These release notes contain important information about the Project Looking
Glass 3D Desktop developer's release version 0.7. In addition to an overview
of the major changes since the previous release (0.6.2), known limitations and bugs, technical
notes, and other information are addressed here. Be sure to read this document before
you begin using the Project Looking Glass 3D Desktop developer's release version 0.7.
This section provides an overview of the major changes which have been made to Project Looking Glass since the previous
release (version 0.6.2).
1.1 Application mode execution for LG3D
There is a new method of running LG3D called "application mode" (or app mode
for short). It is like dev mode in that it allows you to run LG3D as
a window inside of some other window system (such as GNOME, KDE, or CDE).
But it is also like session mode in that it allows you to run native
X11 applications. So it is a hybrid mode which provides the best of
both of the other modes. Refer to Getting started with the Project Looking
Glass 3D Desktop "Section 4. Running Project Looking Glass" for more details.
1.2 Improved support for ATI devices
In previous releases there has been a problem running session mode on ATI
devices. So there was no way to run LG3D with native X11 application support
on ATI devices. But in Release 0.7 app mode now runs on ATI devices.
Session mode still does not run, but app mode provides a superset of
session mode's capabilities. So ATI users should run app mode if they
wish to run native X11 applications. Refer to Getting started with the Project Looking
Glass 3D Desktop "Section 4. Running Project Looking Glass" for more details.
The background image selection method has changed. In previous releases
there used to be one icon on the taskbar for each image which could be
selected. These have been replaced with a single icon (which is next
to the "pirate flag" exit icon). Clicking on this icon will launch the
new Background Manager. This is a 3D GUI tool which will allow you to
select the background from a larger selection of images than was previously
available. The tool presents a ring of images. To view an image, you can
either click on the image itself or click on the outer arrows to rotate the
circle of images. You can also auto-step through the images by clicking one of the inner arrows.
Click on the inner arrow again to stop auto-stepping. The menu to the left can be used to
look at subsets of the available images. Panoramic images consist of multiple images and
provide multiple workspaces in which to create windows. Multi-layer images enhance the
3D effect by providing a background image which sways as the cursor moves with another
image over it (in the foreground) which doesn't move. All other images are single image
backgrounds. Once you have brought an image into the front of the ring you can select
it to be your background by clicking the OK button. Once you have chosen a background, the
same background will be used across LG3D invocations.
1.5 New incubator projects on taskbar
Several new 3D applications from the lg3d-incubator subproject have been
added to the taskbar.
Program
Description
BlackGoat
Mail reader
Gol3D
Game of Life
Kwebdemo1
Demo of James Burke's Knowledge Web browser
1.6 Jar-based application deployment
Support has been added for jar based application deployment. All jar files (with
correct manfiest configuration) in the ${LG3DHOME}/ext/app directory are
automatically added to the taskbar. For more information please view the
readme: https://lg3d-core.dev.java.net/jar-app-deployment.html.
1.7 Procedural shader support
The first stage of the implementation is complete. For documentation,
refer to the Shader and ShaderAppearance classes in the LG3D javadoc.
1.8 Event system improvements
The event system has undergone a major overhaul in order to provide
input synchronization between 3D and native X11 apps. The biggest user visible
change is that when you click a mouse button over a window (3D or native) all
subsequent mouse events will be sent to that window irregardless of where
the mouse pointer actually is on the screen, until the mouse button is released.
In addition, 3D key events used to only work in dev mode. They now work
in app and session modes as well.
Also, mouse wheel zooming (shrinking or growing) of a window used to only
work in dev mode. It now works in app and session modes as well.
To grow a 3D window with the mouse wheel, move the cursor over it and move
the mouse wheel backward (toward yourself). To shrink a 3D window, move
the mouse wheel forward (away from yourself).
