Linden Lab Viewers

The following viewers are available on the official Downloads page:

Second Life Viewer (a.k.a. the official Viewer, regular Viewer etc.)
Second Life Beta Viewer: Available approximately weekly, possibly slightly less stable than the Second Life Viewer, but with the features and fixes that will be in the next Second Life Viewer.

Development Releases

These viewers are released from time to time by viewer development teams within Linden Lab; they contain features and fixes that are not yet even in the Beta version:

Project Viewers: Provide an early look at new features under development before those are ready to get into the main development stream.
Development Viewer: Features and fixes that are still warm from the creative fires of development.

Old Releases

The Release Notes pages for many past versions contain links to the corresponding downloads.

Warning: Past Viewer versions might have known security issues, can be partially or fully incompatible to current server versions and obviously will be lacking newer features. Use them at your own risk.

Third Party Directory Viewers

Warning: The viewers listed here are not developed nor distributed by Linden Lab. Being listed here means only that the developers of the viewer have represented that they comply with the Policy on Third-Party Viewers and the Second Life Terms of Service. You are responsible for evaluating whether you want to use and share information with them.

Using third party viewers

You may connect to Second Life using software released by a third-party developer. Linden Lab provides a Policy on Third-Party Viewers to promote a positive and predictable experience for all Second Life Residents. Beware of third-party viewers that are not in the Viewer Directory: they have either declined to self-certify their compliance with Linden Lab policies or been refused for noncompliance with the policies.

Active Full Viewers

These viewers are projects that are updated regularly to track new developments in the Linden Lab viewer, and implement a full graphical environment.

Viewer	Description	Platforms
Alchemy	An experimental Second Life™ viewer striving to be at the forefront of stability, performance, and technological advancement in the open-source metaverse viewer field.
Black Dragon	The primary goal of Black Dragon is to enhance and refine the visuals of Second Life as well as having unique design approaches and features.
Firestorm	The next generation viewer from The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Firestorm is based on the LL V3 LGPL code and offers extensive interface customizability including V1 skin options, feature and option rich with 24/7 support.
Kirstens	A hybrid viewer based on a mixture of official sources and custom code aimed specifically at experienced users, with emphasis on the visuals.
Kokua	Kokua provides releases for PC, Mac and Linux with and without Marine Kelley's RLV together with a broad selection of original features and the best from other viewers. Kokua aims to be the viewer of choice for RLV users who want Marine Kelley's original implementation with more bells and whistles than Marine's own viewer.
Catznip	Catznip aims to refine and reinvent your window into Second Life. Our focus is stability, usability, privacy and plenty of new original home grown features. It's about taking a fresh look at things and attempting to do them better.
Restrained Love	The RLV enhances your experience when you use it in conjunction with RLV-compatible objects, which are able to restrict the user from detaching items, receiving IMs, hearing chat, teleporting etc.
Singularity	Singularity strives to combine the beloved look and feel of Viewer 1.23 with the latest and greatest of available technology, and to stay compatible with future Second Life changes and features.
Genesis	Genesis is a blazingly fast, high performance 1.23 style viewer for Second Life, offering the very latest features, never seen before in a Legacy viewer.
CoolVLViewer	An improved and expanded v1-UI viewer kept in close sync with Linden Lab's official viewer features. Geared towards performances and stability. The oldest maintained TPV (first release date: 2007-11-16)
Megapahit	This fork is planned to be the shelter for the metaverse refugees, especially those from less supported operating systems
Lovense	Lovense Viewer is a free third-party viewer for Second Life that enables seamless integration with Lovense products.

Subset Viewers

These viewers omit some aspects of the full viewer functionality.

Viewer	Description	Platforms
Radegast	Light-weight feature rich non-graphical client, ideal for situations where full 3D rendering client is less than ideal option, for instance, an office environment, running on low performance computers and similar.
SpeedLight	Pure web Second Life viewer. Supports desktop and all mobile browsers, allows switching between devices.
MetaChat	iOS - TEXT ONLY - Second Life® client.
Mobile Grid Client	Second Life and Open Simulator messaging client for all Android powered devices.

