Realistic darkvision?

This question is similar to "How would the human eye need to change in order to see in low light without any changes to physical appearance?", including the apsect of change to the human eye, only the more challenging common fantasy ability most well known in Dungeon & Dragon's darkvision: the ability to see in pitch dark in shades of gray (or more realistically, very near pitch dark?).

Now in the D&D version, such sight is equivalent to seeing in pitch black as if in dim light. While an answer that accommodates that level of clarity is fine, I'm willing to accept some level of sight where it is not that clear, simply more like shadow against slightly darker shadow in a short range.

I know more pupil dilation, as well as additional changes to the eye (mainly retinal change, tapetum lucidum [though this would cause issues for looking like a normal eye in some situations]) can all help in low-light, but is there anything more or different that can be realistically added to the eye's capability that would give true (nearly) dark vision, that still has the eye visibly look like a normal human (or elf, dwarf, etc.)? And is there actually enough "light" in an (apparently) pitch black cave to make this feasible?

NOTE: I'm not interested in infravision (seeing in the infrared spectrum), nor in a magic solution.

posted about 6 years ago

ScottS‭

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