Is the overtuned cave "darkness" fog a bug or intentional?

[Ketoth]

I'm trying to figure out if I'm meant to log this into the issue tracker or not since there seem to have been some changes to how the fog works in 1.20, but as of right now, occasionally the moment you go 20-30 blocks underground light simply stops working, and it happens in a very unrealistic way.

 

As an example, can you see the light source on this picture?

Spoiler

Right here, see?

Spoiler

Getting a bit closer it starts to exist

Spoiler

But you only start seeing the light emanating from this lit, electrum plated lantern, the best craftable light source in the game, when you're inside it's light radius and close enough that your handheld light illuminates it.

Spoiler

 

That's obviously not how light works, even though you're holding a small light you'll still see a significantly brighter light off in the distance. I could see this having been done to create a more oppressive darkness in caves, which it does, but it works in a very annoying way such that you can't even see where you placed lights unless you're yourself submerged in complete darkness.

If the murky darkness is an intended effect I don't think it was done well, it'd probably be best to gradually dim the rendering of light as you get deeper, rather than create this fog around your character, dynamically lower gamma the deeper down you go, down to something like 5-10, further than our current slider goes, that way distant lights would still render, just much dimmer.

 

Either way, anyone happens to know if this is intentional? If it's never been brought up anywhere I'll probably put on a bug report. Cheers.

edit: a word

Edited January 5, 2025 by Ketoth
typo

[LadyWYT]

7 hours ago, Ketoth said:

If the murky darkness is an intended effect I don't think it was done well, it'd probably be best to gradually dim the rendering of light as you get deeper, rather than create this fog around your character, dynamically lower gamma the deeper down you go, down to something like 5-10, further than our current slider goes, that way distant lights would still render, just much dimmer.

 

Either way, anyone happens to know if this is intentional?

I'm thinking the closest answer is probably "sort of". By that I mean that I think you're probably right in that the change was made to make the caves spookier. But they probably didn't mean to make light sources(the better ones, anyway) that obscured. So I'd wager it's a rough spot in the system that needs some refining.

[JAGIELSKI]

//edit nvm, being dumb here. Delete this post.

Edited January 5, 2025 by JAGIELSKI

[Ketoth]

1 minute ago, JAGIELSKI said:

How does a lantern work there?

That's exactly what I'm trying to show with the screenshots, I placed down my lantern (my usual handheld lightsource) because the oil lamps I was placing down as breadcrumbs were totally invisible, and the lantern itself is just as bad, the fog makes it so it's only visible when you're right next to it. There Is an upgraded lantern in every single one of those screenshots in case you haven't looked at the last one.

If you're not holding any lights the effect is less pronounced, the placed down lantern is faintly visible from a distance rather than completely pitch black, but (I think?) it still shouldn't behave that way considering who the hell runs around a dark cave with no light in their hand.

[Zane Mordien]

I've felt the same thing. I hang torches in my iron mine and I can't see them when I walk not that far away. It's bright enough to not spawn stuff but pitch black when I look back to the entrance. I hope someone makes a mod that removes this new improvement. It's overkill.

[Irulana]

I think it is a bug, I post it on discord bug reports:  https://discord.com/channels/302152934249070593/1126913904979755140/threads/1308459406777651211 it is very strange it even change color of sky to dark.

[me0is0kim]

I really, really hate this effect/bug.  I understand wanting ambiance but I'm a "explore and build and have fun" kind of player and not being able to a) see more than three blocks ahead of me and b) not able to see any of my navigation lighting really takes all the fun out of cave exploration for me.  Would be nice to have the option to turn it off.

[Ketoth]

19 hours ago, Irulana said:

I think it is a bug, I post it on discord bug reports:  https://discord.com/channels/302152934249070593/1126913904979755140/threads/1308459406777651211 it is very strange it even change color of sky to dark.

cheers, left a post on that thread to corroborate it.

[Lodeclaw]

I believe there are two things going on here. Neither are bugs as far as I can tell.

The OP is noticing what appears to be a new feature. There are some places in the underground where a malevolent darkness is present which suppresses light sources. These areas often have oxidation on the cave walls. In my testing I found most caves don't exibit this behavior.

The darkened sky is likely a symptom new feature that's meant to mitigate sunlight spilling into deep places when there's a skylight. In previous versions if you had sunlight spilling down into a cave you'd see weird shadows appearing when the sun was near the horizon.

[Maelstrom]

I had weird sunlight deep in caves or mining shafts from rising and setting suns.

[Shanaχyle]

This underground fog effect makes the game borderline unplayable while underground. I can totally understand having a fog system and reducing vision to some extent, but over the course of 3 in-game months I've never *once* been able to see a light source from further than 15 blocks away. 
 

Spoiler

There are about 13 torches in front of me here, with the nearest one being exactly 10 blocks away.
Like sure I can understand fog diffusing light, or even regions where light levels are reduce, but this is absolutely broken. there is no world in which you cannot *at the very least* see the flames themselves, never-mind the ring of light they would emit. 

