Just light your self on fire and run around that will cast more light than a stationary fire.

bonfire but disappears after a distance

But, if you set a marker on your map and label it "Bonfire" it will shine though the darkest night. Also pretty sure you can build anything that requires "ground" directly on wood/iron beams. No stone required.

I did a bonfire in the 4-story building i make , u have to do it with iron poles to make stone floor to the top and there the bonfie

I have done some testing of this wanting to build a lighthouse myself and the main problem I find is not the brightness of the light source but the render distance the game limits. My last build was with bonfires and even with those on raised surfaces I could at best see the fire render at max of about 100 yards, maybe even less.

I suppose it comes down to what you want to get out of a lighthouse, if you are going for something that you can see from a far distance you will be disappointed as things are now.

I would be curious if anyone has had a better experience with this or have been able to see fires at longer render distances perhaps it could be just my pc/settings.

Rendering is done via low res imposters at long range. You can see your home totally vanish in the distance if you have a large home, then suddenly pop in. I don't think you can make the fire visible beyond pop in range, which is a good long ways out, but not as far as a fire on a mountain would be seen in the dark.
The hearth is easy to place and good enough for this given the pop in distance issue, if the bonfire is giving you trouble.

The bonfire i'd guess.

Quick tip with the Bonfire: you can't build it anywhere off the ground, so you will need to make your own dirt pillar to place it onto if you want it up high.

Originally posted by HuH?:

Quick tip with the Bonfire: you can't build it anywhere off the ground, so you will need to make your own dirt pillar to place it onto if you want it up high.

I think you can build it on stone, same with windmills, i'm not 100% sure but i vaguely remember reading about it

Originally posted by Liam_Monaghan:

I think you can build it on stone, same with windmills, i'm not 100% sure but i vaguely remember reading about it

nope as i too have had lofty dreams of being a lonely viking lighthouseman hahaha

Originally posted by FunnyBunny:

Originally posted by HuH?:

nope as i too have had lofty dreams of being a lonely viking lighthouseman hahaha

You absolutely can tho..

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2505550575

I think it got patched at some point...

WTF? ... well son of a

i swear i tried that a week or so ago and it didn't work.
I have wasted a lot of time

note to self: read patch notes more closely