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 — sand-gfx
A cellular automaton on a grid of materials, updated bottom-up every frame — sand piles at its angle of repose, water and oil level out (and oil floats up through water), embers glow and cool. Filled grains opaque, empty cells transparent over your terminal.
sand — kitty pixel mode
ASCII cells — sand
The same grid at half-cell resolution, each material its own glyph and colour.
sand — ASCII cell mode
Controls
Key
Action
space
drop a chunk
mouse click
pour at the pointer
a
clear the field
c
cycle material
+ / -
brush size
q / Esc
quit
Tuning env vars use the SAND_* prefix — e.g. SAND_MAXDIM=1024 for sharper frames, SAND_CELLS=1 to force cell rendering even on kitty terminals. See the overview for the full tuning table.
