diff --git a/changes/leaves-light-and-the-bole.md b/changes/leaves-light-and-the-bole.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..10cce4ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/leaves-light-and-the-bole.md
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+bump: minor
+type: feat
+Three things a crown and a hand light were getting wrong.
+
+**An aspen's trunk quaked with its leaves.** `layer_flutter`'s mask was the vertex's
+HEIGHT alone — anything more than 1.2 m up trembled — so on a ten metre aspen the whole
+bole moved, and a tree that is supposed to shiver read as a column of cloth. What
+separates a leaf from a bole is not height, it is distance from the model's own centre
+line: the leaves are out at the edge of the crown and the trunk is on the axis. The mask
+is radial now, and small plants keep the old one, because a flower is all leaf.
+
+**Foliage in the camera's face.** A third-person camera walks into a crown and the branch
+between it and the body is an opaque wall a metre from the lens; in first person it is the
+whole screen. `#define NEAR_FADE` dithers tree foliage out inside arm's length of the
+camera — in the depth PREPASS, so the lit pass never sees those pixels either and the
+equal-depth optimisation is untouched. `gl_Position.w` is the view depth for a perspective
+projection, so it costs one varying and no uniform. Blades, cards and flowers are left
+alone on purpose: they live at the player's feet, they are always that close, and fading
+them opens a hole in the meadow. Nor is the BOLE ever faded: a trunk and its needle cards
+are one mesh drawn by one program, so the first cut dissolved the trunk into a dither
+pattern as you walked up to it - a solid tree you can see through reads as a fault, where
+a branch getting out of your way reads as the camera being polite. The mask is the same
+signal the quake uses. The shadow pass keeps every leaf, or a tree would stop shading the
+ground it stands on as you walked up to it.
+
+**A hand light had the reach of a candle, whatever it was meant to be.** `handLight`'s
+falloff was an inverse square windowed off between 26 and 6 metres, with both numbers
+hard-coded: two per cent of its own near field by ten metres out, so carrying a torch at
+night lit your boots and nothing else. `daylight_hand` takes a `reach` in metres now and
+the falloff is a gentle power out to it — about nine tenths at a metre, half at half the
+reach, a tenth at nine tenths of it, nothing past it. A pool of light with a gradient in
+it rather than a hotspot with a cliff.
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/FEATURES.md b/packages/ludic.render3d/FEATURES.md
index e64fafdb..9f735eef 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/FEATURES.md
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/FEATURES.md
@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@ Characters and moving objects
 61. Static collision: ground circles in a cell grid with push-out and a segment test — `collide.ludic`
 62. Cut-out and emissive actors (a flame's cards) — `actor.ludic`, `shaders/model.frag` `u_emissive`
 63. Per-instance skin clones (a herd posed individually), per-part tints and hidden parts on actors, uniform-location caching with frustum and distance culling — `skin.ludic` `skin_clone`, `actor.ludic`
-64. A second point / cone light (a torch or flashlight in the hand) — `daylight.ludic` `daylight_hand`, `shaders/lighting.glsl` `handLight`
+64. A second point / cone light (a torch or flashlight in the hand) with a reach in metres and a gentle falloff to it — `daylight.ludic` `daylight_hand`, `shaders/lighting.glsl` `handLight`
+64a. Tree foliage dithered out inside arm's length of the camera, in the depth prepass — `shaders/model.vert` `v_near`, `shaders/depth.frag`, `#define NEAR_FADE`
 65. Auto-exposure adapted on the GPU: a 1x1 pass eases last frame's value toward key / mean and the tonemapper samples it, so nothing is read back (a pixel-buffer read still synchronised on Apple's GL) — `post.ludic` `post_measure`, `shaders/adapt.frag`
 66. A PPM reader with box-filtered downscale (photo thumbnails) and word-wrapped overlay text — `texture.ludic` `tex_load_ppm`, `overlay.ludic` `ov_text_wrap`
 67. The overlay batches a whole frame into one upload and draws per texture range with optional scissor clips (per-change uploads stalled the driver: 40 ms -> 25 ms), plus nine-slice, rotated, line, disc and arc primitives — `overlay.ludic` `ov_flush`, `ov_clip`, `ov_nine`, `ov_sub_rot`, `ov_line`, `ov_disc`, `ov_arc`
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/daylight.ludic b/packages/ludic.render3d/daylight.ludic
index 7b404a56..fe0d0e17 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/daylight.ludic
