Understanding the "Blue Texture" Phenomenon

One of the most common issues when using PBR materials in Second Life is an undesirable blue tint, especially on metallic or glossy surfaces. This is not a flaw in your texture. PBR renders reflections physically accurately, and the problem is a realistic reflection of Second Life's default blue sky. The solution lies in controlling the environment, not in changing the texture itself.

Problem: PBR with Default Sky

The material accurately reflects the blue sky, leading to an unnatural blue tint.

Solution: PBR with Optimized Environment

Adjusting Windlight/EEP settings neutralizes environmental reflection.

The Path to Solution

Controlling PBR reflections requires a two-stage approach:
1. Global Lighting: Adjust region-wide Windlight (EEP) settings to remove the primary source of blue light.
2. Local Reflections: Use reflection probes to capture precise, local environmental details instead of the sky.
The following sections will guide you interactively through both steps.

Interactive Windlight (EEP) Optimizer

Old Windlight settings are not compatible with PBR. To remove the blue tint and achieve realistic lighting, you need to create a PBR-friendly environment. Experiment with the following key settings to see their real-time impact on a reflective surface. The goal is to remove artificial ambient light and define the physical properties of the scene.

EEP Controls

Recommendation: Black. Minimizes unwanted color casts.

Desaturates the primary source of blue reflections.

Determines contrast. Starting value: 1.0.

Affects the strength of indirect light (sun). Base value: 1.0.

Feedback based on your adjustments will appear here.

Visual Guide to Reflection Probes

While Windlight controls global illumination, reflection probes are crucial for accurate, local reflections. They capture their immediate surroundings and project this onto PBR surfaces, overriding global sky reflections. Correct placement is key. Select a scenario to see best practices.

Interactive Performance Checklist

PBR is computationally intensive. A visually stunning sim that is unplayable is useless. Go through this checklist to find a balance between visual quality and performance. Click an item for more details.