Operator at the A0 gate: "a little too dark to play, not very readable yet."
Measured rather than guessed, and the diagnosis was NOT "add light":
seabed _BaseColor (0.08,0.12,0.15) — the floor was painted near-black, so it
reflected ~10% of anything and could never read as a surface
fog colour (0.02,0.10,0.12) — distance faded to VOID rather than to murk;
real water scatters, so far things should get lighter and lower-contrast
ColorAdjustments contrast +10 on top of ACES — the low end was crushed twice
Vignette 0.28 — ate the periphery, which is where threats arrive from
Murk pass (operator picked "murk + closer camera"):
BaseFogColor/ExpeditionFogColor -> (0.06,0.20,0.25) [WorldAtmosphereConfig
drives RenderSettings every frame, so the CONFIG is the real knob]
M_Staging_Seabed albedo -> (0.18,0.26,0.30)
contrast 10 -> 4, vignette 0.28 -> 0.16
camera Distance 17 -> 14
That fixed the void but INVERTED figure-ground, which the numbers caught:
player 0.144 | rock 0.269 | flora 0.258 | warm haze 0.368
The protagonist was the second-darkest thing on screen. The shoulder lamp is a
forward-facing spot tilted 26 deg down — it lights the seabed ahead and never
its own wearer — so the diver had no personal light at all. Raising KeyWarm
would have lifted the scenery by the same amount and left the ratio unchanged;
only a light that TRAVELS with the diver changes it. Added ~SuitGlow: a warm,
steady point light at torso height (FeelConfig.SuitGlowIntensity 5 /
SuitGlowRange 4.5, live-tunable, 0 = off). "Light is territory", made literal.
player 0.144 -> 0.320, now above rock 0.282 and flora 0.250
figure-to-murk contrast 1.32x -> 2.94x, with scene brightness unchanged
304/304 EditMode green. Awaiting the operator's eyes on the result.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
kronic
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