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/daylight.ludic
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ var hand_pos: words = null
 var hand_color: words = null
 var hand_dir: words = null
 var hand_cone: int = 0
+var hand_reach: int = 0          # metres the hand light reaches (float bits)
 var day_overcast: int = 0          # 0 clear .. 1 a low grey sky (float bits): dims the sun and the sky's light
 var day_flash: int = 0             # a lightning flash this frame (0..1): the sun brightens for it
 var day_fog_mul: int = 0x3F800000  # multiplies the base fog density (rain and snow thicken the air)
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ function daylight_init() -> void {
   fire_pos = v3_new(F_ZERO, fi(-1000), F_ZERO)
   fire_color = v3_new(F_ZERO, F_ZERO, F_ZERO)
   day_moon_dir = v3_new(F_ZERO, F_ONE, F_ZERO)
-  hand_pos = v3_new(F_ZERO, fi(-1000), F_ZERO);  hand_color = v3_new(F_ZERO, F_ZERO, F_ZERO);  hand_dir = v3_new(F_ZERO, F_ZERO, f_neg(F_ONE));  hand_cone = f_neg(F_TWO)
+  hand_pos = v3_new(F_ZERO, fi(-1000), F_ZERO);  hand_color = v3_new(F_ZERO, F_ZERO, F_ZERO);  hand_dir = v3_new(F_ZERO, F_ZERO, f_neg(F_ONE));  hand_cone = f_neg(F_TWO);  hand_reach = fi(12)
   day_light = F_ONE
 }
 
@@ -274,15 +275,22 @@ function daylight_fire(x: int, y: int, z: int, strength: int) -> void {
 }
 
 # the light in the hand: a point light (cone < -1) or a cone along dir (cone = cos half-angle)
-function daylight_hand(x: int, y: int, z: int, dx: int, dy: int, dz: int, cone: int, r: int, g: int, b: int) -> void {
+# A torch or a flashlight in the hand. `reach` is how far it carries, in metres: the
+# falloff is a gentle power out to it and nothing past it (lighting.glsl handLight), which
+# is what a pool of firelight looks like. It used to be a windowed inverse square with the
+# window and the scale both hard-coded, so every hand light in every game had the reach of
+# a candle whatever it was meant to be.
+function daylight_hand(x: int, y: int, z: int, dx: int, dy: int, dz: int, cone: int, reach: int, r: int, g: int, b: int) -> void {
   v3_set(hand_pos, x, y, z);  v3_set(hand_dir, dx, dy, dz);  hand_cone = cone
   v3_set(hand_color, r, g, b)
+  hand_reach = reach
 }
 function daylight_bind(prog: int) -> void {
   u_v3(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_hand_pos"), hand_pos)
   u_v3(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_hand_color"), hand_color)
   u_v3(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_hand_dir"), hand_dir)
   u_f(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_hand_cone"), hand_cone)
+  u_f(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_hand_reach"), hand_reach)
   u_v3(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_ibl_scale"), day_ibl)
   u_v3(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_moon_dir"), day_moon_dir)
   u_f(gpu_uniform(prog, "u_moon_phase"), day_moon_phase)
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/scatter.ludic b/packages/ludic.render3d/scatter.ludic
index 551c88a1..94638fbf 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/scatter.ludic
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/scatter.ludic
@@ -364,9 +364,9 @@ function scatter_init() -> void {
   # R3D_DUMP_ATLAS: every impostor and card atlas the run bakes, to build/atlas_<n>_{color,alpha}.ppm
   sc_debug_dump = r3d_env_has("R3D_DUMP_ATLAS")
   sc_prog = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "")
-  sc_prog_fol = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define ALPHA_TEST\n")
-  sc_prog_fol_depth = r3d_program("model.vert", "depth.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define ALPHA_TEST\n")
-  sc_prog_fol_eq = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define EQ_PASS\n")
+  sc_prog_fol = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define ALPHA_TEST\n#define NEAR_FADE\n")
+  sc_prog_fol_depth = r3d_program("model.vert", "depth.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define ALPHA_TEST\n#define NEAR_FADE\n")
+  sc_prog_fol_eq = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define EQ_PASS\n#define NEAR_FADE\n")
   sc_prog_wind = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define WIND\n")
   sc_prog_blade = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define BLADE\n")
   sc_prog_flower = r3d_program("model.vert", "model.frag", "#define FOLIAGE\n#define WIND\n#define FLOWER\n")
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/depth.frag b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/depth.frag
index 54f5a76d..7bfbe380 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/depth.frag
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/depth.frag
@@ -12,9 +12,17 @@
 // because without MSAA a fragment is either there or not.
