As I work with AI in RL design projects (coding websites), I am learning how to get more from it. This is a ‘revised’ report where I have AI digging for news in more places. Following is what it found.
I am also curious about what is happening in the gaming and virtual world fields in general as I think it will affect Second Life™. So, I have added a section on that. I also have AI analyzing how these developments are likely to impact Second Life. It will take some time to see how well it predicts.
This report synthesizes verified technology updates, new features, and releases for Second Life™ from October 1–31, 2025, drawn by AI exclusively from specified sources. Focus remains on platform changes, viewer enhancements, grid stability, and related tech announcements, excluding non-technical content.
As I learn more about AI this criterion gets updated. This is an initial summary of the month. I may post updates.
A reader, rhet0rica, noted that much of the previous September report was fake. Seems fake news is everywhere. But rhet0rica caught it. I went looking to see what happened. An interesting conversation followed with Grok about why it gave me a load of BS. I may write about that later.
Created with Adobe Firefly…
Below is an actual comprehensive summary of Second Life™ technology updates, new features, and releases for September 2025, covering official Second Life (SL) platform changes, viewer updates (both official and third-party), and related tech announcements. The summary is based on verified information from the specified sources, filtered strictly to the period of September 1–30, 2025, and excludes non-tech topics like events or community news. The report is organized by major update categories. Notice the references: [web:1] and similar. These now actually do point to the subject discussed.
This month’s summary covers “Second Life™ (SL)” technology updates, new features, and releases from September 1, 2025, to September 30, 2025, focusing on official platform changes, viewer updates (official and third-party), and grid/performance improvements. Information is synthesized from official Second Life sources, third-party blogs, and relevant X posts, prioritizing factual details on announcements, rollouts, bug fixes, and integrations.
I am using Grok to collect and organize the information. Then I tweak and add to the text. Hopefully making it a bit more understandable.
Official SL Platform Updates
“September 3, 2025: PBR Materials Enhancements” – Linden Lab rolled out updates to their “Physically Based Rendering (PBR)” system, improving texture rendering for reflective surfaces and dynamic lighting. This update enhances visual fidelity in regions supporting PBR, addressing user feedback on performance lag [web:1](https://community.secondlife.com/news/tools-and-technology/).
There is an SL oddity apparently in all viewers. When capturing images, we residents call it photography, reflections are lost in the captured images unless the image and screen resolution are the same. I have not yet updated my monitor. So, I run at 1920x1080px. If I capture a higher rez image, usually 3000x1576px, the reflections are gone. ☹
This summary organizes key technological updates, new features in Second Life™ (SL), and enhancements to SL and third-party viewers based on announcements and releases during August 2025.
There is some stuff for the every day not so technical user.
Second Life Core Platform Updates
Second Life Viewer Release: 2025.06 (Version 7.2.1.17108480561) – Released August 28, 2025
Inventory Favorites System: Users can now mark items (e.g., outfits, objects) as favorites for quick access, improving inventory management. This community-requested feature streamlines organization and reduces clutter.
Avatar System Improvements: Enhanced skeleton reset as a networked ViewerEffect for better synchronization; fixed hand size settings not saving; restored full 90-degree upward pitch in mouselook camera mode; resolved anti-flipping regression in mouselook.
Camera and Movement Enhancements: Improved arrow key movement description; fixed teleport history landing height issues; added “Disable Camera Constraints” and “Disable Minimum Camera Zoom Distance” options for greater flexibility.
Chat and Voice Fixes: Fixed empty conversation logs; enhanced emoji picker for correct insertion; resolved voice echo across regions (Vivox to WebRTC transitions); improved voice reconnection after tuning; fixed slider text truncation in voice settings.
Content Creation Tools: Mesh uploader now allows reducing material counts; detailed LOD (Level of Detail) information in Build Tools; better error messages for texture uploads.
UI and Text Polish: Automatic placeholder text selection in fields; fixed blurry thumbnails; resolved issues deleting links to worn objects; improved “Away” status handling.
Environment and Rendering Fixes: Fixed shadow FPS drops on Mac vs. PC; resolved stream toggle greying out; corrected viewer URI links for parcel maps.
Stability and Crashes: Numerous crash fixes, including those related to notifications, voice connections, and SD (Serialized Data) handling.
System Improvements: Enhanced performance for inventory finder floater; memory allocation fixes; OpenJPG and PBR texture panel improvements.
Impact: This release incorporates community feedback via GitHub and the SL Feedback Portal, focusing on quality-of-life enhancements. It builds on prior updates like glTF mesh import (from July) and supports ongoing WebRTC voice rollout. Download available via official SL site; full notes at releasenotes.secondlife.com.
The is my second attempt at summarizing what has happened in Second Life™ in the last month. Last month and this month I used A.I. to find websites that cover Second Life™ technology. I’ve culled several of the June A.I. picks for source information and added others.
Mobile App Updates: The Second Life Mobile app, still in Beta for Premium and Premium Plus users, continued to evolve with performance enhancements and bug fixes. No specific July 2025 updates were announced. June 2025 updates highlighted features like the Lobby for quick access to chats, friends, events, and blog posts. Also Linden Reward Streaks for earning free Linden Dollars daily. These updates likely saw minor refinements in July.
I thought I would try some AI scanning to gather SL news on a monthly basis. This is what I found for June.
SL Mobile: Grumpity and Philip point out that work continues on the rendering capability of mobile devices. There has been a 10x increase in people signing up and onboarding via mobile and Project Zero. Nice.
Homes: A new neighborhood, Ridgewood Enclave, is planned for Premium+ members. The availability of commercial regions tied to the new homes is mentioned. Also, some refurbishing of existing home themes is planned. Some PBR updates to existing themes is mentioned.
Gacha: OK, most of us know Gatcha is back. Some of use think that is a good thing. I have my doubts.
October 22, 2024 the Firestorm Team released a new version of their viewer: 7.1.11. I am running 7.1.9, their initial PBR release. I’ve had a few minor problems and it is a little slow. But not so slow as to be frustrating. If I were still playing in SL’s combat games, I would probably be … Read more