For developers: how to apply to list a viewer in this directory

Your Second Life accounts must be in good standing, must not be suspended, and must not have been permanently banned or terminated.
You must have valid payment information on file with us or have been age verified by us.
Review our Policy on Third-Party Viewers and the Second Life Terms of Service.
Make sure you and your third-party viewer are in compliance with our policies.
Open an Application Issue on the Third Party Viewer Github repository and submit it.

Reporting policy violations

If you believe that you have direct evidence that any third party viewer (whether listed in the Third Party Viewer Directory or not) may be in violation of the Second Life Terms of Service or the Policy on Third Party Viewers, you can file a violation report to be investigated.

Other Third Party Viewers

Important: The following viewers have either not applied for or have been denied listings in the Third Party Viewer Directory.

Whether or not a viewer developer chooses to self-certify by applying for listing in the directory, all viewers connecting to Second Life must comply with the Policy on Third-Party Viewers; listing in the directory is not a requirement.

Note to authors: If you make a viewer available make sure to include platform, version numbers and dates.

*click the boxed arrows to sort on columns*
Name	Type	First release	Latest Release	Status	W ^[1]	M ^[1]	L ^[1]	i ^[1]
#AjaxLife	Text		2008-09-15	Active	X	X	X	X
#Cool VL Viewer	Graphic	2007-11-16	2011-10-01	Active	X	X	X
#Combat Cubed	Graphic		2010-06-16	Active	X
#Exodus Viewer	Graphic	2011-09-28	2011-09-28	Active	X	X	X
#Hippo OpenSim Viewer	Graphic		2010-04-24	Active	X		X
#MetaPay for iPhone and iPod Touch	Text							X
#Milk Release Client	Graphic		2010-01-20	Inactive		X	X
#omvviewer-light	Text		2009-08-25	Active	X		X
#Rainbow Viewer / Cool Viewer	Graphic		2011-07-10	Active	X	X	X
#RealXtend Edition	Graphic		2008-07-28	Active	X
#SLiteChat	Text			Active	X	X	X
#TEKSTUFF Viewers	Graphic		2010-04-20	Active	X
#Whisper (SlXSLChat)	Text		2010-05-09	Active	X	X	X

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 "X": Available with binary distribution

Graphical Viewers

Cool VL Viewer

Description

This viewer was created and is maintained by Henri Beauchamp (This viewer was formerly known as the "Cool SL Viewer" and its first public release was v1.18.4.3, released on 2007-11-16). It combines elements of several of the other viewers, as well as extra features, bug fixes and extra patches, all very carefully tested.

It puts emphasis on high UI coherency from one version to the other (meaning no bad surprise for "old timers") while staying in sync with Linden Lab's official viewer features, high stability and reliability, and a high reactivity to new patches and bug fixes provided by the Open Source community.

The Cool VL Viewer is TPV policy compliant. Please see its TPV TOS.

