On thinking this over some more, there is also another complication/issue with lighting. As said in the original message, instead of the server communicating darkness of each space, it communicates the location of the lightsources and color of those sources. However, what do we do when the source of the light is not visible to the player? One could envision something like long hallway, with light pouring into the hallway form the rooms that branch off from it, but one can not see those sources. To me, there are really 3 options here: 1) Only send info on light sources that are on spaces player can see. This is safest and isn't hard to do, problem is that it is probably mostly useless (vast majority of lightsources will not be visible to player). 2) Send info for lightsources that illuminate any spaces player sees. While this gives information away, one could argue it is a pretty minor leak (EG, given how current client communicates light levels, once could potentially figure out where light sources are based on illumination of different spaces). It does complicate things some, because we need to record location of light sources that illuminate on the space - however, that probably isn't actually that hard, since we'd have to go by 1 by 1 for the light sources and see what they illuminate anyways - the issue here is that we now need to record that info (light source and 10,10 is illuminating this space). 3) Send all light sources for map area, regardless if visible or not. Easiest to do, but starts to give away a fair amount of informatin, especially for non static light sources (hmmm - a lot of light behind that wall - must be something there) - probably not a good option. -- Also, one other complication to this plan is the fact that light sources outside the viewable map would have to be sent. And the brighter the source of light, the more spaces outside the map to be sent. For example, imagine a wilderness area of grass at night (all dark). Another player carrying a super bright latern (glow radius 15) is approaching you. While he is 14 spaces from appearing on the map, his latern starts illuminating spaces youcan see. So it means we need to send info for a light sources that is 14 spaces from where you can see. This can be adjusted a bit based on how bright we want the maximum light sources. But it also adds some extra complication for the client beyond big image support - it now has to go out quite a ways looking for light sources. Likewise, this also means the protocol needs some support for negative coordinates (player could be approach from west after all).