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A Launchpad Technology product
Reefglass
A living coral reef from the Kerama Islands, Okinawa. It keeps the reef's real time. Free to play in your browser, with nothing to sign up for.
Free · no account · no payment
Step into the reef.
Press play and the reef opens right here on the page. It is a real-time 3D world, so a laptop or desktop browser with WebGL2 gives the best view. Sound is optional: it stays off until you switch it on with the speaker button in the world.
If it stays black, your browser may not support WebGL2. Try the latest Safari, Chrome, Edge or Firefox.
Download it and keep it
One offline file, about 11 MB. Save it, double-click it, and it opens in your browser with no connection needed.
Download freeMake it your wallpaper
On a Mac, a free third-party app called Plash can show the file behind your windows. Our guide takes about ten minutes.
Wallpaper set-up guide
26.2° N, 127.3° E
A real reef, on real time.
Reefglass is set on one real place: the fringing reefs of the Kerama Islands, west of Okinawa. Leave it running and it follows that reef's day, the moon and the turn of the seasons. It doesn't follow a loop.
- SunIts height and direction come from today's date, the time and the reef's latitude, so midday, dusk and night arrive when they should.
- MoonThe moon is in its real phase. A full moon lights the night reef; a new moon leaves it dark.
- TideThe current across the reef is modelled on the 12.4-hour tidal rhythm. It sets the flow and the readout, not a tide-table prediction.
- SeasonWater temperature follows an Okinawa curve, from about 21–22 °C in February to about 29–30 °C in August.
- Who's here15 species of reef fish, including ocellaris clownfish and blue tang, plus a moray, garden eels, an octopus and visiting turtles, sharks and a manta. See the full species list.
Two ways to look
Simple at first glance. Detail when you want it.
Out of the box there are no buttons and no numbers, just the reef. Flip to Detail mode for the water temperature, tide, moon, season dial, species and the tools.
Simple
The reef and nothing else. This is how it looks as a wallpaper.
Detail
The glass case, with readouts for water, current and tide, a live sun-and-moon clock, a season dial and the toolbar.
Hands in the water
Every tool changes the reef, not a canned animation.
There is one shared world underneath. When you touch it, the fish, the sand and the water all respond to the same change.
Feed
Scatter food and watch who comes up for it, and who stays in cover.
Follow an animal
Pick a fish and the camera swims with it around the reef.
Lift a rock
Turn over a piece of coral rubble and see who was living underneath: a goby, a crab or a brittle star.
Stir the sand
Kick up a cloud of silt and watch it drift away on the current and settle again.
Push the current
Sweep the water with your hand. The sea fans bend and the plankton swirls.
Wipe the glass
Algae film builds up on the case over time. Wipe a clear window through it.
The fish notice your cursor. Chromis and sea goldies are shy and drop into the coral. Moon wrasse and yellow tang are curious and come to look. The clownfish defend their anemone. Their behaviour is inspired by how each species is observed to act.
On your desktop
Behind your icons, if you like.
Reefglass has a wallpaper mode with no controls on screen, just the reef. On a Mac you can run the downloaded file as a live desktop with Plash, a free app made by an independent developer. Our set-up guide walks through it.
A live desktop
The reef runs behind your windows and icons, in the simple view, following your clock.
Capped, and it adapts
In wallpaper mode the frame rate is capped at 30, and the world steps its own detail down if your machine cannot keep up. A live 3D wallpaper still uses power, so it suits a laptop that is plugged in. We have not published a measured power figure.
Less tested
The guide also covers Lively Wallpaper on Windows. Reefglass is built and tested on Mac first, so expect fewer guarantees there.
Science and sources
Real species, by their real names.
Every animal on this reef is a real Indo-Pacific species. We chose them so that one real place, the Ryukyu Islands, could plausibly hold the whole cast. Each one is listed below by its common and scientific name.
