Python script to simulate the display from "The Matrix" in terminal. Uses half-width katakana unicode characters by default, but can use custom character sets. Accepts keyboard controls while running.
Based on CMatrix by Chris Allegretta and Abishek V. Ashok. The following option should produce virtually the same output as CMatrix:
$ unimatrix -n -s 96 -l o
Linux users can use curl to install:
sudo curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/will8211/unimatrix/master/unimatrix.py -o /usr/local/bin/unimatrix
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/unimatrix
If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/will8211/unimatrix/master/unimatrix.py -O /usr/local/bin/unimatrix
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/unimatrix
You can also install it with pip:
pip install git+https://github.com/will8211/unimatrix.git
Users of Arch-based distros can get it from the AUR as unimatrix-git, although it might not be the most recent version.
Default settings:
Blue with custom character set 'Linux' ($ unimatrix -c blue -u 'Linux'):
Yellow with alternate character set: Emoji ($ unimatrix -c yellow -l 'e'):
Emulating CMatrix (unimatrix -n -s 96 -l 'o'):
USAGE
unimatrix [-a] [-b] [-c COLOR] [-f] [-g COLOR] [-h] [-l CHARACTER_LIST] [-n]
[-o] [-s SPEED] [-u CUSTOM_CHARACTERS]
OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
-a Asynchronous scroll. Lines will move at varied speeds.
-b Use only bold characters
-c COLOR One of: green (default), red, blue, white, yellow, cyan,
magenta, black
-f Enable "flashers," characters that continuously change.
-g COLOR Background color (See -c). Defaults to keeping
terminal's current background.
-h Show this help message and exit
-l CHARACTER_LIST Select character set(s) using a string over letter
codes (see CHARACTER SETS below.)
-n Do not use bold characters (overrides -b)
-o Disable on-screen status
-s SPEED Integer up to 100. 0 uses a one-second delay before
refreshing, 100 uses none. Use negative numbers for
even lower speeds. Default=85
-t TIME Exit the process after TIME seconds
-u CUSTOM_CHARACTERS Your own string of characters to display. Enclose in
single quotes ('') to escape special characters. For
example: -u '#$('
-w Single-wave mode: Does a single burst of green rain,
exits. You can put in a .bashrc file to run when your
terminal launches. Works well with speed at 95.
LONG ARGUMENTS
-a --asynchronous
-b --all-bold
-c --color=COLOR
-f --flashers
-g --bg-color=COLOR
-h --help
-l --character-list=CHARACTER_LIST
-s --speed=SPEED
-n --no-bold
-o --status-off
-t --time
-u --custom_characters=CUSTOM_CHARACTERS
-w --single_wave
CHARACTER SETS
When using '-l' or '--character_list=' option, follow it with one or more of
the following letters:
a Lowercase alphabet
A Uppercase alphabet
c Lowercase Russian Cyrillic alphabet
C Uppercase Russian Cyrillic alphabet
e A few common emoji ( ☺☻✌♡♥❤⚘❀❃❁✼☀✌♫♪☃❄❅❆☕☂★ )
g Lowercase Greek alphabet
G Uppercase Greek alphabet
k Japanese katakana (half-width)
m Default 'Matrix' set, equal to 'knnssss'
n Numbers 0-9
o 'Old' style non-unicode set, like cmatrix. Equal to 'AaSn'
p Klingon pIqaD (requires 'Horta' family font)*
P Klingon pIqaD (requires 'Klingon-pIqaD' or 'Code2000' family font)*
r Lowercase Roman numerals ( mcclllxxxxvvvvviiiiii )
R Uppercase Roman numerals ( MCCLLLXXXXVVVVVIIIIII )
s A subset of symbols actually used in the Matrix films ( -=*_+|:<>" )
S All common keyboard symbols ( `-=~!z#$%^&*()_+[]{}|\;':",./<>?" )
u Custom characters selected using -u switch
For example: '-l naAS' or '--character_list=naAS' will give something similar
to the output of the original cmatrix program in its default mode.
'-l ACG' will use all the upper-case character sets. Use the same
letter multiple times to increase the frequency of the character set. For
example, the default setting is equal to '-l knnssss'.
* With most modern Linux terminals (gnome-terminal, konsole, lxterminal,
xfce4-terminal, mate-terminal) simply having the font installed system-wide
is enough. The terminal will fall back to it for the Klingon, meaning that
you don't have to select it in your terminal settings. 'Horta' seems not to
work in Konsole. Fonts may need to be set manually as fallbacks in
.Xresources for older terminals, such as urxvt and xterm.
KEYBOARD CONTROL
SPACE, CTRL-c or q exit
- or LEFT decrease speed by 1
+ or RIGHT increase speed by 1
[ or DOWN decrease speed by 10
] or UP increase speed by 10
a toggle asynchronous scrolling
b cycle through bold character options
(bold off-->bold on-->all bold)
f toggle flashing characters
o toggle on-screen status
1 to 9 set color: (1) Green (2) Red (3) Blue (4) White
(5) Yellow (6) Cyan (7) Magenta (8) Black
(9) Terminal default
! to ( set background color (same colors as above, but pressing
shift + number)
EXAMPLES
Mimic default output of cmatrix (no unicode characters, works in TTY):
$ unimatrix -n -s 96 -l o
Use the letters from the name of your favorite operating system in bold blue:
$ unimatrix -B -u Linux -c blue
Use default character set, plus dollar symbol (note single quotes around
special character):
$ unimatrix -l knnssssu -u '$'
No bold characters, slowly, using emojis, numbers and a few symbols:
$ unimatrix -n -l ens -s 50
Unimatrix is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Unimatrix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/ for more details.