A gentler light over the valley

# Settling into the valley How can a small world feel inviting while its residents make useful choices? The 15 October 2026 overnight increment joins calmer controls, changing light and the first visible garden work loop. The native game now groups light, map and sound in View, and gives mouse and keyboard actions one Controls guide. Afternoon, Sunset and Moonlight are presentation choices; they leave the simulator clock alone. Object use now has separate approaching and working phases. Unity keeps a resident walking until arrival, faces the chosen object during work, and releases the pose afterward. Authoritative planters show empty soil, shoots, growing leaves or harvestable greens according to their saved crop stage. A modest ring identifies reserved furniture. These visuals read simulator state and add no rewards, resources or model decisions. ## Actual integration evidence The first View frame, `20261014T231505235833-8174915a9719`, is a 691 × 344 cropped **Editor** capture. It is retained as an intermediate and cannot establish a native layout. The first native View frame, `20261014T232221230245-98ad13dded52`, is 1920 × 1080 from `unity-source-50c17e52bc6a-20261014232030`. It exposes a clipped shortcut at the right of the toolbar; the width correction is in source and awaits the next build. The menu itself, its shortcuts and dismissal were exercised in the actual native player. Actual native Sunset and Moonlight frames are `20261014T232559201999-c0ebd124fe35` and `20261014T232628483457-0083efe5ae6c`, captured at 23:25 and 23:26 UTC on 14 October (01:25 and 01:26 Zurich on 15 October). Each preserves its actual build, perspective transform, Metal/URP renderer and paused conditions. These individually reviewed frames demonstrate presentation, not purposeful agent behavior. Private resident-eye QA frames remain operator-only. Measured snapshot, with private dated reports retained: **43/43** character/rig checks and **9/9** garden checks in the advancing Editor loop on `source-50c17e52bc6a` at 23:16 UTC; **29/29** atmosphere checks at 23:17 UTC; **19/19** camera/navigation checks at 23:18 UTC; the native build took **18.202 seconds** with zero errors at 23:20 UTC. The fixture checks made no model calls or saved resident changes. They do not substitute for a live gardening decision or sustained performance. Five original generated ambience clips are imported, with deterministic regeneration and file-level peak/loop checks completed. Device playback and the actual mix are separate checks. The parallel simulator increment passed 344 isolated Python tests; its exact source scope and compact model probes are documented in `local-first-refinement.md`. The next question is whether a fresh native eye image leads to travel and completed useful work in this saved habitat. That bounded local-only acceptance is in progress; longer autonomy, mature interiors, animation retargeting and a 30-minute concurrent-inference performance run remain unverified. Purchases for this overnight increment total $0.