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Glass Worlds

A Launchpad Technology product

A series of living worlds

Small worlds, alive behind glass.

Each world follows your real clock, moon and season, so it is different every time you look. Simple at first glance. Flip to Detail when you want to know what you are seeing.

Play Reefglass, free Join the waitlist Meet the three worlds

Reefglass is free to play now (v1.1 release candidate); Antglass, Dinoglass and Pondglass have working development builds, and eight more worlds have builds in the workshop.

Reefglass, dive view at midday. Real in-engine footage, recorded from the world itself.

What Glass Worlds is

A real place, in a glass case, on your own clock.

Each world is one real ecosystem with real species. One shared model of time, light and weather drives everything you see, and every tool you use pokes that model rather than playing an animation.

Your real clock, moon and season

Morning light at your breakfast, dark water at night. The moon phase is calculated from the real lunar cycle, and the tide is modelled on a twice-daily cycle.

In Reefglass now

Simple first, Detail when you want it

By default you just see the world. One Detail toggle opens species cards, tide and moon readouts and the tools.

Being refined for v1.0

Living cycle

Leave it running and the world looks after itself: animals feed, grow, hunt and are recycled back into it. Predation is real but never gory.

Planned

Runs where you look

A window you can play with, a live wallpaper behind your desktop icons, and a pre-rendered loop for your Mac lock screen.

Mac app in development

Reefglass in case view: three coral heads in clear turquoise water inside a glass tank on a wooden stand, with rippling light on the white sand.
Reefglass v1.0 release candidate, case view. Real in-engine screenshot, interface hidden.

The worlds

Four worlds, each with its own look.

One engine, four very different places. Each world has its own page, palette and pace.

Ocellaris clownfish around a coral head, above the tentacles of a sea anemone, with a black-and-white striped reef fish in open water to the right. Real screenshot, v0.1 (cropped)

Free, play now · v1.1 release candidate

Reefglass

Kerama Islands, Okinawa

An Indo-Pacific coral reef in sunlit shallow water. Feed it, stir the current, kick up silt, wipe the glass, then dive in.

Play Reefglass, free
Dark black garden ant workers along pale tunnels in brown soil, seen in the Antglass Close view. Real screenshot, build 0.3 (cropped)

In development · build 0.4

Antglass

Lasius niger · a UK garden

A black garden ant colony digging its own nest in a block of real soil. Slice through it to see the tunnels, the brood and who is doing which job.

Follow Antglass
The Jehol valley meadow: feathered dinosaurs among ferns, horsetails and cycads, with conifers and ginkgos behind under a cloudy sky. Real screenshot, build 0.5

In development · build 0.5

Dinoglass

Jehol Biota · Liaoning, China

A forested lakeshore from one real fossil assemblage: small feathered dinosaurs, early birds and volcanic ashfall, with colours drawn from fossil evidence where it exists.

Follow Dinoglass
A wide glass case holding a clear garden pond with lily pads, a pebble beach, reeds, a log pile and a timber bench, cut away to show the water. Real screenshot, build 0.2 (cropped)

In development · build 0.2

Pondglass

A UK garden pond

A wildlife pond cut through like a slice of cake, living through the real British year: frogspawn when it would really arrive, dragonflies climbing out at dawn, and ice in winter.

Hear when Pondglass is ready

In the workshop

More worlds on the same engine. These seven already have working first builds; the rest are in progress. No dates yet, and plans can change; join the waitlist to hear when each one is ready.

  • A tall glass case of giant kelp in clear green-blue water, lit from the surface, with sea otters resting at the top and fish among the fronds. Kelpglass Build 0.3 · real screenshot A Californian giant kelp forest off Monterey, with sea otters, urchins and the real swell.
  • Honey bee workers walking over capped and open comb cells. Hiveglass Build 0.2 · real screenshot A UK honey bee colony in an observation hive; every waggle dance points at a real place.
  • A black smoker chimney above a thicket of red-tipped giant tubeworms in a dark glass case. Ventglass First build 0.1 · real screenshot A deep-sea vent field 2,500 m down on the East Pacific Rise: black smokers and giant tubeworms.
  • An Adélie penguin colony on pebble nests beside sea ice, in a glass case. Penguinglass First build 0.1 · real screenshot An Adélie penguin colony at Cape Royds, Antarctica, on the real polar light and sea ice.
  • A glowing lava lake of cracked crust at the bottom of a stepped crater at night, with steam lit orange from below. Lavaglass Build 0.3 · real screenshot A living lava lake at the summit of Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi, on the real Hawaiʻi clock.
  • A brass orrery under a glass bell jar, with a glowing Sun and the planets placed where they are today. Orreryglass Build 0.2 · real screenshot The solar system as it really is right now, and the real sky over your town tonight.
  • Six-wheeled robot rovers beside solar arrays on the red sand of Jezero Crater, Mars. Botglass First build 0.1 · real screenshot A robot outpost in Jezero Crater on Mars, running on the real Mars clock and season.
  • A Serengeti waterhole at golden hour, with elephants and zebras at the water, acacias and a granite kopje behind. Savannaglass Build 0.2 · real screenshot A drying river pool at Seronera in the Serengeti, on the real Serengeti clock and rains, opening at golden hour.

