How can I visualize a character navigating in complete darkness?

What I mean: the environment is in complete darkness, but the mc "remembers" the place and can navigate without sight. I'm trying to visualize it, but can't find a proper way to do it

My first attemptwas to just give all objects a clay material and give the player a light source. Initially I liked it, but then it realized that it just looks like a prototype level without textures:

Then I tried edge detection approach. It turned out that edge detection it realtime is very hard and after a day of search I found this working method. However it also highlights unnecessary polygon edges:

How else can I visualize it?

 

When I'm navigating by memory rather than by sight I tend to rely a lot on how the environment feels. Even when there's no distinct stimulus such as texture or heat I get a "feeling" of indistinct mass in the directions I believe things to be in. I'd have a go at replicating that by not rendering the geometry directly at all, but instead displaying the various sensations visually. Ideas:

- Something similar to the directional damage display in shooters. Put coloured segments around the edge of the screen, or around a circle in the middle, with the size of a segment relating to how big something is, and the opacity relating to how far away it is.

- Render the scene, but just to get a depth texture. Use this to make a post effect type of visual that gives a fuzzy idea of where stuff is, but where no object is particularly distinct. In addition to depicting solidness you could also depict things such as temperature (eg: you can feel the general direction of a heater, or a cold draft coming in an open window) or the texture of things you touch (eg: hard floor vs. soft floor vs. grass).

- Instead of rendering the world at all, render the interactions the main character commonly has with it. Draw paths in the places they commonly go, and representations of actions they can take in particular locations (eg: that a handle can be pushed / pulled / turned), or the sensations that they have in those different places (heat, cool, a draft, as above).

I think that adding a character to the world could make for some really interesting experiences and interactions, because they would indirectly become another sense.

Ironically, this is making me think it'd be a cool VR experience.

 

What about echolocation? (This reddit post has a nice example.)

Beyond Eyes was a game where you played a blind girl looking for her lost cat. It might inspire some ideas.

Another game is on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember the name. It starts with an 'S'. It was the second game from a studio that had a very successful first game. The second game was a completely different genre. It didn't do nearly as well, but I remember the key mechanic was something like echolocation.

 

There is a game that has you play as a blind girl that did this pretty well.

Personally though I have played around with the dark as a mechanic stuff a lot and think that doing a small point light dramatically helps give the player orientation enough to not be lost, while still keeping the mechanics intact.