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Dielectric Breakdown Lightning (2D)

A real 2D Dielectric Breakdown Model: the electric potential is solved on a grid by iterative relaxation, and the discharge grows into whichever unclaimed cell has the highest local field, cell by cell, producing genuine Laplacian-growth fractal lightning.

Electromagnetism2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⚡ Plasma⇄ 3D version
2d-lightning ↗ Open standalone

A real implementation of the Dielectric Breakdown Model: the electric potential between a charged cloud plate and open ground is solved on a grid by iterative relaxation (Gauss–Seidel/SOR), and the discharge advances one cell at a time into whichever unclaimed neighbour has the strongest locally-solved field, weighted by φη. Unlike a scripted recursive branch function, the fork pattern here is an emergent result of actually solving Laplace's equation around the growing conductor at every step. Tune the grid resolution and branching selectivity to watch genuinely different fractal channels emerge from the same physics.

⚙ Under the hood

A real 2D Dielectric Breakdown Model: the electric potential between a cloud plate and open ground is solved on a grid by Gauss-Seidel relaxation, and the discharge grows cell by cell into whichever unclaimed neighbour has the strongest locally-solved field, weighted by phi^eta. Adjustable branching selectivity and grid resolution produce genuinely different fractal channels each run, driven by the actual field solve rather than a scripted random walk.

Canvas 2DElectromagnetismDBMLaplacian growthFractalElectric field2D

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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