It is now more crucial than ever to address the default point lighting and spotlights in Second Life, given the introduction of PBR materials.

The point lights will always pass through walls, regardless of the presence of reflection probes. This has been the case and has not been rectified to this day.

The number of spot lights is restricted to two. Once that limit is reached, they cease to cast shadows or function correctly, they will behave as point lights and will also pass through walls. This impedes the ability of both creators and consumers to accurately illuminate a scene in a manner that is both consistent and visually appealing.

Furthermore, I recommend that the lighting and render engine of Second Life undergo a comprehensive overhaul before the inclusion of features such as Displacement maps. This will ensure that the lighting in scenes is consistent and provides a more realistic experience than it currently does. Additionally, global illumination should be incorporated into the rendering process. This is similar to the default setting in the majority of contemporary games, which ensures that any object, from the most basic cube to the most extravagant home available on the marketplace, appears visually appealing. And it ultimately grants us creators more autonomy and eliminates the necessity of baking textures to replicate the global illumination effect, which we still have to do, if we want a realistic looking scene, even with PBR materials and reflection probes. And also is the reason why creators chose to advertise their objects using Renders, instead of Ingame screenshots, which is deceptive, and should be unnecessary.

The following images illustrate the information I have provided.

I created a simple scene that consisted solely of white walls and a white ceiling, with a blue floor and default PBR materials. However, the blue reflectivity of the surfaces is unappealing when a light is introduced.

In contrast to the second image, which illustrates the same scene in Blender with global illumination and accurate rendering, the light is distributed more evenly and realistically, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the materials. This is the proper approach, as it eliminates the need to bake scenes. And as simple as this structure is, it looks visually appealing.

I am concerned that the displacement maps will present the same issue, or even worse, in the current engine. This is not an appealing appearance. The first image with the rocks is what i am expecting. The latter image, which depicts the building, demonstrates the appropriate rendering of a displacement map.

Before incorporating any additional features, such as displacement, parallax, HDRI, or any other feature, first, please enhance the lighting engine to ensure that any scene, regardless of its creation, is rendered in a visually appealing manner by default. This will give Second Life a more contemporary appearance and make it more user-friendly. I am confident that the playerbase would be extremely grateful. And likely people would return returning from competitors, such as VRchat. Which has a modern engine, being that it uses unity.

In conclusion:

Modern texture mapping methods necessitate a modern engine that is capable of rendering them accurately; otherwise, they are merely a form of deception that will not cause any significant changes.