diff --git a/src/bin/bevy.rs b/src/bin/bevy.rs
--- a/src/bin/bevy.rs
+++ b/src/bin/bevy.rs
@@ -83,6 +83,11 @@
 /// mesh is inspectable and albedo reads with no mood. Dev affordance only,
 /// never a player surface (material-dark-frame.md, the dev work light).
 const WORKLIGHT_AMBIENT: f32 = 900.0;
+/// The material camera's blindness is a soft physical falloff, not a hard
+/// tile edge. Known geometry falls into the same near-black as the unrendered
+/// unknown before the camera reaches the map boundary.
+const MATERIAL_FOG_START: f32 = 1.5;
+const MATERIAL_FOG_END: f32 = 7.0;
 
 // ─── Palette ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
@@ -2335,6 +2340,17 @@
             fov: 35.0_f32.to_radians(),
             ..default()
         }),
+        // Unknown tiles remain absent. This only blends *earned* material
+        // geometry into sensor-darkness before it reaches that absence, so
+        // fog reads as camera/light falloff rather than a square cutoff.
+        DistanceFog {
+            color: Color::srgb(0.006, 0.008, 0.014),
+            falloff: FogFalloff::Linear {
+                start: MATERIAL_FOG_START,
+                end: MATERIAL_FOG_END,
+            },
+            ..default()
+        },
         Transform::from_translation(target + Vec3::new(0.0, tilt.sin(), tilt.cos()) * CLOSE_DIST)
             .looking_at(target, Vec3::Y),
         layer.clone(),
diff --git a/wiki/interface/material-dark-frame.md b/wiki/interface/material-dark-frame.md
--- a/wiki/interface/material-dark-frame.md
+++ b/wiki/interface/material-dark-frame.md
@@ -130,6 +130,15 @@
 levels are [TUNE]: the darkness must read as a physically dark room on
 camera, not a missing scene.
 
+The camera blends earned material mass back into that same near-black
+with an aggressive distance-fog falloff. It begins close to the attention
+anchor and reaches black before a wide material frame can end in a crisp
+wall silhouette. This is a lighting/camera treatment on geometry already
+earned by fog; it never draws, outlines, or otherwise invents an Unknown
+tile. Light and the blend should make a seen wall *disappear into the
+room*, not terminate the room as a square map cutout. [TUNE: start/end
+distances are renderer constants, calibrated by captures.]
+
 ### The dev work light
 
 Development needs to see geometry that the fiction keeps dark, so the
@@ -199,3 +208,7 @@
 7. The flat sensorium, terminal, and agent frame gain no material-only
    chassis from telemetry alone; panel telemetry and feel-graph
    remain; no surface gains a pictured fact light/sound did not earn.
+8. In a close and a wide Seen capture, rendered wall mass fades into
+   near-black under the dark rig and camera fog rather than ending in a
+   hard lit silhouette at the Unknown boundary; the fog audit still proves
+   Unknown geometry is absent.
diff --git a/wiki/log/2026-07-09-material-fog.md b/wiki/log/2026-07-09-material-fog.md
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wiki/log/2026-07-09-material-fog.md
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+# 2026-07-09 — Material fog blends walls into darkness
+
+```
+Type: log
+```
+
+## Intent
+
+Cameron called out the material screenshot's hard fog edge: visible wall
+blocks simply stopped at unrendered space, making darkness read as a square
+map cutoff. The right read is a camera losing light and material certainty.
+
+## Changed
+
+- The material `Camera3d` now carries an aggressive near-black
+  `DistanceFog` (`start = 1.5`, `end = 7.0` world units). It blends rendered
+  mass into the same sensor-darkness as the void rather than drawing a sharp
+  far-wall silhouette.
+- This composes with the dark frame's machine-only light rig: ambient remains
+  near-nothing and the core strip remains the tick-zero diegetic source, so
+  illumination and the camera blend both dissolve the earned map into dark.
+- `material-dark-frame.md` now owns the rule: this is a camera/light treatment
+  on earned geometry only. Unknown tiles stay geometry-free and the fog audit
+  still asserts it.
+
+## Evidence
+
+- `MISALIGNED_SHOT=close` → `/tmp/misaligned-close-fog.png`
+- `MISALIGNED_SHOT=wide` → `/tmp/misaligned-wide-fog.png`
+
+Both runs printed the material fog audit: Unknown/blueprint/remembered mass
+absent, Seen and owned-telemetry surfaces lit, and all pooled world materials
+flat (no textures).
+
+## Checks
+
+`./tools/check.sh --frontend` — passed (format, Bevy-bin tests, Bevy clippy,
+corpus/wiki/environment gates).
diff --git a/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md b/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md
--- a/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md
+++ b/wiki/log/DEVLOG.md
@@ -75,6 +75,18 @@
 - Checks: ./tools/check.sh --docs.
 - Log: wiki/log/2026-07-09-agent-scale-capture.md.
 
+## 2026-07-09 - Material fog blends walls into darkness
+
+- Intent: Cameron's material screenshot still ended visible wall blocks as a
+  hard map cutoff. Make the camera feel like it loses light and sight rather
+  than simply failing to draw the next square.
+- Changed: added aggressive near-black distance fog to the material camera,
+  complementing the dark rig's machine-only light. The fog only blends geometry
+  fog already earned; Unknown remains absent and the fog audit retains that
+  assertion.
+- Checks: close + wide material harness captures; frontend `./tools/check.sh`.
+- Log: wiki/log/2026-07-09-material-fog.md.
+
 ## 2026-07-09 - Faster proportional check.sh at agent scale
 
 - Intent: stop concurrent agents thrashing on a serial full cargo wall;