Extra Features

Reverses many of the unpopular interface changes, restoring separate friends and groups floaters and reinstating the packet loss and bandwidth indicators, the old toolbar and buttons layouts, the old/normal commands layout in the pie menus, the "All(old)" search tab, the old style (name-sortable) "Groups" search tab, the "Fly" button in the movement controls floater, and optionally reinstating the old, more visible, status bar icons and/or tracking dots in the mini-map, and the old chat history floater (without chat input line). Also fixes some UI regressions (missing buttons in some floaters, or visited landmarks tracking in inventory for example).
Implements the "RestrainedLove" API (formerly known as "RestrainedLife"), based on Marine Kelley's reference patch (switchable and disabled by default).
Allows to configure the date and time formats to match your locale or personal preferences (including with optional seconds for chat and IM timestamps).
Allows to wear/remove attachments and clothing items on double-click in inventory.
Allows to optionally prevent notifications to show and be logged in the main chat.
Allows to disable typing sounds.
MUD/MUSH/MUCK/MUX style "poses" (i.e. you can type ":" instead of "/me " to emote), and OOC double parenthesis auto-close (i.e. you can type: "((phone, BRB" and it will show as "((phone, BRB))").
Allows to hide the "Master volume" when not needed in the panel overlay.
Allows to build large prims (up to 256m in any or all dimensions) on OpenSim (not on SL, because of server-side limitations).
Improved friends list floater (with info about what your friends allow you to see: tehri online status and/or their position on the map).
Improved build tools floater (smaller increments in several parameters, extra "slice" parameter for some prims, transparency up to 100%, check box toggle for drag distance limit, adjustable number of decimals in Object tab for the position/size/rotation parameters, "Align" tool). Also allows to set the "invisible" texture from the texture picker (for invisi-prims).
Improved texture preview floater (with aspect ratio combo).
Improved notecard floater (with Edit menu and Search/replace feature).
Improved mini-map with panning, larger zooming range, specific symbol for avatars above 1024m (work around for a limitation of current server and viewer versions), etc...
Improved beacons: can filter beacons based on owner (you, others or anyone), can highlight attachments, can dissociate non-object sound sources, can keep beacons "always on" even when the beacons floater is closed.
Allows to export and import objects you own and created as XML files (for backup and restore purpose, or to transfer objects from one grid to another).
Allows to connect to all existing grids (and not only LL's) from the login screen.
Allows network bandwidth up to 10000Kbps.
Allows to save/compile scripts present in the inventory as Mono scripts.
Allows to teleport to double-clicked locations on screen.
Allows to sit anywhere "on the ground".
Allows to adjust the Z offset (height above the floor) for playing animations.
Allows to cache the inventory in the background after login (for faster inventory operations).
Allows to preview animations on your avatar prior to uploading them.
Implements a group titles floater.
Implements a radar floater.
Implements a teleports history floater.
Implements a "Worn" tab in the inventory floater, and a search/filter by item name, description or creator.
Implements "speed rezzing" on login and TPs.
Implements an object "area search" floater.
Implements the newest LSL functions, highlighting them properly (with tooltips) in the script editor and allowing to compile them. Also implements fully llTextBox() and the AGENT_AUTOPILOT flag with llGetAgentInfo().
Allows to ignore (and not only decline) friendship and calling card offers.
Allows to change how minimized floaters are stacked (top/bottom, bottom/top, left/right, right/left, fraction of the screen width to use for the stack).
Shows avatar keys in profile (in "My notes" tab).
Shows the avatar true height in the appearance floater.
Renders properly objects worn on the illegal attachment points defined in some hacked third parties viewers.
NEW: Provides Mesh rendering support ! (v1.26.1 branch only)
Provides full support for the new Alpha and Tattoo wearables !
Provides inventory item links support !
Provides multiple attachments per point support !
Provides display names support !
Provides Avatar Physics support.
Provides the new SL web search engine as an option.
Provides access to web profiles.
Provides support for setting the new parcel flags (avatar visibility, sounds playing restrictions).
Allows to filter (Allow/Deny/BlackList/Whitelist) media and audio streams URLs to protect your privacy against IP snatchers.
Many bugfixes by Henri Beauchamp, Nicholaz Beresford, Gigs Taggart, McCabe Maxsted and others.
More minor features and improvements, to be discovered on the website...
All switchable extra features easily configurable via a "Cool features" tab in the preferences floater.

Links

Website: The Cool VL Viewer homepage
Message board: Cool VL Viewer forum
Linux viewer: see the The Cool VL Viewer homepage for files and installation instructions.
Windows viewer: see the The Cool VL Viewer homepage for files and installation instructions.
MacOS X viewer: See Hyang Zhao's site for files and instructions.
Source code: The standard Linden codebase is used, with the addition of the patches listed and linked to on the homepage.
Screen shots: Key features and screen shots

Version and timestamp

Version (stable branch): 1.26.0.22 Date: 08 October 2011
Version (experimental branch): 1.26.2.0 Date: 08 October 2011
Status: Active.

Downloads

Linden Lab Viewers

Development Releases

Old Releases

Third Party Directory Viewers

Using third party viewers

Active Full Viewers

Subset Viewers

For developers: how to apply to list a viewer in this directory

Reporting policy violations

Other Third Party Viewers

Graphical Viewers

Cool VL Viewer

Exodus Viewer

Hippo OpenSim Viewer

Meerkat

Nicholaz Edition

Onrez Viewer

Rainbow Viewer / Cool Viewer

RealXtend Edition

Combat Cubed

TEKSTUFF Viewers

Milk Release Client

Text-Only Viewers

AjaxLife

omvviewer-light

Whisper (SlXSLChat)

SLeek

SLiteChat

MetaPay for iPhone and iPod Touch

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