Looking Glass Core SDK
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(last updated July 2024)
Note: Looking Glass Core is no longer being actively developed. Please instead see which supports all of the same features and more.
Looking Glass Core (previously HoloPlay Core) apps will continue to work with Looking Glass displays sold prior to 2024.
The Looking Glass Core SDK is a cross-platform software development kit that makes your existing 3D software compatible with the Looking Glass. Use your application’s current UI and workflow to build seamless plug and play experiences for your end users.
Developers can use any rendering backend (DirectX, OpenGL, Metal, Vulkan) and any windowing library (e.g. GLFW, Qt, SDL). Beyond that, in order to render to the Looking Glass display, your application must be able to:
Generate a borderless fullscreen window at a specific position
Distort the camera's projection matrix
Render multiple views to a texture
Apply a shader to the texture
Also, your end user must have installed on their machine.
The Looking Glass Core SDK provides your application all the information it needs to draw to the Looking Glass, including window information and calibration.
Why Window Information is Important
Operating systems see connected Looking Glass devices as HDMI monitors. Your application must know how the OS sees the monitor so that it knows where to draw the windows.
Why Calibration Data is Important
Each Looking Glass has its own device-specific calibration, read over USB. Your application must know this calibration data in order to render holograms properly on the Looking Glass.
All Together
Looking Glass Core (the graphics library integrated into your application) gets this information by providing an API endpoint to request information from Looking Glass Bridge (a persistent driver-like service that is installed on the user’s machine). Looking Glass Core uses this information to draw your 3D scene to the Looking Glass.
These reference documents cover some of the underlying logic inside the SDK:
An example OpenGL project is distributed as part of the Looking Glass Core SDK to demonstrate how to move the camera and render to a texture in the appropriate format.
To learn more about the Looking Glass and how it works, check out our key concepts page.
Visit our documentation on the for more detailed support on how to effectively use and integrate the Looking Glass Core SDK into your application.
Email us at if you have any further questions about how you can integrate Looking Glass Core into your software.