 in vec3 v_wpos;
 in vec2 v_uv;
+in float v_near;
 uniform sampler2D u_diff;
 void main() {
   if (v_wpos.y < u_clip_y) discard;
+#ifdef NEAR_FADE
+  // Leaves in the camera's face (model.vert's v_near). Dithered out rather than blended:
+  // no sorting, no second pass and no halo, and because it happens in the PREPASS the lit
+  // pass never sees those pixels either - its equal-depth test simply finds nothing to
+  // match. A branch a metre from the lens stops being an opaque wall in front of the body.
+  if (v_near < 0.999 && v_near < fract(sin(dot(gl_FragCoord.xy, vec2(12.9898, 78.233))) * 43758.5453)) discard;
+#endif
   vec4 d = texture(u_diff, v_uv);
   float lod = textureQueryLod(u_diff, v_uv).x;
   float a = min(d.a * (1.0 + 0.45 * max(lod, 0.0)), 1.0);
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/lighting.glsl b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/lighting.glsl
index 182f765f..87bb229c 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/lighting.glsl
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/lighting.glsl
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ uniform vec3 u_hand_pos;          // a torch or flashlight in the hand
 uniform vec3 u_hand_color;
 uniform vec3 u_hand_dir;
 uniform float u_hand_cone;        // cos of the half-angle; <= -1: a point light
+uniform float u_hand_reach;       // metres to where it dies out entirely
 vec3 skyIrradianceRaw(vec3 n) { return texture(u_irradiance, equirectUV(n)).rgb * u_ibl_scale; }
 vec3 skyIrradiance(vec3 n) {
   vec3 up = skyIrradianceRaw(vec3(n.x, max(n.y, 0.0), n.z));
@@ -88,7 +89,13 @@ vec3 handLight(vec3 wpos, vec3 n, vec3 albedo) {
   vec3 d = u_hand_pos - wpos;
   float r2 = max(dot(d, d), 0.04);
   vec3 l = d * inversesqrt(r2);
-  float att = smoothstep(26.0, 6.0, sqrt(r2)) / (0.5 + r2 * 0.35);
+  // A torch is not a point source in free air, and lighting it as one made it useless.
+  // The old curve was an inverse square windowed off between 26 and 6 metres: two per cent
+  // of its own near field by ten metres out, so carrying fire at night lit your boots and
+  // nothing else. This is a reach and a gentle power falloff instead - about nine tenths at
+  // a metre, half at half the reach, a tenth at nine tenths of it, nothing past it - which
+  // is a pool of light with a gradient in it rather than a hotspot with a cliff.
+  float att = pow(max(1.0 - sqrt(r2) / max(u_hand_reach, 0.001), 0.0), 1.25);
   if (u_hand_cone > -1.0) {
     float c = dot(-l, u_hand_dir);
     att *= smoothstep(u_hand_cone, u_hand_cone + 0.12, c);
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.frag b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.frag
index db536c38..14448b38 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.frag
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.frag
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ in float v_seed;
 in vec2 v_rot;
 in float v_hull;
 in float v_quake;   // an aspen leaf turning its pale side up
+in float v_near;    // 0 in the camera's face, 1 past arm's length (NEAR_FADE)
 uniform float u_model_h;
 out vec4 o_color;
 uniform sampler2D u_diff;
@@ -38,6 +39,10 @@ void main() {
   //  early depth rejection off and bring the overdraw back, and the prepass has already
   //  cut both the clip plane and the alpha)
   if (v_wpos.y < u_clip_y) discard;
+#ifdef NEAR_FADE
+  // the same dither as the prepass, for the draws that have no prepass in front of them
+  if (v_near < 0.999 && v_near < fract(sin(dot(gl_FragCoord.xy, vec2(12.9898, 78.233))) * 43758.5453)) discard;
+#endif
 #endif
   vec3 N = normalize(v_nrm);
   if (!gl_FrontFacing && v_hull >= 0.0) N = -N;
diff --git a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.vert b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.vert
index 643c55ea..c3149d97 100644
--- a/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.vert
+++ b/packages/ludic.render3d/shaders/model.vert
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ out float v_hull;            // 0 at the crown's axis .. 1 at its rim
 // varying so the fragment stage can flash the leaf's pale underside as it turns - which is
 // the part you actually SEE. A still frame of a tremble is a still frame of nothing.
