I humbly request that Babylon.js implement a similar loader to this Three.js loader.
I think this is currently covered just not in the same ways. For Environment / reflection textures, there is a tool to create .env files, it escapes me where at the moment, that takes in a .hdr and does all the pre-processing ahead of time, instead of at “go time”. It can also make it significantly smaller than the .hdr.
I have a 5199kb .hdr that comes out as a 622kb .env.
A texture itself is of zero worth unless it is attached to a material which is then attached to a mesh. For 360 jpegs there is a photo dome mesh.
I think this arrangement is better. That is just an example. It says so in the page title. It as most example code, does not really go anywhere, as a practical matter.