Since libGDX 1.11.0, you can either add the gdx-lwjgl3-glfw-awt-macos dependency to your desktop project ( api ':gdx-lwjgl3-glfw-awt-macos:$gdxVersion' on Windows and Linux the extension is ignored) or you can run the JVM with the -XstartOnFirstThread argument on macOS. However, if you are on macOS, there is another step involved in getting your applications to run with the LWJGL 3 backend. If you are on Windows or Linux, you are all set! Open your root adle file and replace the LWJGL backend dependency: To switch your existing libGDX projects to the LWJGL 3 desktop backend you need to follow two steps: In addition, LWJGL 3 provides considerably better support for current JREs, macOS, Linux (including Raspberry Pis), and multi-window environments. There were a couple of reasons for us to start working on a LWJGL 3 backend, the most obvious being the discontinuation of LWJGL 2, which had its last release in January of 2015. Since then we have continually improved upon this initial release.

The first version of libGDX’s LWJGL 3 backend was made public back in 2015 together with a call for testing. It is a complete rewrite of LWJGL, with the biggest change being the move from LWJGL2’s own windowing system to GLFW.

Version 3 of LWJGL 3 was announced at the end of 2014 and had its first release on 4 June 2016. The desktop backends of libGDX build upon LWJGL and wrap its low-level bindings in our cross-platform compatible API to provide graphics and audio. The Lightweight Java Game Library (LWJGL) is an open-source Java library that provides bindings to a number of C and C++ libraries used for game development, in particular OpenGL, OpenAL and Vulkan. This Status Report is meant to provide some background information on this change. In the next release of libGDX we are switching our default desktop backend from LWJGL 2 to LWJGL 3.

Lwjgl 2 vs 3