Desert Caravan Stop
A woven shade, a brass kettle on a low tray, a leather flask hanging from the post, and the dunes turning violet after sundown. Swing the flask and raise the breeze.
Quiet dusk
Loose sand drifts along the ground and the flask swings a little when you touch it. Nothing flashes. Sound plays only if you start with it.
What you can do here
- Swing the flask
- Tap the leather flask, or press Swing the flask. It swings on its straps like a pendulum, out and back in a little under two seconds, and a heavy, half-full flask settles within a few swings.
- Raise the breeze
- Breeze sets the wind coming over the dunes. Loose sand streams along the ground, a thin veil lifts off the crest of the big dune, and the edge of the shade stirs. The shelter keeps the near ground calm at any setting.
- Catch the light on the kettle
- Move the pointer over the brass kettle and a glint of the last light slides across it, following you.
Use it as your wallpaper
Press F for fullscreen and M to turn the sound off and on; the volume and your sound choice carry over to every wallpaper. The sound keeps playing if you switch to another tab.
Live link
https://whitescreen.tv/interactive-wallpapers/desert-caravan-stop/#wallpaper- On a computer desktop
- Some wallpaper apps can show a web page behind your desktop icons. Give one the live link above and the scene runs there on its own: no page around it, no ads and no sound.
- On a TV or a spare screen
- Open this page and press F, or use Fullscreen. While it’s in fullscreen we ask the browser to keep the screen from going to sleep.
- On a phone or tablet
- Save image downloads exactly what’s on the screen as a picture. Set it as your wallpaper from your photos; the phone will crop the sides.
A live wallpaper keeps a page running all day. Through the live link the scene draws at most 30 frames a second and stops while the screen is covered, but on a laptop it still costs some battery.
Why sand moves in a thin layer
Wind rarely lifts desert sand high. Grains hop along in short leaps, a process called saltation, so most of the moving sand stays within a foot or two of the ground. On a breezy evening it looks like smoke running over the surface, and on a dune's sharp crest the wind lifts a fine plume off the top.
About the sounds
Two recordings: fine sand blowing past the shelter, which rises with the Breeze slider, and the close leather sound of the flask settling against its strap. The flask sound waits six seconds between plays.
If you’d rather just watch
Picture and sounds generated from our prompts. Motion, controls and mix by WhiteScreen.tv.