If this is not a bug, then it is the objective worst (and arguably the only bad) change to this game in memory, especially given I've had the same issue in every single cave I've so far explored. (granted that's only three on the current patch)

Edited February 20, 2025 by Shanaχyle
grammar. remove unnecessary caps. clarity

[Kyle Rick]

I just want to quickly make sure that I did not misread this or such.

The weird fog you can sometimes get in caves seem to come from when the surface is foggy in some areas.

I remember going into a big deep ruin (Mods) while it was foggy outside and it was dark and foggy deep in there as well. Once the fog cleared it was easy to see things from far away underground again.

Unsure if this is related to this or not, just making sure people know about this but am not 100% confident that heavy fog on sea level surface always makes caves also hard to see far.

[Picono3]

I really am hoping they change this. If this is an intended feature, I hate it. You cannot even see ores in walls of larger caverns or anything since the light is choked out so harshly, and does not seems to be tied to oppressive dark places (hopped into creative mode to check, could not find any nearby). This would be a great feature in the graphics settings to allow players more control, that way those of us who like the challenge of not being able to see can do so, while those of us who want to see further than 3 blocks might prefer to turn off this setting.

[Maelstrom]

IIRC the change to fog is to fix sunlight from x-raying through the ground and shine in underground places where it shouldn't.  To my experience such sunlight didn't illuminate the underground spaces as much as it just shown direct sunlight on blocks.  Given the two different experiences, I'd prefer the direct sunlight in underground places rather than an oppressive darkness in my smithy at 200 block altitude.

Edited March 12, 2025 by Maelstrom

[grampipon]

I just started playing yesterday and the cave darkness makes it unplayable. I simply do not want to go into caves. Very disappointing 

EDIT: After running "/weather setir clearsky" The (very mild!) fog cleared and let me see in caves. It had me quite confused because outside it barely affected visibility while caves became impossible to see in. However, it's still too dark IMO.

Edited March 12, 2025 by grampipon

[Broccoli Clock]

This is nothing to do with fog in the caves, but fog at the tops of mountains. I've raised a bug report about this..

This is roughly level Y244.

[Maelstrom]

Built my smithy at Y 215 ish and get that wonderful fog that darkens my lantern illuminated building so that I have to place lanterns every 6 blocks to have reasonable lighting without putting a lantern in my offhand.  It also completely destroys the view from my mountaintop workshop.  

[Duke of Truth]

This needs to be changed immediately. I put over a stack of torches in a cave I am trying to mine and the darkness is so bad I can't see anything. I can't see the mobs to fight them, and I just die over and over again.
This is probably the most frustrating aspect of this game I have encountered thus far, by far.

[Phantom72]

I have discovered a massive and nasty cave system, which I have explored heaps of during the summer and littered with lanterns. Even with all the light sources, the size and number of passages allowed for t4 swarms to jump me on more than one occasion. I've put the cave system on pause for winter as I got busy with the summer tasks.

It is winter now; I've gone down to the lowest depths over the course of multiple days, only to find darkness day after day. I dare not explore further as I can't see anything, and it's pretty much suicide.

Initially, I thought it was tied to the rift activity, but the same story even at "calm".
 

On 3/13/2025 at 8:44 AM, grampipon said:

EDIT: After running "/weather setir clearsky" The (very mild!) fog cleared and let me see in caves. It had me quite confused because outside it barely affected visibility while caves became impossible to see in. However, it's still too dark IMO.

Thank you @grampipon, I'll be using the command as a temporary fix.

[Maethius]

Went into a BetterRuins location (Forlorn Bastion/Dungeon) and you can see fine on the first level or so... then everything vanishes into black fog. I was standing 6 blocks away from a chandelier I placed on a low ceiling and could barely see it.

[flackstacks]

On 1/5/2025 at 11:35 PM, Zane Mordien said:

I've felt the same thing. I hang torches in my iron mine and I can't see them when I walk not that far away. It's bright enough to not spawn stuff but pitch black when I look back to the entrance. I hope someone makes a mod that removes this new improvement. It's overkill.

Ive been experiencing this really bad. 

[Kaldo]

Huh, good timing on this thread revival. I just had this experience yesterday and it was weird because the first time I went into the cave, torches and light worked fine. I returned the next day with a new batch of torches and they couldn't even light it up 4 blocks away. I have no idea what it depends on, rift activity was low IIRC and I didn't notice anything else out of place. Weird system, if intentional... no idea how you're supposed to counter it? 

Edited October 6, 2025 by Kaldo

[Ketoth]

As far as 

1 hour ago, Kaldo said:

 I have no idea what it depends on, rift activity was low IIRC and I didn't notice anything else out of place. Weird system, if intentional... no idea how you're supposed to counter it? 

As far as I think this thread has established, it depends on how foggy it is outside, which feels utterly unintentional, especially since it doesn't even present as fog, rather just breaking light sources. 

No idea why it being foggy outside would affect how a sealed or nearly sealed cave behaves either, caves tend to have their own general climate rather than following exactly what's going on outside, humidity and fog and such doesn't make it too far underground, it tends to drip down walls and at best turn into streams. 

[Broccoli Clock]

"Fixed: Flat fog from weather no longer reduces deep cave visibility"