Brightness when no light source is near

[Ridgure]

Suggestion overview

It would be nice if there was a setting to make the game brighter.

Current behavior

When you do not have a light source on you at night you cannot see anything.

Expected behavior

You should be able to make it so you can see in the dark.

Further infrormation

This is what my screen looks like after I fell in the water and my torch doused.

It does not feel great to have to wait until morning to continue playing.
It was not easy for me to make a campfire and firestarter to make a torch in this situation.

I usually play with the lights off at night and am barely able to see stuff but today I was playing during the day and I cannot turn off the irl sun...

Edited May 15 by Ridgure

[LadyWYT]

4 minutes ago, Ridgure said:

It would be nice if there was a setting to make the game brighter.

That should be the "Gamma" setting, though the "Contrast" setting may help as well. That being said...

 

5 minutes ago, Ridgure said:

Current behavior

When you do not have a light source on you at night you cannot see anything.

Expected behavior

You should be able to make it so you can see in the dark.

Vintage Story is meant to be realistically dark--players will need a light source to see what they're doing at night/underground. Nights with full(or nearly full) moons tend to be bright enough to have some vision, especially during the winter, but that's assuming that enough of the sky is visible to actually let the light show. Adjusting the above settings may help with visibility to some extent, but may not fix the issue entirely.

[cjameshuff]

It may be "realistically dark", but realistically you also have a sense of touch. I'd like to be able to see an outline or something of the blocks that are within reach.

Another issue is the way the world can plunge into pitch blackness right outside the limit of a light source. Realistically, they should give some dim but visible lighting at a much longer distance. However, the performance costs might be prohibitive...

[Zx573]

I use a mod that let's your eyes adapt to lighting conditions, which is good realism. If I'm out at night with a lantern, I can see around me well but nothing in the distance, and if I put it away I can't see anything until my eyes adjust to the darkness and I can see dimly enough to navigate by moon and starlight.

Its a system I think belongs in VS.

[Facethief]

47 minutes ago, Zx573 said:

I use a mod that let's your eyes adapt to lighting conditions, which is good realism. If I'm out at night with a lantern, I can see around me well but nothing in the distance, and if I put it away I can't see anything until my eyes adjust to the darkness and I can see dimly enough to navigate by moon and starlight.

Its a system I think belongs in VS.

What’s the mod called?

[PineReseen]

I don't really think you should be able to see in the dark, in a complete absence of light at least (like in caves). That said, maybe the world could be a tad bit brighter at night depending on the moon phase, at least some light has to be reflecting off the world if we can see the moon so clearly!

[BurgerDaddy]

I think this comes through differently on different monitors/operating systems. I’m playing on a Mac laptop, with the gamma all the way up and my screen set to maximum brightness, I literally thought it was part of the lore that there was no moon because I have never once been able to see anything at night without a light. Absolute pitch black, every night. It’s terrifying and I kinda dig the lore that I thought it was… but yeah if there’s a moon that is supposed to be illuminating things it isn’t working in a noticeable way on my system.

[Zx573]

On 5/15/2026 at 11:24 AM, Facethief said:

What’s the mod called?

I think it's just called DarkVision. It is configurable to whatever level of bright or dim you think is reasonable