Feature Requests

I suggest an enhancement to the Bakes on Mesh (BOM) system by introducing an opacity option for BOM layers. As a designer, the current limitations of BOM force us to add additional mesh layers, particularly for makeup applications. This increases mesh complexity and necessitates the use of complex HUDs. Enabling opacity control on BOM layers could eliminate the need for extra mesh layers, thus optimizing mesh complexity and enhancing overall performance. Additionally, this would allow for greater flexibility and creativity, as BOM makeup layers wouldn’t be limited to one or two mesh layers (depending on the number of mesh layers created by a designer). With the recent introduction of 2k BOM textures, the capability to adjust blend modes directly on BOM layers would be highly beneficial for both designers and users. It would offer more customization options and improve the user experience. It would positively impact the creative community and contribute to a more streamlined and efficient design process.

For the past nearly 22 years, Second Life has been a bastion of creativity and and expression, providing un-paralleled experiences that even to this day, its' competitors cannot properly match. However, it seems that Linden Lab, in the face of opportunity with the metaverse's* growth in recent years in the face of aggressive funding and pursuits by the tech industry, has failed to respect its' userbase. Artificial Intelligence, at large, whilst providing a valuable resource in countless fields, also poses great risk to Second Life's future if left to be exploited without restraint. Generative AI provides no intellectual property protections (Naruto v. Slater, No. 16-15469 (9th Cir. 2018)), is overwhelmingly trained on unauthorized data with clear and concise intent to replicate the works of those without consent or authorization ( https://hbr.org/2023/04/generative-ai-has-an-intellectual-property-problem ), causes great harm to the environment ( https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about ) , and of relevance to Second Life's continued viability as a platform - jeopardizes the place of human workers in an economy not fit to sustain them lest they lose their job as a result of supplantation by AI. And what is more, many experts have stated that the AI bubble is doomed to burst at some point in the next 2-3 years, which would undermine any investments by Linden Lab into AI technology, especially as AI has become a literal money sink. ( https://gizmodo.com/github-copilot-ai-microsoft-openai-chatgpt-1850915549 ) In the face of this, Linden Lab has refused to adopt protections for its' creators against artificial intelligence being used on their assets, has refused to adopt strategies to mitigate low-quality AI slop from being disseminated through the marketplace, which muddies results and makes searching difficult, and with technologies like ConvAI's bots, exacerbates the undying argument that Second Life is 'dead', when all people will likely come across, are poorly coded bots with little guardrails that can be exploited and in turn, leave the bot operator vulnerable, for little if any benefit to our residents. And in the face of constant negative feedback from the residents who support our home, Linden Lab has decided to double down on AI by using it in promotional material, which once again, fails to reflect the reality of our platform to an audience that likely will have the retention rate of ground beef rotting away in the sun. All the while, many of our residents have been given no choice but to at worst, abandon SL, or at best, withdraw all financial support to the platform. Even I, have been contemplating the latter by selling my land, and ceasing my Premium Plus membership. As such, I, [REDACTED 1], along with those who support this request, issue the following demands of Linden Research, d/b/a Linden Lab: Immediate sunsetting of the ConvAI bot system within 90 days of approval of this request. A permanent ban on the commercial use of generative artificial intelligence in Second Life in any capacity, with moderate warnings for infringers, or explicit bans for use of generative AI that directly undermines an creator on our platform. Assurances by Linden Lab Product Operations, Marketing and Development teams that under no circumstances will Linden Lab in the future, pursue the use of generative AI as part of the development, maintenance, promotion or support of the Second Life platform in any substantial capacity. You as Lindens have an obligation to ensure the sustainability of your sole product that is now keeping your corporation afloat, and has reliably done so for the past 22 years, lest you decide to throw caution into the wind in the face of constant anger and frustration of your userbase, and cause many of the creators who you have championed and laid host for all of this time to abandon Agni for sunnier shores. These people are your lifeblood, the very reason why Second Life exists, and when they go, their customers will follow. And when their customers follow, the barons who already hemmorhage money paying for simulators will take flight from here, and all of Agni will implode in on itself. And it all could be avoided. Even in the face of the age of AI, we can stand the test of time, as we have for nearly my entire physical life, at the halcyon age of [REDACTED 2]. Whether or not we do, is up to you and your abettors - to come to the table, accept humility, and ensure a future for our home that does not lean all in on the dystopia that others seem content with. * The Metaverse, referring to the collective of virtual worlds (i.e. Activeworlds, Second Life, IMVU, There, VRChat, etc.)

I'd love to be able to have the body and my head shapes be separate. Right now the shapes are tied together as one shape. I would love to be able to say, purchase a head shape someone has created and be able to apply it without changing my body shape as well.

