Both captures below are real iTerm2 sessions running the demo — the same binary renders at pixel resolution where the terminal speaks the kitty graphics protocol, and as ASCII cells everywhere else.
kitty graphics — lightning-gfx
Bolts are built by midpoint displacement — random perpendicular kicks with probabilistic branches — and drawn as additive glowing lines into a decaying buffer; every strike adds a translucent flash that fades over a few frames.
lightning — kitty pixel mode
ASCII cells — lightning
Bolts rasterised with line and fork glyphs over a per-cell brightness buffer that decays after the flash.
lightning — ASCII cell mode
Controls
Key
Action
space
strike
mouse click
strike to the pointer
a
toggle the auto-storm
c
cycle tint
+ / -
branchiness
q / Esc
quit
Tuning env vars use the LIGHTNING_* prefix — e.g. LIGHTNING_MAXDIM=1024 for sharper frames, LIGHTNING_CELLS=1 to force cell rendering even on kitty terminals. See the overview for the full tuning table.
