I've never noticed a fade hilight in Thief, but I'll check again... EDIT - Well, I can see it now. When I hilight a door it VERY quickly lights up, almost instantly, so it's hard to tell, but then moving away I can definitely see the fade out. It is also quick, much less than a second of course, perhaps 1/10 or 2/10 of a second. I don't mind insta-hilight though, since the fade times were so very short I never really noticed until I looked for it just now.