LiquidGlass

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Real‑time frosted glass and liquid‑like refraction for any SwiftUI view – no screenshots, no boilerplate.

✨ Features

🛠 Installation

Add LiquidGlass through Swift Package Manager:

https://github.com/BarredEwe/LiquidGlass.git

Or via Xcode » Package Dependencies… Select LiquidGlass and you’re done.

🚀 Quick start

SwiftUI

Button("Glass Text") { }
    .liquidGlassBackground(cornerRadius: 60)

UIKit

// Using extension (recommended)
button.addLiquidGlassBackground(cornerRadius: 25)

// Or using LiquidGlassUIView directly
let glassView = LiquidGlassUIView(cornerRadius: 30, blurScale: 0.8)
containerView.addSubview(glassView)

🖼 Examples

SwiftUI Example

ZStack { AnimatedColorsMeshGradientView() VStack(spacing: 20) { Text("Liquid Glass Button") .font(.title.bold()) .foregroundColor(.white) Button("Click Me 🔥") { print("Tapped") } .foregroundStyle(.white) .font(.headline) .padding() .liquidGlassBackground(cornerRadius: 60) } }

UIKit Example

class ViewController: UIViewController {
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        
        let button = UIButton(type: .system)
        button.setTitle("Glass Button", for: .normal)
        button.setTitleColor(.white, for: .normal)
        
        // Add liquid glass background
        button.addLiquidGlassBackground(
            cornerRadius: 25,
            updateMode: .continuous(interval: 0.1),
            blurScale: 0.7,
            tintColor: .white.withAlphaComponent(0.1)
        )
        
        view.addSubview(button)
        // ... setup constraints
    }
}

⚙️ Update modes

SwiftUI:

.liquidGlassBackground(updateMode: .once)

UIKit:

// Using extension
button.addLiquidGlassBackground(updateMode: .manual)

// Manual invalidation
button.liquidGlassBackground?.invalidateBackground()

// Using LiquidGlassUIView directly
let glassView = LiquidGlassUIView(updateMode: .once)
glassView.invalidateBackground() // for manual updates

🎛 UIKit API Reference

LiquidGlassUIView

// Initialization
let glassView = LiquidGlassUIView(
    cornerRadius: 20,
    updateMode: .continuous(),
    blurScale: 0.5,
    tintColor: .gray.withAlphaComponent(0.2)
)

// Properties (all animatable)
glassView.cornerRadius = 25
glassView.blurScale = 0.8
glassView.tintColor = .blue.withAlphaComponent(0.1)
glassView.updateMode = .manual

// Methods
glassView.invalidateBackground()

UIView Extensions

// Add glass background (fills entire view)
view.addLiquidGlassBackground(cornerRadius: 20)

// Add glass background with custom frame
view.addLiquidGlassBackground(
    frame: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 200, height: 50),
    cornerRadius: 25
)

// Access glass backgrounds
let glassView = view.liquidGlassBackground
let allGlassViews = view.liquidGlassBackgrounds

// Remove glass backgrounds
view.removeLiquidGlassBackgrounds()

🎨 Shader & Customisation

• Fragment shader – tweak Sources/LiquidGlass/Shaders/LiquidGlassShader.metal to adjust blur radius, refraction strength, tint or chromatic aberration. Two editable functions:
  • sampleBackground() – distort UVs / add ripple
  • postProcess() – lift saturation, add tint, vignette, bloom.
• Performance knobs – lower snapshot interval, switch to .once, or optimise shader loops.

📈 Performance notes

• Snapshot covers only the area behind the glass – minimal memory.
• Layers above the glass are never hidden → no flicker.
• Lazy redraw means nearly zero GPU when nothing changes.
• UIKit and SwiftUI versions share the same optimized Metal backend.

🔄 Migration from SwiftUI-only

If you're upgrading from a SwiftUI-only version, no changes are needed for existing SwiftUI code. The new UIKit support is additive:

// Existing SwiftUI code continues to work unchanged
Button("Glass") { }
    .liquidGlassBackground()

// New UIKit support
button.addLiquidGlassBackground()

🙋‍♂️ FAQ

The glass doesn’t update when I scroll.
Use .continuous(interval: 0.016) (≈60 fps) or trigger .manual's invalidate() in scrollViewDidScroll.

Can I animate the glass properties?
Yes! In UIKit, all properties (cornerRadius, blurScale, tintColor) are animatable with UIView.animate().

How do I use this in a table view cell?
Use .once or .manual update mode for better performance, and call invalidateBackground() when the cell is reused.

Can I mix SwiftUI and UIKit glass views?
Absolutely! They use the same Metal backend and work seamlessly together.

🛡 License

MIT © 2025 • BarredEwe / Prefire

Made with ❤️ & Metal