Lighting mode

The lighting mode determines the way light from daylight, light sources, and other light-producing entities renders in the World. The lighting mode is set from Terraria's settings menu, in the "video" sub-menu. There are four different lighting modes available, and they can also be cycled during gameplay with the F9 key.

Lighting mode options were added in Teraria's 1.1 update, along with a new light rendering engine. Previously, light levels were set per tile, whereas the new engine determines a light level for each pixel, making for smoother lighting transitions. The new engine also adds the ability to produce light of any color, rather than just white.

White mode allows players to use the new lighting engine without colored light. Retro mode allows players to switch back to the old (pre-1.1) lighting engine entirely, while Trippy mode lets players add colored light to the old engine.

Tips

 * Retro mode tends to produce the most light in any given situation, even though it doesn't look as good. In certain low-light scenarios it can be useful to switch to Retro mode temporarily (using the F9 key).