ascii-rs is a compact command-line tool developed in Rust, designed to transform videos into vibrant ASCII art, which is displayed directly in your terminal. This innovative solution allows users to experience video playback with minimal performance overhead, making it an ideal choice for those who appreciate vintage aesthetics combined with modern efficiency.

Features

• Video Playback: Plays videos as coloured ASCII art in a terminal environment.
• Performance: Maintains high performance with minimal CPU usage, enabling smooth playback.
• Compatibility: Works with any modern terminal that supports Unicode and ANSI escape codes.

System Requirements

• A CPU with decent performance.
• Installation of FFmpeg, which must be available in your system PATH.
• Any terminal emulator that supports Unicode and ANSI escape codes for optimal performance.

Usage Instructions

To run ascii-rs, follow these steps:

1. Download the latest stable release from the releases page or the nightly build from the GitHub Actions.

2. Execute the following command in your terminal:

   ./ascii-rs <path-to-video>  # To play a video
   ./ascii-rs <path-to-video> --compat  # For terminals with limited color support
   ./ascii-rs <path-to-video> --regenerate  # To rebuild the ASCII cache
   

Recommended Terminal Setup

For the best visual experience, it is recommended to use larger terminal dimensions, ideally a minimum of 30 columns x 20 rows. Extensive testing has shown that playing a 1080p/30fps video on a terminal with 305 columns x 109 rows can achieve around 30fps on a 3.6GHz CPU.

Caching Mechanism

ascii-rs creates a cache file to enhance the speed of subsequent runs of the same video, thus significantly improving performance.

Explore the source code and contribute to the repository by checking the full list of dependencies in the Cargo.toml file. Dive into the world of retro video playback with ascii-rs and enjoy a unique terminal experience.