Also in progress

  • Townglass A near-future UK fen market town where people and service robots live side by side, with an optional Zombie mode.
  • Rockpool A real mid-shore rockpool at Wembury, South Devon, that floods and drains on the real tide.
  • Titanglass A lakeshore on Saturn's moon Titan, with its slow orange day and methane rain.

Where it runs

On your Mac, behind your work, or in a browser.

  1. Glass Worlds for Mac

    A signed, notarised Mac app that hosts every world in a normal window, with a menu-bar control. It follows later.

    In development

  2. Live desktop wallpaper

    The world runs behind your desktop icons. Today you can set Reefglass as your wallpaper with a free wallpaper app, following our set-up guide. The Mac app will build it in, with a frame-rate cap and pausing when it is hidden or on battery.

    Set-up guide available

  3. Full-screen mode and lock-screen loop

    A full-screen mode that can start when your Mac is idle, and pre-rendered video loops for the lock screen. macOS does not allow a live 3D lock screen, so those are real captures from the engine.

    Planned

  4. In your browser

    Reefglass runs in a modern browser with WebGL2. Play it free on its own page, with no account needed.

    Live now

Free to play

Reefglass is free. More worlds are on the way.

Play Reefglass in your browser, or download the single offline file and keep it. Antglass and Dinoglass are in development. Tell us if you would like to hear when a new world is ready.

Play Reefglass, free Tell me when new worlds land

Free · planned

Try your tank before you get the fish.

Pick a tank and three to five fish on one simple screen, then watch the months pass. Detail mode shows temperature, pH, stocking load, the nitrogen cycle and each clash, with its source.

A planning guide, not a guarantee. Fish vary; always check with your local fish store and a water test. An educational simulation, not husbandry advice.

Get told when Try your tank opens
16
freshwater species verified so far, the only ones it will include at launch
0
marine species until we have a source we can check them against
3–5
fish per tank, chosen on one screen

Questions

Straight answers.

Will it drain my battery or slow my Mac down?

A live 3D world uses your graphics chip, so it does use power. The Mac app is being built to cap the frame rate and to pause when the world is hidden, when you are on battery and in Low Power Mode. We have not measured its power use on a range of Macs yet. We will publish a measured figure on this page before the Mac app is released.

Which Macs will it run on?

The Mac app is still in development, so we have not set a minimum spec yet. It will be stated here, with the Macs we tested on, before the app is released. The web version needs a modern browser with WebGL2.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Reefglass is free to download as a single file that opens in your browser and works with no connection. You can also set it as your Mac desktop wallpaper with a free wallpaper app, following our set-up guide. The Glass Worlds Mac app follows later.

What data do you collect?

The worlds run on your own device. If you join the waitlist we keep your email, the worlds you ticked, a record of your consent and a hashed, day-scoped key used to stop spam; we never store your IP address. We never share or sell your address. See our privacy notice.

How accurate is it, and where does it come from?

Each world is built from a researched species list with sources, but it is a simulation, not a scientific instrument. Fish behaviours are inspired by observed species temperaments. The moon phase is calculated from the real lunar cycle; the tide is modelled on a twice-daily cycle rather than a local tide table. Dinoglass uses only animals from one fossil assemblage, and where an animal's colour is not known from fossil evidence, we say so. Try your tank shows its source for every warning.

Can I use it in my shop, school or waiting room?

Reefglass is free for homes, shops, schools and businesses. For a custom world or tailored learning content, get in touch. Talk to us.

Who makes Glass Worlds?

Glass Worlds is a product line of Launchpad Technology Ltd, a software company registered in England & Wales (No. 17071004). You can reach us on 0330 133 4432 or contactus@launchpadtechnology.co.uk.

Waitlist

Hear when a new world is ready.

One email when something you ticked is ready, plus occasional news. No account, no spam.

Which worlds interest you?