Volumetric Clouds Screensaver
The Volumetric Clouds screensaver renders drifting cloud with no geometry whatsoever. The scene is a single quad, and for every pixel the shader marches a ray through a noise field, accumulating density and light. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; press ESC to exit.
How the Volumetric Clouds screensaver works
The saver renders with three.js on your GPU. The library is vendored into this site rather than fetched from a CDN, and is loaded only when a 3D screensaver actually runs.
It reads nothing external — the entire image is computed in a fragment shader on your GPU.
The scene resizes with the window and releases its WebGL context when the saver stops, so shuffle mode and Multi-view can cycle 3D savers without exhausting the browser's context limit.
If WebGL is unavailable the saver says so on screen rather than showing an empty black box.
A worked example
For each pixel the shader steps along a ray up to 52 times. Wherever it finds density it takes four more samples toward the sun to ask how much cloud is in the way, and darkens accordingly. That inner loop is what produces silver linings: a thin edge transmits light and a thick core does not, and the difference is computed rather than painted.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the scene; Speed changes the pace of both the motion and the camera.
- Add it to a Multi-view grid, though 3D savers are heavier than the 2D ones and a few per screen is plenty.
- Press ESC at any time to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is there no geometry?
- Because clouds have no surface. Anything you model with triangles has a boundary, and cloud does not — it is a density that fades. Raymarching samples that density directly, which is why volumetric rendering exists as a separate technique.
- Will this run on an old machine?
- It is the heaviest saver here, since the cost is per pixel rather than per object. It scales with window size, so a smaller window or a lower resolution display will run it comfortably.
- Does this need a special browser or plugin?
- No. It uses WebGL, which every current desktop and mobile browser supports. Nothing is installed and no plugin is required.
- Does it cost anything or need an account?
- No. Every screensaver here is free, runs in the browser and needs no sign-up.