CAVEAT: The same GUI works for native X11 windows, but you must position the
cursor over the DECORATION of the x11 window in order to perform the zoom
operation. But if you are enlarging a window, the cursor will end up being
over the interior of the native window and mouse wheel events will be sent
to the native application, so the zooming will stop! So this GUI is not
that useful because you only get once zoom step for native windows before it stops. Consequently,
this GUI feature may be removed in future releases.
2. Limitations of this release
Keep in mind that LG3D is still under development and, as such, it is still very much a
work in progress. You should be aware of the following limitations of the system. These are
all areas which we are planning to address in future releases.
2.1 Performance is sluggish
Performance is still very sluggish. The cursor often starts and
stops. Things are especially slow when multiple large windows are
displayed. One way of speeding things up is to resize large windows to
be smaller, or to iconify windows that are not in use.
2.2 Native mozilla resize is extremely slow
LG3D currently provides two ways to resize a Mozilla navigator window. One is
"native mode" in which the Mozilla application itself initiates the resize and the other
is "3D mode" in which the LG3D scene manager initiates the resize. The 3D mode is
extremely fast but native mode is extremely slow. Unfortunately, the way you activate
one mode versus the other is almost exactly the same. Native mode resize is initiated
by moving the cursor down to ALMOST the corner of the window and positioning the
cursor A BIT INSIDE of the 3D resize corner on the window's decoration. At that point
the cursor becomes the normal Mozilla 2D resize cursor. If you click the left mouse button
in this mode and drag the mouse the resize will take a LONG time to complete. On the
other hand, 3D resize mode is initiated by moving the cursor a bit further so that the
cursor is over the 3D resize corner on the window's decoration. At that point the
cursor becomes the LG3D resize cursor (a 3D cursor). If you click the left
mouse button in this mode and drag the mouse the resize will be extremely fast.
The problem is that the activating positions of these two modes are so close together.
In future releases we hope to figure out why the native resize mode is taking so much
longer.
2.3 The use of the XINPUT extension is not yet supported
X11 applications which use the XINPUT extension may not function correctly.
2.4 OpenOffice Presenter full-screen mode is not yet supported
You can work around this problem somewhat by resizing the window to be almost full-screen.
2.5 No support for multiple screens
This release supports only a single instance of an lg3d-session running
per machine. Only a single screen is supported. Configurations with more than one screen, either separate or combined (e.g. Xinerama mode) are not yet supported.
2.6 lg3d-session terminal windows are the root user
Shells brought up by clicking the terminal icon default to the
root user. So exercise suitable caution when entering commands into these shells. In order to avoid
this problem, users are strongly recommend to run lg3d-app instead of lg3d-session.
3. Known Bugs
You can obtain the current list of known bugs by
clicking here.
4. Fixed issues
Here is a list of the issues that have been fixed in Release 0.7.0.
