Effects

Every effect, one block each: its preview, what it does, and what each control means — together. An effect writes per-pixel colour into its Layer's buffer each tick; modifiers reshape the result and a driver sends it out. Effects that name an index colour read the global palette (the palette control on Drivers) via colorFromPalette. Each block's emoji are its tags() (origin/creator/audio — see the tag emoji legend); Dim is its native axes (Layer extrudes a lower-dim effect onto a bigger grid). Effects are grouped into sections by origin, and each block carries that effect's preview, behaviour, and control descriptions together. (For how this page maps to the source/asset folders, see the folder-structure decision.)

Jump to: MoonLight · MoonModules · WLED · FastLED · projectMM-native

Migrating an effect — behaviour is the spec. A ported effect must reproduce the original's exact visual behaviour: end users have relied on these for years, so a port that looks different is a regression, not an improvement. Don't get creative with defaults, oscillator math, colour mapping, or geometry, and don't silently drop a parameter that is the mechanism (the PaintBrush straight-vs-curved-lines bug was a dropped partial-line length; Game of Life was wrong the first time by not porting the real algorithm). Study the source for the algorithm, defaults, and visual result; pin it with unit + scenario tests; then write our own implementation against EffectBase/our primitives — carry the behaviour forward, don't trace or copy the structure (see Industry standards, our own code). Credit the origin as prior art in the block below.

Some WLED-origin effects show a preview gif from WLED-Utils by scottrbailey (the canonical WLED effect gif set, cross-linked with credit); these show WLED's rendering. Effects with a local ../../assets/… gif show our own output.

