Gooly Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 What if your desktop were actually a 3D environment? What if your CD or movie database became a 3D jukebox? 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 is an open source development project based on and evolved from Sun Microsystems' Advanced Development division. 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! http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/details.xml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Everyone seems to be copying OS X. Vista, Solaris, and Linux seem to have taken on the Expose thing so far. Who's next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJägermeister Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 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. http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/details.xml Yeah, the dev-mode works also with Windows but if you really want to use it, you just need a solaris or linux installation: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooly Posted May 7, 2006 Author Share Posted May 7, 2006 Yea, I tried for windows, it didnt work. I may have to reinstall the Project Glass.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arvster Posted May 7, 2006 Share Posted May 7, 2006 Everyone seems to be copying OS X. Vista, Solaris, and Linux seem to have taken on the Expose thing so far. Who's next? I actually remember this project and these exact screenshots being around for years. I think this was quite some time before Longhorn was even announced. Expose was introduced in OS X in October of 2003. This project was first presented in August 2003- interview with a guy is here: http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/...king_glass.html It also does not seem to be inspired by Expose at all. This is just trying to explore different approach- going 3D. Expose does not do that. Unfortunately, it does not seem that this project is actually getting enywhere. At least I don't see any real changes in their homepage: http://www.sun.com/software/looking_glass/ p.s. It is actually quite intresting what the guy mentions in his interview: And we even started seeing similar 3D effects in major desktops, like flipping a widget in Apple Mac OS X's Dashboard, and a bookshelf-like view of windows when switching the window focus in Microsoft Windows Vista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooly Posted May 7, 2006 Author Share Posted May 7, 2006 Microsoft ALways releases its products after sun releases it. SO that m$ will have thier photocopiers ready Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lord_muad_dib Posted May 20, 2006 Share Posted May 20, 2006 looking glass seems amazing at first sight but it's not... indeed they use java3d APIs java 3d is slow as hell the XGL implementation is far better than looking glass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRP Posted May 21, 2006 Share Posted May 21, 2006 Yeah, Xgl+compiz seem to have stolen a lot of the thunder. IF you can get it working, it has the potential to look a lot better than anything Microsoft will probably put out, and it's here today for free! (However, OS X's effects are nice and solid-feeling and paradigm-consistent; the effects for Compiz seem a little inconsistent right now but I'm sure it will shape up eventually) I think that Looking Glass suffers from a lot of the general Sun appearance as well... to me, it has never looked "good" enough to be normal (and we have enough Sun usage at school, where most non-tech types catch on fire whenever they accidentally log into CDE instead of GNOME because they can't handle it). However, I find a lot of the ideas in it very interesting, and there will most certainly be copycats just because other people find them interesting, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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