Lightning reveal guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

The frame says the effect needs WebGL

Lightning reveal draws with WebGL, and this browser has it turned off. Turn on the browser's graphics acceleration, update it, or try another current browser.

Tapping the picture does nothing

A tap during a strike is ignored, so a strike is never cut in half. Wait for it to finish, or press Replay, which always starts again at once. A strike also only starts from a tap with the main mouse button or a finger.

Picture B never shows

Check that Crack A into B under Sliders is on. It starts on, and presets and Reset keep it on. Then tap the picture or press Replay.

The crack goes the wrong way

With Crack A into B on, the pictures swap turns after each finished strike: A into B, then B into A. Tap or press Replay once more to go the other way. Press Reset, or turn the crack off, to go back to picture A.

The branches ignore my picture

The tree follows the edges and bright parts of picture A, even when B is on screen. Raise Edge affinity and Bright ridge, or pick a picture A with clear shapes. A flat, even picture gives the branches little to follow.

My picture looks stretched

The frame takes the shape of picture A, and picture B is stretched to that shape. Crop both pictures to the same shape first. Replacing A changes the frame's shape; replacing B does not.

My picture did not change

A file the browser cannot open as an image is skipped without a message. Try a JPEG, PNG or WebP copy of it. See JPEG, PNG and WebP.

It is slow, or the page struggles with a big photo

The pictures go to the graphics card at their full size, with no resizing, so a very large photo takes more memory. Use a smaller copy on a phone or an older computer. The tree is grown on a small copy of picture A, so a big photo does not slow the growth, but a high Segments or Fork chance does: each tap grows the whole tree before the strike starts.

Record video did nothing

The line under the buttons says why: some browsers cannot record a canvas, or offer no video format the page can use. Try a current Chrome, Edge or Firefox.

Where do my pictures go?

Nowhere. They are opened in your browser and drawn on your graphics card. Nothing is uploaded. The pictures you add stay on this device, in this browser, so the other lab tools can open them too; × on a picture removes it.

Are there keyboard shortcuts?

The tool has none of its own. Anywhere in the lab, Ctrl K, or Cmd K on a Mac, opens the list of all tools.

On a phone

It works with a finger: tap the picture to start a strike from that point. The controls sit in a bar at the bottom of the screen; tap the bar to open them.