MoonLight effects

Name	Preview	Controls	Links
DistortionWaves 💫 · 2D Two interfering sine waves beat against each other into a moiré colour field.	—	freq_x / freq_y — horizontal/vertical wave frequency (1–8).speed — animation rate (0 = frozen).	Tests Technical WLED · by ldirko & blazoncek (WLED port) · gallery · via MoonLight
FixedRectangle 💫 · 3D A solid colour filling a positioned box within the grid, with an optional alternating-white checker on the box's pixels.	—	red / green / blue / white — the box colour.X position / Y position / Z position — the box's origin corner.Rectangle width / Rectangle height / Rectangle depth — the box extent on each axis.alternateWhite — alternate box pixels to white in a checker pattern.	Tests Technical MoonLight · by limpkin · via MoonLight
FreqSaws 💫📊 · 2D Audio-reactive sawtooth waves: each column maps to a frequency band whose magnitude drives a per-band oscillator speed, so louder bands sweep their sawtooth up the column faster, with three phase methods.	—	fade — background decay per frame.increaser — how fast a band's speed ramps up with its magnitude.decreaser — how fast a silent band's speed decays.bpmMax — ceiling on a band's oscillation speed.invert — flip alternate columns vertically.keepOn — keep oscillating even when a band is silent.method — phase model (Chaos, Chaos fix, BandPhases).	Tests Technical MoonLight (audio) · by @TroyHacks · via MoonLight
LavaLamp 💫🦅 · 2D Three slow blobs through a black→red→orange→yellow→white ramp — atmospheric lava look.		bpm — blob drift speed.radius — blob influence radius.intensity — field gain into the black→red→orange→yellow→white ramp.	Tests Technical projectMM original (metaball lava lamp)
Lines 💫 · — Sweeps axis-aligned planes in sync; red/green/blue name the X/Y/Z axis — a preview-orientation test pattern.		speed — sweep BPM.axis — which plane sweeps (all, x (red), y (green), z (blue)).	Technical MoonLight · via MoonLight
Metaballs 💫🦅 · 2D count blobs orbit via integer sin/cos; metaball field per pixel — bright HSV merge/split.		bpm — orbit speed.radius — blob influence radius.count — number of orbiting balls (1–8).hue_shift — rotate the palette index.	Tests Technical projectMM original (metaballs)
Particles 💫🦅 · 2D A swarm of drifting particles with persistent fading trails.		count — number of particles (1–255).speed — drift velocity.fade — trail persistence (higher = longer tails).hue_shift — rotate every particle's hue.	Tests Technical MoonLight · by WildCats08 / @Brandon502 · via MoonLight
Plasma 💫🦅 · 2D/3D Summed sine waves on orthogonal + diagonal axes; large rolling blobs (3D on volumetric layouts).		bpm — roll speed.scale_x / scale_y — blob size on each axis (larger = bigger, calmer blobs, lower spatial frequency).hue_shift — rotate the palette index.	Tests Technical FastLED / WLED lineage (classic plasma)
Praxis 💫 · 2D An algorithmic palette pattern driven by two beat oscillators (a macro and a micro mutator) whose frequencies and ranges reshape the hue field over time.	—	macroMutatorFreq / macroMutatorMin / macroMutatorMax — the coarse mutator's beat frequency and its oscillation range.microMutatorFreq / microMutatorMin / microMutatorMax — the fine mutator's beat frequency and range.	Tests Technical MoonLight · by MONSOONO / @Flavourdynamics · via MoonLight
Rainbow 💫 · 2D Diagonal animated rainbow — always-visible default/test effect.		speed — animation BPM (one full hue cycle per beat).	Tests Technical FastLED · Mark Kriegsman (rainbow) · via MoonLight
Random 💫 · 3D Lights one random light per frame in a random palette colour over a fading background — a sparse, palette-tinted sparkle.	—	fade — how fast prior sparkles fade to black.	Tests Technical MoonLight · via MoonLight
Rings 💫🦅 · 2D Expanding concentric rings from random centres, additive overlap (calm defaults).		count — number of concentric rings (1–255).speed — expansion rate.thickness — ring band width.hue_shift — rotate every ring's hue.	Tests Technical projectMM original (concentric rings)
Ripples 💫🟦🦅 · 3D Distance-from-centre sets a per-column wave phase; the lit surface ripples like water.		speed — wave animation rate (0 = frozen, 99 = fast).interval — wavefront spacing (low = tight rings, high = wide).	Tests Technical MoonLight · via MoonLight
RubiksCube 💫🧊 · 3D A 3D Rubik's Cube projected onto the volume: it scrambles, then plays its solution back one turn at a time, the six faces in their standard colours.	—	turnsPerSecond — how fast the cube turns.cubeSize — the cube order (2×2 up to 8×8).randomTurning — turn endlessly at random instead of scramble-then-solve.usePalette — colour the six faces from the system-wide palette instead of the classic Rubik's colours.	Tests Technical MoonLight · by WildCats08 / @Brandon502 · via MoonLight
Solid 💫 · 3D A flat fill with five colour modes: a plain RGB(W) colour, the active palette spread across the lights, an RMS-averaged single palette colour, or the palette banded along the grid's rows or columns.	—	red / green / blue / white — the flat colour in RGB(W) mode (ignored in the palette modes).brightness — scales the flat and palette-spread output.colorMode — RGB(W), Palette (spread across the lights), Palette avg (RMS mean of the palette), Palette rows, Palette cols (palette banded along that axis).minRGB — in the band modes, drops palette entries whose every channel is below this floor.randomColors — in the band modes, deterministically shuffles the surviving palette entries.	Tests Technical MoonLight · via MoonLight
SphereMove 💫🧊 · 3D A hollow spherical shell that bounces through the 3D volume, its surface coloured from the palette, leaving no trail.	—	speed — how fast the sphere moves through the volume.	Tests Technical MoonLight · via MoonLight
Spiral 💫🦅 · 2D Rotating spiral from angle + distance (atan2_8/dist8).		bpm — rotation speed.twist — how tightly the arm winds (hue gain per unit of distance).hue_shift — rotate the palette index.	Tests Technical projectMM original (rotating spiral)
StarField 💫 · 2D A perspective starfield: stars approach the viewer from a vanishing point, brightening as they near, then respawn at depth.	—	speed — how fast stars approach (frame throttle).numStars — how many stars are active.blur — motion-trail fade per frame.usePalette — colour the stars from the palette instead of white.	Tests Technical MoonLight · by @Brandon502, inspired by Daniel Shiffman / Coding Train · via MoonLight
StarSky 💫 · 3D Twinkling stars at random light positions, each fading in and out independently over a dark background.		speed — fade rate per frame (how fast each star brightens/dims).star_fill_ratio — how many stars (as a fraction of the light count).usePalette — colour the stars from the active palette instead of white.	Tests Technical MoonLight · by limpkin · via MoonLight
Text 💫 · 2D Renders a multi-line string in a bitmap font. Static by default (laid out top-left, each newline dropping one font-height, clipped where it runs off the grid); turn on scroll to march the whole block leftwards as a wrapping marquee. Text colour comes from the active palette.	—	text — the string to show; a multi-line text area (each line renders on its own row).scroll — off (default) = static; on = horizontal marquee.font — glyph size (4x6 compact, 6x8 larger).speed — marquee speed (only used when scroll is on).hue — palette index for the text colour.	Tests Technical projectMM original, on MoonLight's Scrolling Text · via MoonLight

