| Profile on 3D Project Looking
Glass
What Is Project Looking Glass?
Project Looking Glass [PLG] is the next generation desktop.
With it’s 3-D features such as being able to flip over
a window on the desktop and paste notes on the back.
It aims to provide a:
- richer user experience to the desktop and applications
via 3D windowing and visualization.
- platform for exploring potential 3D desktop features
- sample 3D desktop
PLG supports running unmodified existing applications in
a 3D space, as well as APIs for 3D window manager and application
development.
Technology
Project Looking Glass is based on Java technology, and has
been released to the open source community. Looking Glass
uses Java 3D to get hardware acceleration from the graphics
hardware. Java 3D (in most cases) uses OpenGL at the lowest
level.
Some elements in JDS 5; and more are being developed.
The platform supports virtual reality systems such as caves
and power walls and can support 3D input devices. However,
the sample desktop does not use virtual reality purely to
make user transitions easier.
See java.net,
all the source is under CVS control.
Platform Support
Current application integration is supported for Linux and
Solaris x86 platforms.
The platform for 3D application development is available
for Linux, Solaris and Windows platforms.
Looking Glass uses the Xorg Xserver to support X applications
within the 3D environment. The Xorg server is not currently
ported to Solaris SPARC. [The developer mode of Looking Glass
will run on Solaris SPARC, but does not support X applications
in the environment].
On Linux you can run lg3d-dev from within GNOME. The NVIDIA's
graphics card and driver works best on Linux.
It requires good OpenGL support, which is used by Java 3D.
Project Looking Glass requires JDK 1.5, Java3D 1.3.2, JAI
and the Xorg server today. Once those underlying pieces are
available on Mac, Looking Glass should run. Integrating cleanly
with the Aqua would require some changes in the X integration
code.
Updates
See the forum
and the Wiki
pages
Future Development
To support:
- Linux and Solaris x86.
- Multiple screens. The initial version supports multiple
"separate" screens - you can move the cursor between
screens but cannot move windows between screens. Plan to
support multiple "combined" screens to behave
as one giant virtual screen, with the capability to move
windows back and forth between screens. [Same as the Xinerama
mode of X11 or NVIDIA TwinView].
Full
Detail no Project Looking Glass
Looking
Glass Tutorials
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