MoonLight

High-performance LED & DMX lighting control for ESP32 and beyond.

Flash an ESP32 from your browser   GitHub

New here?

The Getting started guide walks you from a blank ESP32 to your first running light show, step by step, with no build tools required.

The introduction

Why MoonLight was rebuilt, who wrote it, and the principles it kept. The clips that follow it are the proof of what it claims.

What it is

MoonLight drives large LED installations and DMX fixtures. You build a light show by stacking simple blocks: a layout (how the LEDs are arranged), one or more effects (what they animate), modifiers (mirror, rotate, mask…), and a driver (how the pixels reach the hardware). Every setting takes effect live; there is no reboot to apply a change.

One source tree drives ESP32, Teensy, Raspberry Pi, macOS, Windows and Linux.

Find your way

• Get running

  Flash a board from your browser and light your first pixels.

  Getting started · Web installer

• Build a show

  Browse the effects, layouts, modifiers, and drivers you compose into a show.

  Effects · Layouts · Modifiers

• See what's verified

  Every behavior is pinned by a test. When a bug is fixed, a test proves it.

  Unit tests · Scenario tests

• Go deeper

  System design, the module model, and the per-module reference.

  Architecture · Core modules · Light pipeline

• Numbers and people

  Measured frame rates per device, how the project works, why the code is ours, and who inspired what.

  Performance · Why our own code · How we work · Credits

The web installer works in Chrome & Edge (Web Serial), with no download required.

Getting involved

How to start with no hardware at all, how to contribute, and what comes next.

Standing on shoulders

Almost none of this was invented here, and every borrowed idea is credited in the source file that carries it.