Like many people who picked up a pair of Xreal AR glasses, I had one simple dream: a massive, high-resolution virtual screen hovering right in front of my eyes wherever I opened my Mac. No bulky external monitors, no wasted desk space—just a giant floating workspace that goes wherever I do.
When Xreal originally launched their Nebula app for macOS, it felt like the future was finally here. But over time, official support waned, updates stalled, and the app became increasingly difficult to rely on. My glasses were slowly turning into an expensive pair of standard sunglasses sitting next to my laptop.
Instead of waiting for an official fix that might never come, I decided to build my own solution: HoloFrame.
Letting AI Do the Heavy Lifting: Enter "Vibe Coding"
If you told me a few years ago that I’d write software to communicate directly with hardware glasses, I probably would have laughed. Building something like this requires getting under the hood of hardware engineering:
Decoding low-level USB HID protocols to talk to the glasses directly.
Extracting raw IMU sensor data (accelerometers and gyroscopes).
Performing complex 3D math and view-smoothing calculations so the screen stays firmly anchored in virtual space without making you feel motion sick.
Ordinarily, figuring out those low-level protocols and spatial calculations would require weeks of reading hardware specs and brushing up on advanced trigonometry. But in the era of vibe coding, I didn't need to write every line of math by hand.
I acted as the architect—defining the vision, testing the behavior, and steering the direction—while letting AI handle the grueling USB protocol plumbing and real-time head-tracking logic.
Meet HoloFrame
The result of this experiment is HoloFrame, a lightweight native Mac application designed to give you back your virtual multi-monitor experience.
Here is what HoloFrame brings to the table:
Instant Big Screen Virtualization: Turns your Xreal glasses into a massive, crisp virtual display for macOS.
Smooth Head Tracking: By leveraging custom sensor fusion and view smoothing, the screen stays pinned in mid-air seamlessly as you turn your head.
Lightweight & Native: Built specifically for macOS, bypassing bloated frameworks to keep CPU usage low and battery life high.
Zero Frustration: Plug in your glasses, launch the app, and get straight to work.
Why This Project Matters
HoloFrame started as a personal itch to fix a broken workflow, but it ended up demonstrating something bigger: hardware is no longer locked behind wall-off ecosystems.
When hardware companies move on or stop updating their software, community-driven development can step in. With AI acting as an assistant for low-level protocol decoding and mathematical crunching, building tailored software for your favorite gadgets is more accessible than ever.
If your Xreal glasses have been gathering dust because of unsupported Mac software, it's time to wipe them off. HoloFrame is here to give you back your workspace.
Check out the repo, try it out, and let me know how it works for your daily workflow!