Looking Glass Quilt Video Player

High-performance 4K quilt video player for Looking Glass holographic displays using hardware-accelerated video decoding.

Features

• Hardware Acceleration: VideoToolbox hardware decoding for maximum performance
• Direct GPU Pipeline: OpenGL Pixel Buffer Objects (PBOs) for zero-copy texture streaming
• High Performance: Consistent 25 FPS playback of 4094x4094 RGBA video
• Production Ready: Optimized for 20-hour daily operation with minimal resource usage
• Auto File Detection: Automatically finds video files or shows file picker
• Bridge SDK Integration: Native Looking Glass Bridge SDK support

Requirements

• macOS with Apple Silicon or Intel Mac
• Looking Glass display with Bridge 2.6.0+
• FFmpeg with VideoToolbox support: brew install ffmpeg
• Video file: quilt_qs5x9a1.78.mp4 (5x9 quilt layout, 1.78 aspect ratio)

Installation

1. Clone the repository
2. Ensure FFmpeg is installed: brew install ffmpeg
3. Place your quilt video file in the project directory
4. Build and run:

chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh
./quilt_player

Video File Requirements

• Format: MP4 with H.264 encoding
• Resolution: 4094x4094 pixels <----------- this is verry important!!!!!
• Layout: 5x9 quilt (45 views)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78
• Frame Rate: 25 FPS
• Pixel Format: Hardware decode outputs RGBA

Usage

From Terminal

./quilt_player

Double-Click Launch

The app will search for video files in common locations:

• Current directory
• ~/Desktop/player/
• Shows file picker if not found

Production Deployment

For 20-hour daily operation, consider using a Launch Agent:

# Disable Terminal session restore
defaults write com.apple.Terminal NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

Architecture

Hardware Decode Pipeline

1. FFmpeg Process: VideoToolbox hardware decoding to RGBA
2. Pipe Streaming: Direct data transfer via Unix pipes
3. PBO Buffer: OpenGL Pixel Buffer Object for GPU memory
4. Texture Upload: Zero-copy GPU texture creation
5. Bridge Rendering: Looking Glass SDK quilt rendering

Performance Characteristics

• Throughput: ~1.4 GB/second texture streaming
• CPU Usage: Minimal (hardware decode + streaming only)
• Memory: ~64MB PBO buffer
• Latency: <40ms end-to-end pipeline

Technical Details

FFmpeg Configuration

ffmpeg -stream_loop -1 -hwaccel videotoolbox -i video.mp4 \
       -f rawvideo -pix_fmt rgba -an -threads 0 \
       -fflags nobuffer -r 25 -loglevel quiet -

Bridge SDK Integration

• Window creation and management
• 5x9 quilt layout configuration
• 1.78 aspect ratio rendering
• Hardware-accelerated texture display

OpenGL Pipeline

• Core Profile 3.2 context
• Single PBO with mutex synchronization
• Dynamic buffer allocation
• Asynchronous texture uploads

Troubleshooting

Video Not Found

• Check file exists in project directory
• Verify filename matches exactly
• Use file picker if automatic detection fails

Performance Issues

• Ensure VideoToolbox hardware acceleration is working
• Check FFmpeg installation includes VideoToolbox support
• Monitor system resources during playback

Looking Glass Connection

• Verify Bridge SDK is running before launching player
• Check display connection and calibration
• 10-second startup delay allows Bridge initialization

Build Configuration

The project uses minimal logging for production deployment:

• No FPS counters or debug output
• Silent FFmpeg operation
• Streamlined error handling
• Optimized for long-term stability

License

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Contributing

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