Synthwave
a neon grid rolling into a striped sunset

What you see on every new tab

Synthwave paints the 1980s outrun scene across the New Tab page. The lower half is a dark purple floor ruled with glowing pink grid lines that roll toward you, about one row every second and a quarter. The horizon sits exactly halfway up the screen, with a bright line along it.

Above it, a large sun fading from hot pink at the bottom to yellow at the top sits behind two ridges of mountain silhouettes, under a sky that runs from magenta at the horizon to deep violet, scattered with small twinkling stars.

• Striped sun: The lower half of the sun is cut by horizontal gaps that get wider toward the bottom, and the stripes slide slowly downward, a new one every four seconds or so.
• Two mountain ridges: A paler far ridge and a darker near one, each with a thin magenta glow along its edge.
• Sun on the road: A faint pink streak of reflected sunlight runs down the middle of the grid toward you.
• Twinkling stars: Stars appear only well above the horizon and fade out around the sun's glow; each one twinkles at its own speed.
• Clean distance: Grid lines fade with distance and thin out before they crowd together, so the horizon stays smooth instead of shimmering.

The whole picture is one fragment shader that works out every pixel from scratch each frame: sky, sun, stars, mountains and floor. The grid is a flat plane seen in perspective, with no 3-D models.

What it reacts to

• Mouse: The sun and mountains shift slightly against your cursor, the near ridge more than the far one. On the floor, the cursor becomes a cyan pool of light that turns the grid lines under it cyan and brighter.
• Music: With music sync on, bass swells the sun, brightens the grid and speeds it up to nearly double; each kick sends a bright band racing from the horizon to your feet in about a second and a half; mids light up the mountain edges; treble makes the stars sparkle.
• Sound: A warm 80s analog pad, its filter slowly opening and closing as the chords drift. Free, like the theme. Sound starts soft on a new install, and you can turn it down or off right on the New Tab.
• Night: In Auto mode an indigo veil fades in around sunset and lifts around sunrise; the Day/Night button in the Themes panel can force either.

Free or Pro?Free

Synthwave is one of the five free themes, with Constellation, Marble, Synthwave, Soap Bubble Sky and Paper Drop, and it stays free. The clock, date and search box are free too. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and adds every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Synthwave. Done.

Questions

Is Synthwave free?

Yes. Synthwave, Constellation, Marble, Soap Bubble Sky and Paper Drop are free forever. No account, no time limit.

Why does the cursor light only appear on the floor?

The light pool is placed on the grid by working out where your cursor would touch the floor in the scene. Above the horizon there is no floor to land on, so the pool fades away and only the sun and mountain shift remain.

Why don't the grid lines flicker near the horizon?

Far away, grid lines get packed closer than a couple of pixels, which normally causes shimmering moiré bands. The shader measures how tightly the lines are packed at each pixel and fades them out before that happens, so the distance blends into a soft glow.

What do the bright bands rolling down the grid mean?

Each one is a beat. When a sharp rise in bass arrives, the theme launches a glowing band at the horizon that rushes toward you across the floor. Up to three can be on screen at once, so a fast beat sends a steady stream of them.

Does it work on my phone?

No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.

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