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Project Looking Glass is based on Java technology and explores bringing a richer user experience to the desktop and applications via 3D windowing and visualization capabilities. It supports running unmodified existing applications in a 3D space, as well as APIs for 3D window manager and application development. At the moment, existing application integration is supported for Linux and Solaris x86 platforms. The platform for 3D application development is available for Linux, Solaris and Windows platforms.

Project Looking Glass is in its infancy. We need your help to explore many ideas in the desktop and application space. We released the Project Looking Glass code to the whole community to explore every aspect of the technology rather than restricting access to a privileged few. We believe open development is an excellent model to pursue this exciting and vast opportunity. So get involved and let's innovate the computer user interface!

Frequently Asked Questions ,  Spotlighted contributors ,  LG3D Development Team Info Wiki

What's New
You can now browse Project Looking Glass CVS repositories using fisheye Plethora 1.0 is now available here. Plethora is a NetBeans module suite which streamlines Looking Glass application development. Plethora allows developers to create 3D interfaces that combine utility and visual appeal. The developer is given full control over a wide range of Looking Glass GUI features by means of an easy-to-use direct manipulation interface. Take it out for a test drive! Release 1.0 is available here under the Stable Builds section. LG3D-LiveCD 3.0 released! download now The new relase features LG3D release 1.0, the possibility to install LG3D-livecd to an USB device and an experimental harddisk installer. Technical document " Project Looking Glass - A Comprehensive Overview of the Technology" is available. For non-English speakers -- we are looking for volunteers to translate this document into your native tongue. If you are willing to help us, please post a note to this thread in the LG3D discussion forum ! To get started, refer to the "Getting started with Project Looking Glass" document. Get the latest information at the discussion forum!
Supported Key Features	For those who just can't wait....
Currently we are focusing on providing core functionality to kick start the 3D exploration and refining the initial platform. The current platform supports the following key features: Existing application (X11 client) initial integration (app status) Client-server scenegraph platform Serverside behavior execution Support for generic event system Initial set of core API for building 3D widget set Support for utilities for animated user feedback	To get started and to set up a development environment refer to the "Getting started with Project Looking Glass" document. If you are a Windows user, check out "Running the LG3D Developer's Release on Microsoft Windows". Once you have a working development environment, you should read the "Project Looking Glass Developer's Guide" which provides detailed information on Project Looking Glass and building 3D applications for this project. If you are a NetBeans user, check out "Building and Running LG3D with NetBeans". And "Project Looking Glass Tutorials" explains how to program LG3D applications. When you are ready to contribute code or documentation to the project, see the "Contributing to Project Looking Glass" document to learn how to do that.

On Going Sub-projects

Here is a list of subprojects going under the lg3d-core (and lg3d-demo-apps, lg3d-incubator). Thank you for the offers! If you would be interested in proposing something, that's great! Please reply to this thread at the javadesktop.org forum and let us know your ideas. Please check out the lg3d-x11 project page for the topics specific to the X11 integration. If you would like to help out with an existing subproject please post on the forum, I'm sure the teams would be greatful for extra resources.

• Javadoc API 1.0.0 Application API :  Scenemanager API
• Project Looking Glass Tutorials
  

  Kirk Turner (gameldar), William Tracy (afishionado)

• lg3d-art project
  

  This project is the place for sharing additional model and art assets for Project Looking Glass. Your contribution would be much appreciated!

• The Project Looking Glass developer's blog
• Projects at lg3d-incubator
  
• Document Localization
  

  Language	Owner(s)
  Chinese	Wen Peng (wenpeng), Calvin Liu
  Czech	Petr Hejl (sickboy)
  Dutch	Martjin Kools (marve)
  French	jibe77, Pierre (pinaraf)
  German	Christian Ost (cost) and Maik Ladwig (moonfire)
  Polski	Stanislaw Styszynski (diabeteo)
  Italian	Giordano Fracasso (giosquad), Di Fazio Raffaele (raffo)
  Japanese	Yuka Kamiya (kyuka), Hideyuki Otokawa (otokawa), Yuichi Sakuraba (sakuraba), Kazuhiro Kazama (kazama) and Endo Yasuyuki (yasuyuki)
  Romanian	Abibula Aygun (aygun)
  Spanish	Sergio Ivan Marcin (bitbeat)

  • References
    • Translation File Style Guide
      
• Wiki
  LG3D Wiki Top Page

  Subject	Owner(s)
  Knowledge-base	Martijn Kools (marve), David Weizades (ddew), Paul Shoemaker (t0rn)
  3D UI Ideas and Discussions	Paul Shoemaker (t0rn), qgnjon, David Weizades (ddew)
  LG3D Development Team/Releases	Van der Haegen Mathieu (dwarfy)
  LG3D Application Development tips	Van der Haegen Mathieu (dwarfy)
  Documentation Improvement Projects	Van der Haegen Mathieu (dwarfy)

How to Contribute

As the first step, please consider becoming a project Observer, familiarizing yourself with the project and participating to the discussion forum. Please refer to the Contributing to Project Looking Glass document for more information on how to contribute to the project. See the JavaDesktop Community Governance Guidelines for general guidelines on participating in JavaDesktop community projects, such as Project Looking Glass.

Reporting Issues

Information on current problems and issues can be found by using Issue tracker . You can search for issues and defects or find a specific issue. If you encounter an issue that has not been filed, please go ahead and file one. You may want to search the email archive at the discussion forum at javadesktop.org to find out related information.

