Yeah, gem lamps have been bandied about for a while.
# Req96, LIGHTING, (Future): Should be pitch black inside adventure caves and on cloudy moonless nights. Vision state should influence what you can see. Can try to make sunlight shine inside caves a bit by casting light lines on map-gen. Can track light with RGB filters so that things through red gem windows look red, etc. Things seen through glass statues could be distorted from their proper positions. Once fire is in, can do torches and other such light sources. Dwarves could place fires or gem lamps in dark places. Any magical take on alchemy could make extensive use of gems in this fashion, and the different colors of light can please certain nobles etc. Related to Core55.
There's also a small list of other ideas for light sources in the
lighting arc thread:Producing Light
- Fire -- occasional refueling needed
- Torches and tallow candles in holders
- Braziers made of stone or metal, fueled with charcoal or wood
- Lamps filled with plant/animal/mineral oil
- Wildfires
- Alternatives
- Luminescent plants, glowing extracts in glass containers
- Gem lamps
- Captured fireflies/pixies
- Glowing magma
- Manipulating sunlight
- Mirror -- reflects beams from parallel sources, can be aimed at a particular target
- Prism -- converts a parallel beam into a point source
- Mirror and prism can work in concert to shine sunlight deep into the fortress