iTechNote

Project Looking Glass - a 3D Java-based desktop project sets off to explore the possibilities of advancing the 2D desktops such as Windows or MacOS by open sourcing the early development prototypes. The project is working with Ubuntu community to make LG3D available via a multi-verse software source. They are also working with OpenSolaris team.

The project is very much in its infancy. The design goals of Project Looking Glass (LG3D) include:

• High productivity to support aggressive 3D exploration
• Solid platform for use in future products
• High performance and scalability
• Powerful 3D capability support
• Existing 2D application integration
• Framework to support two-and-half-dimension window manager
• Rich set of componentized libraries
• Rich user feedback based on animation
• Support for visual designer oriented tool chain

The LG3D API and implementation leverage the Java 3D technology. In addition, LG3D provides additional features including a component architecture and an animation system in order to simplify writing rich user-experience applications. The high-level architecture of LG3D consists two major parts: the X11 integration and the LG3Daware application support mechanism.

In LG3D desktop, the Scene Manager takes over the role of window manager in 2D desktop, since typical LG3Daware 3D application user interfaces have unique shapes not limited to a window shape. The Scene Manager interacts with the user and applications. It implements a customizable management policy for applications running in the environment and is responsible for arranging those in the 3D space.

The API for LG3D application development is called LG3D Clientside API.The clientside API can be categorized into two major areas - Java 3D-based Scene Graph Classes and LG3D 3D Specialized Classes.

LG3D supports running unmodified existing applications in a 3D space for Linux and Solaris x86 platform. The platform for 3D application development is available for Linux, Solaris and Windows platforms using a tool such as Plethora.

Plethora is a NetBeans plugin that provides a designer and a code-generator for LG3D applications. It 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.

For more information on LG3D, you can visit the blog or the open source website where you can download LG3D Developer Release 1.0 for supported platforms. To get a glimpse of how the 3D desktop look like, check out this screenshots or try out the Live CD.