MoonModules effects

Name	Preview	Controls	Links
GameOfLife 💫🌙 · 2D/3D Conway's cellular automaton generalised to 2D/3D: selectable rulesets (+ custom B#/S#), cells that inherit a neighbour's palette colour on birth, optional green→red age colouring, a dead-cell blur fading toward the background colour, toroidal wrap, a 1.5 s settle pause, and 3-CRC stasis self-respawn (R-pentomino/glider) when the board goes static.	—	backgroundColorR / backgroundColorG / backgroundColorB — the colour dead cells fade toward (0–255 each).ruleset — the birth/survive rule (Conway, HighLife, InverseLife, Maze, Mazecentric, DrighLife, or Custom).customRuleString — a custom B#/S# rule, read only when ruleset = Custom.GameSpeed (FPS) — generation rate (0–100, 100 = uncapped).startingLifeDensity — % of cells alive at start (10–90).mutationChance — % chance a newborn gets a random colour (0–100).wrap — toroidal edges (cells wrap around).disablePause — skip the 1.5 s settle pause between boards.colorByAge — green→red aging instead of inheriting a neighbour's palette colour.infinite — respawn on stasis (R-pentomino/glider) instead of resetting.blur — dead-cell fade strength toward the background colour.	Tests Technical MoonModules · by Ewoud Wijma (2022), mods by Brandon Butler / @Brandon502 · natureofcode · via MoonLight
GEQ 💫🐙📊 · 2D A flat graphic equaliser: the 16 audio bands rise as vertical bars from the bottom, with optional smoothing between bars, per-bar palette colouring, and falling peak markers.		fadeOut — how fast bars fade each frame.ripple — falling-peak marker decay.colorBars — colour each bar from the palette by band instead of by row.smoothBars — blend neighbouring bands for smoother bar heights.	Tests Technical WLED (audio) · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR) · via MoonLight
GEQ3D 💫🌙📊 · 2D A 3D-perspective graphic equaliser: audio bands rise as bars with faked depth, their side/top lines drawn toward a "projector" vanishing point (sweeping left↔right) and shortened by depth. Bands left of the projector are painted right-to-left, bands right of it left-to-right; per-face darkening (side/top/front) and optional borders.	—	speed — projector sweep rate (1–10, higher = faster).frontFill — bar front-face fill strength (0–255).horizon — vanishing-point row the projector sits on.depth — how far the side/top perspective lines reach toward the projector.numBands — bands shown (2–16, fewer = wider bars).borders — outline each bar.	Tests Technical MoonModules (audio) · by @TroyHacks (GPLv3) · via MoonLight
Noise2D 💫🌙🐙 · 2D A smoothly drifting value-noise field: each pixel samples 3D noise (grid position × scale, time on the Z axis) and indexes the palette directly, giving an organic plasma wash that morphs over time.	—	speed — how fast the field morphs (time-flow rate).scale — noise zoom (higher = finer, more detailed).	Tests Technical WLED · via MoonLight
PaintBrush 💫🌙📊 · 3D Audio-reactive brush strokes: lines whose 3D endpoints oscillate on the beat (beatsin8, audio-band timebase), each stroke shortened to a band-magnitude length so the moving tip sweeps a curve over the fading field.	—	oscillatorOffset — phase-spread between the oscillating endpoints (0–16).numLines — parallel animated strokes (2–255).fadeRate — background decay per frame (0–128, higher = shorter strokes).minLength — a stroke draws only if longer than this, so quiet bands stay dark.color_chaos — per-line random hue vs a per-band gradient.phase_chaos — random per-frame phase jitter.	Tests Technical MoonModules (audio) · by @TroyHacks (GPLv3) · via MoonLight
Tetrix 💫🌙 · 2D Falling Tetris-style blocks: each column drops a brick that lands on the growing stack, fills the column, then clears and restarts.	—	speed — fall speed (0 = randomised per brick).width — brick height (0 = randomised).oneColor — one advancing palette colour for all bricks instead of random per-brick colours.	Tests Technical WLED · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR) · via MoonLight

WLED effects

Name	Preview	Controls	Links
Blurz 🐙📊 · 2D Audio-reactive blurred dots: one frequency band per frame lights a dot whose position maps to that band (or to the major-peak frequency), then the whole frame is blurred for soft trails.		fadeRate — background decay per frame.blur — blur strength applied each frame.freqMap — place the dot by the major-peak frequency instead of scanning bands.geqScanner — scan the dot across the strip in a GEQ-like sweep.	Tests Technical WLED (audio) · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR), enhancements by @softhack007 · via MoonLight
BouncingBalls 🐙 · 2D A row of balls per column bounce under gravity, each losing energy on impact and relaunching when it stops, palette-coloured by ball index over a fading background.		grav — gravity strength (higher = faster fall, snappier bounce).numBalls — balls per column (1–16).	Tests Technical WLED · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR) · via MoonLight
FreqMatrix 🐙📊 · 1D A 1D scrolling frequency display: each frame shifts the strip and injects a new pixel at one end whose hue comes from the dominant frequency and whose brightness from the volume.		speed — scroll rate.fx — sound-effect intensity (scales the injected brightness).lowBin / highBin — the frequency window mapped across the hue range.sensitivity — input gain (10–100).audioSpeed — let the volume modulate the scroll speed.	Tests Technical WLED (audio) · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR) · via MoonLight
Lissajous 🐙 · 2D A Lissajous curve traced across the grid from two phase-shifted sin8/cos8 sweeps, palette-coloured along its length, with a fading trail.		xFrequency — the x-axis sweep frequency (sets the curve's lobe count).fadeRate — trail fade per frame.speed — how fast the curve's phase advances.	Tests Technical WLED · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR) · via MoonLight
NoiseMeter 🐙📊 · 3D An audio VU meter rendered as a noise bar: the volume sets how many rows light from the bottom, each row coloured by drifting Perlin noise, filling the full width and depth.		fadeRate — trail decay per frame (200–254).width — how strongly the volume drives the bar height.	Tests Technical WLED (audio) · by Andrew Tuline (WLED-SR) · via MoonLight
Wave 🌊 · 2D An oscilloscope waveform scrolls across the grid with a fading trail; six selectable shapes.	—	bpm — travel speed (phase advance per minute).fade — trail fade per frame (0 = instant clear, 255 = long tail).type — waveform shape (Sawtooth, Triangle, Sine, Square, Sin3, Noise).	Tests Technical MoonLight · by Ewoud Wijma · via MoonLight