When you report an issue, please try to be specific about your machine environment and the symptom you are encountering. When you encounter a crash, the following log files will provide good information:

• /var/tmp/lgserver.log
• /var/log/Xorg.0.log
  This log can be very long. Please pay attention to the line that has a leading (EE), and report any suspicious lines.
• hs_err_pid####.log
  This log can also be very long. Please send lines between the top and the line that says
  "--- P R O C E S S ---".

If you're new to Issue tracking, you might want to take a moment to browse these introductory docs:

• A Step by Step Guide to filing a useful bug report
• A Quick Introduction to Issue Tracking

Staying Connected

The Project Looking Glass project is evolving continually. The best way to keep up to date with Project Looking Glass developments is by subscribing to the Project Looking Glass mailing lists. Click on Mailing lists in the Project tools section of the side bar on https://lg3d.dev.java.net/. There are several mailing lists to choose from depending on your level of interest.

• If you're just interested in what's new, subscribe to announce@lg3d.dev.java.net.
  

• If you're a developer and want to discuss Project Looking Glass development issues, subscribe to interest@lg3d.dev.java.net.
  The email messages are cross-posted to the LG3D discussion forum . So, you may want to check the forum regularly instead of subscribing to the mailing list.

• If you're interested in licensing issues, subscribe to lg3d_license@dev.java.net.
  

Resources

• FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
• Getting started with Project Looking Glass
  • NVIDIA Driver Installation Tips
  • Direct Rendering Open Source Project (DRI)
  • A thread on the LG3D forums detailing the ATI issue
• Running the Project Looking Glass Developer's Release on Microsoft Windows
• LG3D's First Run
• Project Looking Glass Developer's Guide
• Building and Running Project Looking Glass with NetBeans
• Project Looking Glass Tutorials
• Code Conventions for the Java Programming Language
• Jar-based Application Deployment within LG3D
• Solaris x86 instructions in French, thanks to the french Solaris User Group

• Discussion Forum: Project Looking Glass 3D
• Issue Tracker Query

• Project Looking Glass - A Comprehensive Overview of the Technology (PDF 1.6MB)
  • Tradução para o Português - Portuguese translation (PDF 1.6MB)
  • Polskie tłumaczenie - Polish translation (PDF 980KB)
  • Chinese Translation (1.5MB)


• JavaOne slide set
  • JavaOne 2005 slide set (PDF 1.5MB)
  • JavaOne 2004 slide set (PDF 900KB)
• How to port to 0.6.2 Wiki page
• Summer of Code sponsored by Google
  • Projects wiki page 2007
  • Projects wiki page 2006
  • Projects wiki page 2005
• Related Technologies
• UI Design Discussions
• Exchange of new ideas -- Transcripts of chat-sessions on irc
  • A chat about implementing a databasing filesystem
• 

  GoMonkey+LG3D Demo move clip showing "Minority Report" like UI ( ~18MB in the RM format). Also check out this movie clip (~9MB, AVI/DivX/PCM) from GoMonkey/Sun demo at CeBIT 2006. Thanks, Oliver Jones, for sharing the clip with us!

Project Looking Glass in the Press, etc.

Articles relating to Project Looking Glass:

• Mundo Linux, January 2006 (Ed Linux World in Spanish) The article is here, thanks to Francisco and Mundo Linux for making this possible.
• UK Linux Format magazine, December 2005, "Super cool desktop", LG3D LiveCD on cover CD.
• Play Magazine, December 2004 page 99
• November 2004 - java.sun.com - Project Looking Glass: Its Architecture and a Sneak Preview of the API
• 11th November 2004 - java.net - Through the Looking Glass
• 12th October 2004 - java.sun.com - Going 3D with Project Looking Glass
• 15th October 2004 - Desktop Linux - Looking into the future of Linux
• 8th October 2004 - ComputerWire - Sun Sees Java Desktop Through the Looking Glass
• 6th October 2004 - PC Pro - Sun plots 3D route to Java desktop
• 9th August 2004 - eWeek - Looking Glass Is Closer to Reality
• 9th August 2004 - java.net - Behind The Scenes of Project Looking Glass
• 24th July 2004 - ORANGECRATE.COM - An Interview with Hideya Kawahara, Sun's Looking Glass Guru
• 29th June 2004 - COMPUTERWORLD - JavaOne: Sun opens Looking Glass, sees more Java clients
• 29th June 2004 - ComputerWeekly.com - Sun opens up Project Looking Glass
• 28th June 2004 - PR Newswire - Sun Contribute Four Java Breakthroughs to Open Source Community Including 'Project Looking Glass' and JAVA 3D
• 28th June 2004 - DesktopLinux.com - Sun opens 'Looking Glass' for desktops
• 2nd April 2004 - eWeek - Sun Weighs Open-Source Options
• ...
• 5th August 2003 (the very first public appearance) - CRN - Schwartz Defends Sun's Open-Source Investment, Demonstrates Mad Hatter

Tools

Thanks to the following companies for provided free access to their tools for use on OpenSource projects.

Some final words...

Thanks for your interest in the project and spending your time reading this. We hope you will join our project and explore this fun opportunity with us. We also have an irc-channel going, not very active yet but it's a start, the link is: #lg3d on irc.freenode.net

The Project Looking Glass Development Team