Yet another day of begging bots hitting many groups and asking for 100L. It's deeply tedious for group moderators, and users are being scammed. For whatever reason this is a problem that has plagued SL for years without any sign of resolution. A common solution has been to put a L$1 sign up fee for groups. This is less than ideal because it creates a barrier to users who have no money at that moment. Also it's no longer working, as I've seen a begging bot kicked out of such a group today. We had a big discussion about solutions in the "Friends of Philip" group, and finding any solution that doesn't create problems of its own seems hard. However I'd like to suggest that when people join a group, they are presented with a challenge-response problem. The issues with Captcha itself are well documented, but some simple challenge that's easy for users and hard for bots (perhaps based on the "honeypot" method?) could dramatically help with this. Maybe this should be a separate entry, but it would also be immensely helpful to have an alternative to group bans, allowing us to temporarily ban a user. Currently these bots get banned, vanish, and are still clogging up the group ban list. If we had temporary (say 1 month) bans as an option, they'd get cleared out of the group ban list.

Currently, a specific animation priority level must be specified by the creator and after uploading it to SL, that priority level cannot be altered. However, the priority level of each animation should be user adjustable in SL.

🔴 Summary 🔴 Second Life has come a long way, but OpenGL is becoming outdated. To ensure SL remains visually competitive and runs smoothly on modern hardware, I propose that Linden Lab begins development on Vulkan support as a long-term goal. This transition would greatly improve performance, reduce crashes, and allow SL to take full advantage of modern GPUs. 🟡 Why Vulkan? 🟡 ✅ Better FPS & Performance – Vulkan is optimized for multi-core CPUs and modern GPUs, meaning higher frame rates and less lag in complex environments. ✅ More Stability & Fewer Crashes – Vulkan manages memory more efficiently than OpenGL, reducing viewer crashes and graphical glitches. ✅ Future-Proofing Second Life – OpenGL’s development has slowed, while Vulkan is the industry standard for new and upcoming graphics engines. ✅ Improved Graphics Potential – Vulkan supports advanced rendering features that could enhance lighting, shadows, reflections, and materials in SL. 🟢 How This Transition Could Work Smoothly 🟢 Instead of a sudden shift, I suggest a gradual development plan (2025-2030): 1️⃣ 2025-2026: Linden Lab researches Vulkan feasibility and starts experimental development. 2️⃣ 2027-2028: An optional Vulkan beta mode is introduced for testing and optimization, running alongside OpenGL. 3️⃣ 2029-2030: Vulkan becomes the default renderer, with OpenGL as a fallback for older systems. 4️⃣ Community Engagement: Regular updates from Linden Lab on progress, plus support for third-party viewers adapting to Vulkan. 🔵 Why Start Now? 🔵 Even though this transition will take years, starting early ensures SL stays ahead rather than falling behind other virtual worlds. A well-planned Vulkan integration could attract new users while making SL smoother for current residents. If you agree, please upvote and share your thoughts in the comments! Let’s show Linden Lab that the community is ready for a modern and optimized Second Life! 👍 💬 �

With massive inventories in the >> 80k items range, especially for older residents, there are a lot of folders that are basically stuff a resident does not use frequently. Stuff you would move to the attic in RL. This slows down searching and finding items and causes UX issues when the inventory UI slows to crawl or search is super slow. Examples include pristine copies of items only kept as backup in case the active item breaks down. Legacy stuff that fell out of fashion, but is too good to simply delete. Tons of other things. It would be useful to mark such folders with some "attic" or "archived" category to get them out of the way. Those items should not show up in the default inventory list, should not be found by the default search and should be treated as basically non existant unless explicitly requested. They should not be wearable or attacheable in that state. Those attic / archived items should be de-prioritized for inventory loading. The inventory could be considered fully loaded for all important purposes even with all archived items still missing. This would speed up initial avatar loading in some cases. The items should also not simply be display filtered but put in an entirely different structure (maybe extra tab in the UI) to have performance gains in search and browsing. A bit like those infinite chests in games, where all the loot gets put thats not useful but still worthy of keeping.

I would like to see where paid members can acquire a LIST of available linden home plots. Say you like the stilt homes over water, but have a home in a different location, but do not want to "abandon" what you have for something that you may not like. I feel it's like a "roll the dice" of what home you are given after you abandon what you have. So, say you want the stilt over water homes but want to check them out and their locations out BEFORE taking a spot. Right now, the limit for "rolling the dice" with a linden home location is 5 per day. Maybe send the person a list of 5 locations per day/every other day to check-out (with urls) with the option of somehow "buying/taking/selecting" any of those if they like a particular location. I know I have a home that Ican live with, but I am wanting one in a particular location, but do not want to give up what I have for something possibly worse.

I have been in bussiness for over 17 years in sl with the same group, I would love to add the word "Rentals" to the end of the group name so it explains what the group is about and is easier to find, if we can rename AV's, surely we can rename groups? the only way to rename a group at the present is to create a new group, evict everyone from the old group then invite them to the new group.

We absolutely need a slider on the client-side for the visible range of banlines. This would solve MANY issues people have around banlines, whether it's not wanting to see them at all, or needing to see them from a long distance to avoid running into them, IE. during travel in a plane or fast boat. A slider with at least several distance settings, from like 0 to 1-200meters out would be MASSIVELY helpful and solve most folks banline woes.