167 P1 Add support for keyboard events to fws/x11
217 P1 Mouse gestures start suddendly and never stop
225 P1 Problems with demo apps images
231 P1 freecell: destroying the window causes a null pointer except
251 P1 Move all the core LG3D code onto the new animation system
261 P1 restored X11 app (after was minimize) not work
267 P1 MultipleparentException thrown by setVisibile during cursor
268 P1 Tutorials need to be fully updated to the 0.62 API
271 P1 popup menus are shown at a position slightly off from where
273 P1 X11 app menus displayed on wrong position after moving the F
279 P1 Stanford workspace: help window doesn't unhighlight on curso
280 P1 Gesture debug is still enabled
293 P1 Mouse wheel zoom: zooming a native window can crash DS
305 P1 Xserver crash when clicking mouse button inside lg3d-session
309 P1 Dev mode: background doesn't resize with window
321 P1 Frame 3d mouse mouvement strange
327 P1 lg3d-session fails to run on Ubuntu linux
328 P1 Dragging Icon on taskbar unintentionary starts the app in th
334 P1 Sun.dequeue: queue is empty!
335 P1 Unable to build lg3d-core without lg3d-x11
336 P1 PanoImageBackground: apps are positioned incorrectly after e
349 P1 lg3d-dev: cursor doesn't move well in the overview mode in P
353 P1 A 2D native grab doesn't prevent events from going to DS
370 P1 BgManager: SEVERE: Loader failed error messages when run fro
33 P2 Create new ordering mechanism for Container3D
142 P2 Rearrangement of icons on the taskbar
157 P2 Stability: Escher events sometimes cross over to the wrong D
182 P2 Animation API required
193 P2 Popups sometimes come up in the wrong location
226 P2 Mozilla mail: clicking middle mouse button causes exception
228 P2 Incubator exceptions on lg3d-session startup
232 P2 Missing null check of wmHints in X11WindowManager.java
238 P2 Thumbnail implementation includes SceneManager effect
239 P2 Application minimization code implemented in application
240 P2 Application deletion animation code implemented in applicati
247 P2 MouseEvent3D.getIntersection() to return value in local coor
248 P2 Component3D.setSize() needs name change
263 P2 xterm doesn't go opaque when the mouse enters it
274 P2 Mouse cursor for X apps occasionally jumps to a wrong positi
276 P2 Support for putting a window on the back side of another win
285 P2 Mouse wheel zoom problems in lg3d-session
288 P2 Native window only receives focus when window is moved in fr
294 P2 ant clean fails to delete all generated files
302 P2 Clicking mouse left button while drawing a gesture in a nati
320 P2 Mouse pointer does not move in SimpleSceneManager
329 P2 solx86: Soffice: scrolling this document results in garbaged
332 P2 xterm jump strangly during moving
338 P2 Solx86: App mode: xterm icon doesn't launch
339 P2 Solx86: App mode: not all keys work
340 P2 lg3d-app: Could not create server lock file: /tmp/.X1-lock
347 P2 lg3d-app: the background gets messed up when dragging the mo
348 P2 lg3d-app: occasional crash when resizing PanoImageBackground
357 P2 Use translucency to help the user to chose an app from thumb
360 P2 Releasing a native button grab outside a native window can c
371 P2 xterm captures keys typed into a 3D app which listens to key
100 P3 X apps not rendered correctly on ATI
180 P3 Implementation methods appear in public API
189 P3 Component3D#changeVisibility(): no pluggable animation suppo
203 P3 If you shrink a window as small as it will go you can crash
206 P3 xterm resize: sometimes has an off-by-a-few-pixels error
223 P3 Add of double click support to MouseClickedEventAdapter.java
227 P3 Gesture highlight not drawn from native window
241 P3 modification to lg3d-dev.bat and setup.bat for launching LG3
244 P3 New batch script for Windows platform.
245 P3 Centtral sphere of resize cursor is missing
258 P3 Web browser translucide
262 P3 lg3d-session complains about the Java3D version when using J
265 P3 The coffee cup's steam no longer rotates as cursor moves
266 P3 lg3d-session occasionally freezes
270 P3 Getting started, getting outdated... :)
272 P3 API support for parking event
277 P3 PickEngine.EventBuffer: key events can be discarded
303 P3 Repeatedly clicking mouse left during gesturing over a 3D wi
315 P3 Add securityManager to webstart
318 P3 Windows titles aren't updated after windows creation
358 P3 Occasional crash in SceneManager when moving X window under
365 P3 Double-clicking right mouse button on the decoration of X wi
366 P3 An X window shown on the backside sometimes doesn't work
368 P3 solx86: app mode: xterm launches with incorrect rendering
287 P4 Moving the cursor during a window destroy animation can cras
205 P4 Support starting LG from an existing X session
5. Acknowledgements
The project owners would like to thank those who have been actively
involved in the LG3D community. Your code contributions, ideas,
documentation assistance, art work and testing have been extremely helpful in moving the
project forward. So many people have made significant contributions to the
project that we cannot mention them all individually. A big thanks to the entire LG3D community!