FastLED effects

Name	Preview	Controls	Links
Fire ⚡️🦅 · 2D Fire2012-style heat field — sparks at the base rise and cool through the active palette (heat = palette index, cold at the low end, hottest at the high end); spark count scales with width. The flame colour comes from the active palette. For the classic fire look pick the Lava palette (black→red→orange→yellow→white — the recommended default); any palette works, so an Ocean or Forest palette turns the flame blue or green.		cooling — how fast heat dissipates as it rises (higher = shorter flames).sparking — chance of a new spark at the base each frame (higher = livelier fire).	Tests Technical FastLED / MoonLight · Mark Kriegsman's Fire2012; MoonLight adapts MatrixFireFast (toggledbits)
Noise ⚡️ · 2D/3D Smooth animated value noise; true 3D field on volumetric layouts.		scale — spatial frequency of the field (1–32, higher = finer detail).bpm — scroll speed (8 noise cells per beat).	Tests Technical FastLED · inoise field (Mark Kriegsman)

projectMM-native effects

Name	Preview	Controls	Links
AudioSpectrum 📊 The 16 mic frequency bands spread across X, each column lit bottom-up by its magnitude.	—	colorMode — bar colouring: height (green base → red top, the VU look) or per-band (each column its own hue, the rainbow analyser look).	Tests Technical projectMM original, on the WLED-SR GEQ / spectrum concept (Andrew Tuline) · via MoonLight
AudioVolume 🔊 A whole-grid VU meter: every light pulses with the mic level, colour indexing the palette by loudness.	—	brightness — overall brightness ceiling for the VU pulse (1–255).	Tests Technical projectMM original (VU meter)
DemoReel 🎬 · 3D A demo reel: plays every other registered effect in turn, auto-advancing on a timer, so one Layer cycles the whole library hands-free — the showcase/test tool for everything. It hosts a single live effect at a time (created from the effect registry, rendered into this Layer) and swaps to the next when the interval elapses — new effects are picked up automatically. It can also pick a fresh palette each cycle and overlay the playing effect's name. The status line shows which effect is playing (e.g. playing: Plasma (3/20)). It never hosts itself, and it plays effects in sequence rather than compositing them (layering is the Layer stack's job).	—	interval — seconds each effect plays before advancing (1–120).shuffle — jump to a random next effect instead of registry order.randomPalette — pick a random palette on each cycle (showcases the palette set); default on.showName — overlay the playing effect's name in a small font; default on.	Tests Technical FastLED · Mark Kriegsman's DemoReel100; projectMM reel
NetworkReceive 📡🌙 Receives lights-over-UDP (Art-Net, E1.31/sACN, DDP) and writes it into the layer — the receive side for Resolume/Madrix/xLights/LedFx. Wire contract: listens for Art-Net, E1.31 / sACN, and DDP simultaneously; universe_start + channels_per_universe map incoming universes onto the layer buffer. The end-to-end pair with NetworkSendDriver.	—	universe_start — the first incoming universe to map onto the layer (mirrors the sender).channels_per_universe — bytes each universe maps to (510 = whole RGB lights per universe, the xLights/Falcon convention; 512 for Madrix-style senders that pack pixels across universe boundaries).	Tests Technical projectMM original (E1.31 / Art-Net receive)
Sine 🌀 · 3D R/G/B each follow a sine along one axis at 120° phase offset — a glowing, scrolling colour box.	—	frequency — spatial frequency, waves across the box (1–20).amplitude — peak brightness (0–255, 255 = full).bpm — scroll speed.	Tests Technical MoonLight (Sinus, AI-generated) · via MoonLight