Cool VL

Second Life® Monthly Technology & Community Report July 2026

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Another month… You likely noticed I’ve been writing more, more blog posts. And I have some Second Life projects under way. All of them involve using AI to create or explore how to do things I haven’t done before.

The majority of this report is an AI collection of what has been reported in various places this month.

SL Computer Update
Computer Update via Nanites

Official SL Platform Updates

  • July 10: Simulator release 2026-07-10.29110850825 deployed. Key fixes included ad-hoc chat session failures, P2P chat initialization timeouts, mesh upload charging issues for Premium Plus residents after region crossings, perpetually cloudy avatars after region crossings, incorrect mesh/texture upload fee estimates, and llSetText() corruption with certain UTF-8 strings. Region state-saving reliability and several crash modes were also improved.
  • July 13: Follow-up simulator build 2026-07-10.29122504250 rolled out with additional refinements from the same development cycle.
  • Mid-July (approx. July 14–15): Hotfix deployed across simhost channels addressing a capabilities-granting bug that could take out entire simhosts. Described as a partial but important mitigation while a fuller fix was prepared.
  • Late July: Simulator channel work continued toward the “Mango” update (RC channels) and the subsequent “Nectarine” release (targeted late July/August). Lua scripting support remained on a tentative path for a later “O” simulator update (possible late August/September).

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Second Life Technology Report – June 2026

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This is a busy month with Pride celebrations and SL23B. Lots to see and do.

Official SL Platform Updates

  • June 8, 2026: Linden Lab announced fee adjustments, including reduced land tier prices for many Private region types (effective June 15), lower minimum L$ purchase fees, changes to LindeX transaction fees, and increased Premium membership subscription fees (effective for new/renewed subs from July 8). These aim to make land more affordable while expanding membership value.
  • Ongoing: SL23B celebrations (June 18–July 19) highlighted platform aspects through “Meet the Lindens” sessions, including discussions on engineering challenges like performance/rendering, OpenGL-to-modern API transitions, region crossings, WebRTC voice, and upcoming Lua scripting.
SL23B - Funky Monkey Temple
SL23B – Funky Monkey Temple

Simulator / Grid Updates

  • June 12 & 25: Simulator releases with routine maintenance and rolling restarts.
  • Grid Stability: Multiple rolling restarts. L$ transaction issues around June 25–26 (investigated and fixed). World Map region name display issues in some TPVs addressed.

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Second Life® Technology Updates Summary: May 2026

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Another month passes. There are several updates this month. Voice is the big one, for those that use voice. For the SL Viewer, you need to be on a version 26.1 or newer. Firestorm users need to be on 7.2.4 or newer.

Some of this month’s changes show where things are going.

SL Viewer 26.2 - May 2028
SL Viewer 26.2 – May 2026

Official SL Platform Updates

WebRTC Voice Service Full Grid Deployment

May 5: Linden Lab completed the rollout of the WebRTC voice service across the entire main grid (Agni). Previously available on ~25% of regions via RC channels, this shift ends reliance on the third-party Vivox service. Linden Lab can now directly maintain and enhance voice capabilities, with future potential for features like voice-to-text. Users were advised to use compatible viewers (official 26.1 or later, or updated third-party viewers) to avoid voice issues.

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Second Life® Technology Report – April 2026

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Tech-focused summary for April 1–30, 2026
Here is the update on last months activity in Second Life.

Official SL Platform Updates

  • April 1, 2026: Voice service disruption reported (connection issues and audio drops). Incident tied to ongoing WebRTC transition testing; highlighted need for full rollout improvements.
  • April 25, 2026: Unscheduled inventory maintenance affected login, rezzing, avatar display, and inventory access. Issue resolved same day; users advised to clear cache. – NOTE: If you are not having issues, don’t. I went through the outage and recovered without clearing my cache.
  • Throughout April: Continued WebRTC Voice testing on RC channels with maintenance sessions (e.g., April 22). Full grid rollout announced for May 5.
New Second Life Tech
My New Home Computer… NOT

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Second Life® Monthly Technology Report – March 2026

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I am running behind. RL is way busy just now. I’m late. Apologies.

So, this is mostly A.I. Reporting. I think all the important changes were caught. Let me know if something was missed.

Official SL Platform Updates

  • March 18, 2026: WebRTC-based Voice Limited Release – Rolled out to limited Release Candidate channels covering approximately 3.4% of the grid. This modernizes voice communication with improved quality, lower latency, and better stability. Users are encouraged to use the latest official Viewer or Firestorm Beta for optimal experience.
  • March 5, 2026 (recap of February features): Featured News highlighted ongoing Mobile improvements including Bubble Chat, Object Chat, and Single Tap for better in-world immersion and communication.
Hobit at Work
Hobit computer tech…

Viewer Releases

  • March 1, 2026: Black Dragon Viewer 5.6.0 released (third-party).
  • March 7, 2026: Megapahit Viewer 26.1.0.55026 released (third-party).
  • March 11–12, 2026: Official Default Viewer 26.1.0.22641522367 released – Added legacy (vintage) search functionality, WebRTC voice improvements, and various quality-of-life enhancements.
  • March 20, 2026: Second Life Mobile 1089 released – Introduced new user chatbot and Portuguese language support in the app UI.
  • March 20, 2026: Second Life Project Flat UI Viewer 26.2.0.22829286351 released – Focused on flat UI and font updates.
  • March 31, 2026: Release Candidate Viewer 26.1.1.23806384790 released – Introduced a one-click installer for easier setup.

Note: No new Firestorm release in March 2026 (last update was February 2026). Cool VL Viewer stable version noted post-March.

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Second Life® New Tech Summary – February 2026

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Reporting Period: February 1–28, 2026

I only quickly read through what the AI generated. I’ll add some info and context here and there from what I’ve seen. I think the AI did a pretty good job this time.

The Stone Computer
I am encouraging my friend to upgrade their computer…

Official SL Platform Updates

  • No new major platform feature announcements, scripting enhancements, rendering overhauls (e.g., glTF/PBR expansions beyond prior), LUA integrations, or avatar rigging updates were reported in official channels for February 2026.
  • The most recent simulator release referenced is from late January 2026 (2026-01-28.21455867889), with no new deploys noted in February.

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