Highland Loch a real Highland glen with moving water, grass and clouds
A real photograph of a loch between steep Highland hills, set in motion. Wavelets run down the shallow water in the foreground, gusts roll through the grass on the bank, and two layers of clouds drift across a blue midday sky and show in the water.
Free to install. Highland Loch unlocks with Pro, $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. Cancel anytime.
What you see on every new tab
Highland Loch starts from one still photograph: a loch lying across the floor of a glen, dark rocky hills rising on both sides to a V in the middle, shallow water with a few tussocks in the left foreground and a bank of bright green grass on the right. The hills stay exactly as photographed. The water, the grass and the whole sky are worked out live on your graphics card.
The water: small wavelets ride the current toward you in the foreground, long slow ripple bands and drifting patches of ruffled water cross the loch further out, and the water stays glassy close to the bank. Wave faces lighten and darken as they tilt.
The grass: gusts roll across the bank from right to left. Each tuft leans from its root as a gust arrives, turns a little paler as it bends, then springs back with a tremble.
The clouds: two layers cut from a real sky panorama. The near clouds cross the screen in about seven minutes; the distant ones are smaller, hazier and take about fifteen. All of them keep changing shape: lobes swell, edges curl, and thin wisps melt away and re-form.
The reflection: the bright parts of the water mirror the moving sky, softened, so a cloud passing overhead also passes across the loch.
The light: blue sky and midday light at every hour.
Nothing is a video. The glen is a single still photograph; the water, the grass and the sky are computed live on your graphics card with WebGL, and the clouds start in a different place in every tab.
What it reacts to
Mouse and click: nothing. This one is for watching.
Music: nothing. Music sync does not change this theme.
Night: no change. It is always daylight here, and the Day and Night button has no effect on this theme.
Free or Pro?Pro
Ambient New Tab is free to install, with three free themes. Highland Loch is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Highland Loch full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.
Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
Pick Highland Loch. Done.
Highland Loch on a 1280×800 New Tab page. Photo: Yousef Espanioly on Unsplash (Unsplash License), retouched, sky replaced. Clouds: sky panorama from Poly Haven (CC0).
Questions
Is it a video of a real place?
It is a real place but not a video. The scene is one still photograph of Loch Achtriochtan in Glencoe, Scotland, by Yousef Espanioly (Unsplash), retouched and with the sky replaced. The moving water, grass and clouds are added live on your graphics card.
Is Highland Loch free?
It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released. Cancel anytime.
Does it get dark at night?
No. Highland Loch is lit as midday whatever the time, and the Day and Night setting in the gallery does not change it.
Does it work on my phone?
No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.
