I have applied a material to an imported mesh and it appears very dark. Is this because of the shape? The only way to get it lighter is to give it a luminance. This does not seem the best solution ;-)
Here is the material I applied:
and here the result:
I've used the following material properties:
If you want to be able to see an object you need to either light it with a fixture, or give the material a luminance, yes.
I've been in contact with technical support about this issue and it appears to be related to applying a material to a mesh. It does not work as predictable as you suggest unfortunately.
The workaround that was suggested by tech support was:
The material appears correctly with lighting when "Backprojection" is enabled in materials properties.
That works perfectly.