update

  • As noted in recent user group meeting summaries, WebRTC is now grid-wide and Vivox is effectively retired for Voice. So those using voice on a Vivox-only viewer will now need to update to a WebRTC-capable viewer.
  • WebRTC updates will continue as required, and deployments are carried out separa6tely to the week grind simulator deployment / restarts.
    • Viewers running the latest client-end of WebRTC should not be affected by this, as they they will disconnect from one voice server in the cluster ahead of it going down for update, and automatically reconnect to an operating server in the cluster.
  • In terms of updates, currently the WebRTC team is updating the 3p-webrtc-build branch, and is hoping to look at a code contribution that will enable them to support more recent versions of WebRTC.
  • A patch has also been forwarded to the team to deal with a Linux viewer freeze at shutdown in WebRTC. This also has yet to be looked at.
  • No decision has been taken as to any new capabilities will be added to WebRTC going forward, although voce-to-text transcription (with the potential for multi-language support) remains on the list.
    • There is a lot to be decided on the transcription front: addressing privacy-related concerns, how it is enabled/disabled for people, UX elements, etc.

General Discussion

  • LL is retiring the use of the Opire bounty platform for viewer development code bounties.
    • The major reason for this is that it has led to a spate of bot-generated submissions, many of which are not related to any of bounties, causing headaches in trying to identify valid bounty code submissions.
    • The bounty programme is being re-thought rather than discontinued, and further updates on changes to the bounty programme will be made public once they have been agreed and are available.
  • A discussion on an approach to mirrors for Linden Water, including:
    • A suggestion that 512×512 mirrors could be used to achieve the required results with less VRAM usage.
    • Geenz Linden’s view that mirror probes are currently exposed as a texture array, which needs to be of uniform size, unless bindless, which doesn’t work for Mac OS (until LL moves to a more modern API such as Metal Vulkan). However, he is considering making an exception to the need for the uniform size requirement for a special Water probe type, with its own sampler – although a problem here is the viewer is close to the limit of samplers for Mac OS.
  • Requests have been made to update the official support for CEF to a more recent version. There is an internal project to update CEF / Dullahan within the official viewer.

Next Meeting

2026 week #20: SUG meeting summary

Planet M – Tula, March 2026 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. These notes form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. They were taken from the video recording by Pantera, embedded at the end of this summary – my thanks to Pantera 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 is held every other Tuesday at 12:00 noon, SLT (holidays, etc., allowing), per the Second Life Public Calendar.
  • The “SUG Leviathan Hour” meetings are held on the Tuesdays which do not have a formal SUG meeting, and are chaired by Leviathan Linden. They are more brainstorming / general discussion sessions.
  • Meetings are held in text in-world, at this location.

Simulator Deployments

  • Wednesday, 13th May should see the deployment of the Kumquat simulator update.
    • This contains some further back-end WebRTC fixes and other internal work. E-mail is also being updated, notably off-line IM forwarding and object llEmail()-type activity.
    • This update is being deployed ahead of the originally planned Loganberry update.
  • Loganberry is moving forward, and is currently being reviewed by the Lab’s QA team. This should have:
    • The updates to deal with missing attachments on avatars.
    • Harold Linden’s serialisation fixes to ease some region cross issues.
    • llListen triggering multiple times.
    • A fix for script parcel permissions being calculated incorrectly and an old issue about rezzing on meshes.

WebRTC Update

  • The May 5th grid-wide deployment of WebRTC went ahead as planned, so Vivox is no longer the Voice service across SL; WebRTC is.
  • The deployment apparently went well and there have been few reports of issues.
  • Wednesday, May 13th should see a WebRTC update, which will hopefully see the return of Voice Echo Canyon in-world.
  • WebRTC deployments are now run separately to simulator deployments rather than a part of them. Viewers running the latest client-end of WebRTC should not be affected by this, as they they will disconnect from one voice server in the cluster ahead of it going down for update, and automatically reconnect to an operating server in the cluster.
  • Moving forward, the focus will now be on fixes and updates (e.g. open chat voice attenuation) and general clean-up and the removal of unwanted code.
    • Once this work has been completed, attention will be turned more towards adding new features the WebRTC, including voice-to-text transcription (and has been experimented with inside the Lab, including with multiple languages). However, no decision has yet been made as to WebRTC new features or their scheduling.
  • Concerns over privacy with transcription were raised, and Roxie Linden noted privacy is being looked at, together with security, together with the ability for users to turn off transcription. This sparked a conversation on chat encryption, as per the video.

In Brief

  • Rider Linden has been on-call this week, and so has fixed some issues in the server build system on the server. He is also plans to look at an issue around failed notifications for large groups.
  • Leviathan Linden attempted to provide a game_control update (v 0.7.2), unfortunately, one of the bug fixes within it turned out to be buggy.
  • Harold Linden (Lua):
    • Has the The llprim.ParamsSetter interface merged with the viewer code.
    • Has also been working on the bundler implementation so that `require()` can work correctly in the viewer. However, this might not go out until after the Lua viewer is officially released, so he can focus on “more release-pertinent issues” such as performance and garbage collection.
    • He is going to be working on these latter improvements alongside of making the Lua implementation more memory-efficient in practice: “Lots of non-user-facing things that are important if we want to be in a world where thousands and thousands of Lua scripts don’t make a region fall over”.

General Discussion

Please refer to the video below for  more on the following.

  • SL Combat 2.0 is set so bullets / projectiles are  automatically set to DIE_ON_COLLIDE when they are rezzed, which is a different behaviour to the older SL Combat System and has been found to cause some problems. Rider linden asked if changing Combat 2.0 so projectiles do not die on collide automatically would ab issue.
    • The general (but small) consensus at the meeting was that it should not be an issue; creators can always update their products, if required
    • The question sparked a discussion on Combat running through the mid-point of the meeting.
  • The “soft disconnect” (being unable to physical move from or TP out of a region after being in it for a period of time) issue was raised, with some reporting the issue appears least frequent in the Flat UI RC viewer. No feedback from LL on this
  • There was a discussion on Second Life performance, simulator / viewer / simulator communications latency impacting avatar updates, KFM animations, etc. This ran through most of the second half of the meeting.
  • The above was mixed with a debate over Linux (and its upcoming return to viewer land with the Lua viewer), distros, wishes, etc.

Date of Next Meetings

  • Leviathan Linden: Tuesday, May 19th 2026.
  • Formal SUG meeting: Tuesday, May 26th, 2026.

† 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.