| Common name | Scientific name |
|---|---|
| Reef fish (15) | |
| Ocellaris clownfish | Amphiprion ocellaris |
| Blue tang (palette surgeonfish) | Paracanthurus hepatus |
| Yellow tang | Zebrasoma flavescens |
| Moorish idol | Zanclus cornutus |
| Emperor angelfish | Pomacanthus imperator |
| Threadfin butterflyfish | Chaetodon auriga |
| Bullethead parrotfish | Chlorurus spilurus |
| Bluestreak cleaner wrasse | Labroides dimidiatus |
| Moon wrasse | Thalassoma lunare |
| Blue-green chromis | Chromis viridis |
| Sea goldie (scalefin anthias) | Pseudanthias squamipinnis |
| Red lionfish | Pterois volitans |
| Picasso triggerfish | Rhinecanthus aculeatus |
| Mandarinfish | Synchiropus splendidus |
| Yellowfin goatfish | Mulloidichthys vanicolensis |
| Residents and visitors | |
| Giant moray | Gymnothorax javanicus |
| Spotted garden eel | Heteroconger hassi |
| Green sea turtle | Chelonia mydas |
| Whitetip reef shark | Triaenodon obesus |
| Blacktip reef shark | Carcharhinus melanopterus |
| Reef manta ray | Mobula alfredi |
| On the rock and sand | |
| Magnificent sea anemone | Heteractis magnifica |
| Day octopus | Octopus cyanea |
| Small giant clam | Tridacna maxima |
| Long-spined sea urchin | Diadema setosum |
| Blue sea star | Linckia laevigata |
| Leopard sea cucumber | Bohadschia argus |
| Floral egg crab | Atergatis floridus |
| Elegant hermit crab | Calcinus elegans |
| Shrimp goby and pistol shrimp | Amblyeleotris sp., Alpheus sp. |
| Box crab | Calappa sp. |
| Corals | |
| Staghorn and table corals | Acropora muricata, A. hyacinthus |
| Lobe coral | Porites lobata |
| Lesser valley (brain) coral | Platygyra daedalea |
| Plate coral | Montipora capricornis |
| Leather coral | Sarcophyton spp. |
| Sea fan and sea whips | Annella mollis; Junceella / Ellisella spp. |
How we checked
Before anything was built, we wrote a species brief for the reef. It covers each animal's shape, colours, size, how it swims, who it lives with and what it does by day and by night. The builders worked from that brief, and the behaviour was then reviewed against it.
- One place. Species found in the Red Sea or on the Great Barrier Reef but not around Okinawa were left out. That's why the clownfish is A. ocellaris and not A. percula.
- Real names only. Every animal goes by its common and scientific name. None of them has a character name.
- Honest wording. We say the behaviour is inspired by how each species is observed. We don't claim it is a scientific simulation.
- Sky and sea. The sun and moon are calculated for the reef's latitude. The tide and season are modelled, as described above.
Still being checked against a source
- The bullethead parrotfish's current name. Pacific fish once grouped as Chlorurus sordidus are now often treated as C. spilurus.
- Yellow tang occur around the Ryukyus only at the edge of their range, and are rare there.
- Mandarinfish are recorded around the Ryukyus. We're still confirming this against a published source.
- Timing of the coral spawning and bleaching thresholds, before either becomes an event in the reef.
Questions
Good to know
Is Reefglass really free?
Yes. You can play it in your browser or download the file, with no account and no payment. Launchpad Technology makes it.
What does “release candidate” mean?
This is version 1.1.0-rc.3, a build we think is close to final. Small things may still be rough. If you find one, email contactus@launchpadtechnology.co.uk with your device and browser.
Which computers and browsers will it run on?
Reefglass is real-time 3D, rendered with WebGL2, so it needs a recent browser that supports WebGL2. We have not measured performance on specific machines. It is happiest on a laptop or desktop with a normal graphics chip.
Does it work offline?
Yes, once you have downloaded the file. It is a single HTML file that opens in your browser by double-click, with no connection needed.
Will it drain my battery?
A live 3D scene uses power. In wallpaper mode the frame rate is capped, and the detail steps down if your machine struggles. We have not measured a power figure, so we will not quote one.
Is it a game?
No. There are no scores, levels or goals. It is a living reef to look at and, when you feel like it, to poke at.
Can I use it on a screen in my shop, school or business?
Yes. Reefglass is free for homes, shops, schools and businesses. If you want a custom world built for you, or learning content tailored to your class or venue, use our contact form or email contactus@launchpadtechnology.co.uk.
Who makes Reefglass, and what comes next?
Launchpad Technology Ltd, a UK software company. Reefglass is the first world in Glass Worlds, our series of living worlds in glass. Antglass and Dinoglass are in development. Join the list below and we will tell you when a new world lands. See the Glass Worlds page.
Made by Launchpad Technology
Want a world of your own?
Reefglass was built by Launchpad Technology, a small software company in Bourne, Lincolnshire. If you would like a living world for a reception, a waiting room, a visitor centre or a classroom, or learning content built around one, tell us what you have in mind.
Waitlist
Tell me when new worlds land.
Reefglass is free. Antglass and Dinoglass are being built. Leave your email and we will write once when a new world is ready, and occasionally after that with Glass Worlds news. No spam.
Reefglass is part of Glass Worlds, a Launchpad Technology product.