 uniform float u_flutter;
+out float v_near;                // 0 in the camera's face, 1 past arm's length (NEAR_FADE)
 out float v_quake;
 void main() {
   float s = i_rot.x, c = i_rot.y;
@@ -104,7 +105,14 @@ void main() {
     // the whole tree shivering.
     float qp = u_time * 8.5 + a_pos.x * 11.3 + a_pos.z * 9.7 + a_pos.y * 4.1 + i_rot.z * 6.2831;
     float q = sin(qp) * 0.65 + sin(qp * 1.73 + 1.1) * 0.35;
-    float amp = u_flutter * (0.40 + 0.60 * windGust(i_pos.xz, u_time)) * smoothstep(0.0, 1.2, hgt);
+    // ...and only out on the CROWN. The mask was height alone, so on an aspen every vertex
+    // of a ten metre bole above 1.2 m trembled along with the leaves and the TRUNK moved
+    // like cloth. What separates a leaf from a bole is not height, it is distance from the
+    // model's own centre line: the leaves are out at the edge of the crown and the trunk is
+    // on the axis. Small plants keep the old mask - a flower is all leaf.
+    float rmask = 1.0;
+    if (u_model_h > 2.0) rmask = smoothstep(0.22, 0.75, length(a_pos.xz) / max(u_model_h * 0.22, 0.05));
+    float amp = u_flutter * (0.40 + 0.60 * windGust(i_pos.xz, u_time)) * smoothstep(0.0, 1.2, hgt) * rmask;
     p.x += q * amp * 0.10;
     p.y += q * amp * 0.05;
     p.z += cos(qp * 0.9) * amp * 0.10;
@@ -133,5 +141,25 @@ void main() {
   gl_Position = u_light_vp * vec4(w, 1.0);
 #else
   gl_Position = u_proj * u_view * vec4(w, 1.0);
+#endif
+  // Leaves in the camera's face. A third-person camera walks through a crown and the
+  // branch between it and the body is an opaque wall a metre from the lens; in first
+  // person it is the whole screen. Tree foliage within arm's length of the CAMERA fades
+  // out - w is the view-space depth for a perspective projection, so this costs nothing
+  // and needs no uniform. Blades, cards and flowers are excluded on purpose: they live at
+  // the player's feet, they are always this close, and fading them opens a hole in the
+  // meadow. The shadow pass keeps every leaf, or a tree would stop shading the ground it
+  // is standing on as you walked up to it.
+  v_near = 1.0;
+#if defined(NEAR_FADE) && !defined(SHADOW_PASS)
+  // The BOLE is never faded, only what hangs off it. A conifer's trunk and its needle
+  // cards are one mesh drawn by one program, so the first cut dissolved the trunk into a
+  // dither pattern as you walked up to it - a solid tree you can see through reads as a
+  // fault, where a branch getting out of your way reads as the camera being polite. Same
+  // signal as the quake's crown mask: the trunk is on the model's axis and the foliage is
+  // out from it.
+  float ax = 1.0;
+  if (u_model_h > 2.0) ax = smoothstep(0.12, 0.30, length(a_pos.xz) / max(u_model_h * 0.22, 0.05));
+  v_near = mix(1.0, clamp((gl_Position.w - 0.5) / 1.7, 0.0, 1.0), ax);
 #endif
 }