The lionfish hunt
As the light goes, the red lionfish fans its fins and herds small fish against the reef.
A Launchpad Technology product
Reefglass
A living coral reef from the Kerama Islands, Okinawa, under glass on your Mac. It keeps the reef's real time.
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.
Coming in an update
Living cycle
A mode where the reef runs itself. Fish feed, breed, hunt and are hunted. Numbers balance through predator and prey, not a script. A quiet camera finds the moments worth watching. It isn't in v0.1. These are the first three moments planned for it.
Clownfish eggs
Orange eggs are laid on rock beside the anemone. The male fans and tends them until they hatch.
Settlement night
On the darkest nights, young fish arrive from open water and settle onto the reef.
Tasteful by design: predation is real but never gory. There's no blood. The camera keeps its distance at the moment of a kill, then shows the scavengers that follow.
On your Mac
Behind your icons, and on the lock screen.
Reefglass is built to live on your desktop. At launch, the offline file you buy can be your wallpaper with a free wallpaper app and our set-up guide. Glass Worlds for Mac, the native app that holds every world, is in development: it follows later, free for everyone who has already bought, and will do it all in one place.
A live desktop
The reef runs behind your windows and icons, in the simple view.
Full-screen aquarium
When you step away, the reef fills the screen. In the Mac app it can start by itself after a set idle time.
A filmed loop
macOS can't run a live 3D scene on the lock screen, so you get 4K video loops recorded from the reef itself.
Easy on power
Frame rate is capped and the reef pauses when it's hidden. The Mac app also pauses on battery and in Low Power Mode. We'll publish a measured power figure before launch.
Coming
Try your tank
Keep tropical fish at home? Pick your tank and three to five fish on one screen, then watch the months pass. Detail mode shows temperature, pH, stocking load and the nitrogen cycle, plus each clash between species with its source.
A planning guide, not a guarantee. Fish vary; always check with your local fish store and a water test. It's an educational simulation, not husbandry advice.
- Free, in the browser, no account needed.
- Freshwater only at first, starting with the 16 species whose details we've already checked against a source.
- No marine fish until we've checked a source for them.
- Saved tanks and extra species come later. Any paid Glass Worlds licence includes them.
- More about Try your tank
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.
Pricing
Buy once. Keep it.
Buy Reefglass on its own, or every Glass World for one payment. One-off purchases, not subscriptions. UK prices include VAT.
One world
Launch price — confirming
Reefglass on its own
£4.99inc. VAT, one-off
$6.49 (US dollars) outside the UK
- Reefglass to keep, with every tool and the full Detail mode
- At launch: a single offline file that opens in your browser, works with no connection, and can be your Mac desktop wallpaper with our set-up guide
- The Glass Worlds Mac app free when it follows, with a window, built-in wallpaper and full-screen mode
- The lock-screen video loops
- Free Reefglass 1.x updates
Also part of the planned Ocean collection of four worlds, £12.99.
Or get every world
Launch price — confirming
All Worlds, lifetime
£39.99inc. VAT, one-off
$52.99 (US dollars) outside the UK
£19.99 for the first month after launch, then £39.99
- Every world we publish in Glass Worlds, including the ones we release after you buy
- Reefglass now, then Antglass and Dinoglass as each one ships
- Licensed for personal use on your own devices
- One payment, nothing to renew
We'll publish the exact end date of the launch month on launch day.
At launch
Available now
Free browser demo
£0no account, no email
Runs in a modern browser with WebGL2
- Reefglass in the simple view
- A taste of Detail mode and the tools
- Install it from the browser and it works offline
Ocean collection £12.99 / $16.99
Reefglass with three more sea worlds: Ventglass, Kelpglass and Rockpool. Those three are planned, not built yet. All collections.
All Worlds pass £14.99 a year
Every world while the pass is active, if you'd rather pay yearly. Optional: buying once is the main way. Launch price — confirming.
Schools and venues
Classroom site licence £50 ex VAT a year. Waiting-room and lobby display licence, up to 3 screens, £100 ex VAT a year, plus £25 ex VAT per extra screen. Both are invoiced, and the prices are still being tested with customers. Talk to us.
Questions
Good to know
Is Reefglass available now?
Not yet. Reefglass v0.1 is a working private preview, and every picture on this page is a real screenshot from it. Reefglass goes on sale when version 1.0 is ready. Join the waitlist and we'll email you when it's on sale.
Which Macs will it run on?
Reefglass is real-time 3D, rendered with WebGL2. We haven't measured performance on specific Macs yet. We'll publish a minimum spec and a measured power figure before anything goes on sale, and the free demo lets you try it on your own Mac first.
Will it drain my battery?
A live 3D wallpaper uses power, so Reefglass is built to be careful with it. The frame rate is capped, and the reef pauses when it's hidden. The Mac app will also pause on battery and in Low Power Mode. We haven't measured the figure yet; we'll publish it before launch rather than guess.
Is this a subscription?
No. Reefglass on its own and All Worlds are one-off purchases, with nothing to keep paying for. There's an optional yearly pass if you'd rather, but buying once is the main way.
What does “lifetime” mean for All Worlds?
One payment covers every world we publish in Glass Worlds, including worlds we release after you buy, licensed for personal use on your own devices. There's nothing to renew. The price is £19.99 for the first month after launch, then £39.99, and we'll publish the exact end date on launch day.
Is it a game?
No. There are no scores, levels or goals. It's a living reef to look at and, when you feel like it, to poke at.
What do I get when I buy?
At launch, Reefglass comes as a single offline file. It opens in your browser, works with no connection, and our set-up guide shows how to use it as your Mac desktop wallpaper. The Glass Worlds Mac app follows later and will be free for everyone who has already bought a world. Your licence is for your personal use on your own devices; schools and public screens need our education or display licence.
Why will my bank statement say LINK.COM?
We plan to sell through Stripe, whose Onelink service is the seller of record and handles VAT and sales tax. Your statement will show LINK.COM* and your receipt will come from Onelink. Your licence code and download link will come from us, in a separate email.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. We're planning a voluntary 14-day refund on every purchase, on top of your legal rights. Email contactus@launchpadtechnology.co.uk. The full terms will be on our Refunds page before launch.
Is it on Windows?
Not at launch. The browser demo should run in any modern browser with WebGL2. A Windows version is something we'll look at after the Mac app.
Who makes Reefglass?
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. See all the worlds.
Waitlist
Be first in the water.
We'll email you once, when Reefglass goes on sale, and occasionally after that with Glass Worlds news. No spam.
Reefglass is part of Glass Worlds, a Launchpad Technology product.