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 — plasma-gfx
Every pixel sums four sine waves — one of them radial, around a centre you can drag with the mouse — and looks the result up in an Inigo Quilez cosine palette that drifts over time, so smooth colour bands roll across the frame.
plasma — kitty pixel mode
ASCII cells — plasma
The same field sampled per cell, each character chosen from a brightness ramp (·:+*x#%@) and tinted with the palette colour.
plasma — ASCII cell mode
Controls
Key
Action
space
reseed the wave centre
mouse click
set centre at the pointer
a
freeze the animation
c
cycle palette
+ / -
speed
q / Esc
quit
Tuning env vars use the PLASMA_* prefix — e.g. PLASMA_MAXDIM=1024 for sharper frames, PLASMA_CELLS=1 to force cell rendering even on kitty terminals. See the overview for the full tuning table.
