areas of illumination

I was in a dungon on one of the sims and I noticed that an area of illumination followed my avitar around so that I could see in the near distance while the rest of the room remained in darkness. How is this done? Do you have to own the land to do this? I've rented a plot of land and would like to build such a room where darkness prevails but close objects can be seen.
Thanks
E

I'm under the impression that this can be done with a script that detects avatars and then lightens the tint on the surrounding objects. You shouldn't have to own land to do this, though it could end up being against your lease.

Possibly the "dungeon" was underwater, and what you were seeing was the water "fog"? What's the location?

The dungeon was on Provincetown and it is at sea level, but it wasnt foggy in side. You could see in the distance but it was dark.
E

I am busy building a rock cave (In a building, 5 stories up!) in Munro - and had the opposite problem: How does one fake darkness? My solution was to have "curtains" of black prims with about 95% transparancy - the more you look through, the darker stuff seems.

This solution has a side effect that avs and objects that are close to you are seen through fewer "curtains", and thus seem brighter. Perhaps the dungeon you were in uses the same technique.

Ben: that's *brilliant*!