media using a crackle or marble pattern might do well.  Several people that I
know of have made lightning, not all the same way though.  Using a recursion of
objects (cylinders) in a CSG is one way.
I think if you were to use a thin box though having a marble media in it that
it should look pretty good.  Someone's probably done that before too.  Here's
how:

box {-1,1 scale <10,10,0.1> // thin z plane box
 pigment {rgbf 1}
  interior {
  media {emission 1 // self illuminate
             density {marble density_map { // pattern
                [.025 rgb 5] [.03 rgb 0] // fine line
                } turbulence .3 scale 3 } // stir it up
            } }
  translate 3*z // move back from camera
 hollow
  }

camera  // must look perpendicular to box
{
  location  -3*z
  look_at   0
}

Not perfect, but something to go by.

Bob H.

"J" <no.spam> wrote in message news:3a6dc886$1@news.povray.org...
> I've never really done anything with media, just pigments and textures.  I'm
> wondering if there's a way to create a lightning-looking effect.
> Any ideas?

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