Linden Labs has announced some of the features they are working on for the Q2 release of the Second Life tools, and it has some great additions.  One thing many designers have been craving is support for Mesh Import, allowing much simpler import of 3dsMax and Maya models into the world.  One thing users will love is the new integration of the Havok physics engine inworld.

Server 1.40 is primarily going to roll out the Havok 7 Physics Engine. The Havok 7 engine will provide some nice performance enhancements, but the work is foundational as we look ahead into later in 2010 and 2011. Also in Server 1.40 are web services that will make the integration between the Second Life Marketplace and the inworld Second Life experience smoother than it is at the moment. We anticipate shipping Server 1.40 by summer.

Linden is careful to state that some of these may not make it, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be talking about them unless they were already fairly far along in development.

Update 1:30pm: Here’s a video of some of the Havok features:

via Second Life Blogs: Features: Q2 Coming Soon: What’s Ahead For Second Life.