The new Windows will be called Windows Vista. From now on the name Longhorn will not be used by Microsoft anymore, but it's possible that you'll encounter the name Longhorn in the two upcoming beta's.
This article contains information about how Windows Vista will handle 2D and 3D graphics and information about Vista's new features.
Vista uses the Windows Graphics Foundation, or WGF. WGF 1.0 will use DirectX 9.0c as its primary interface, but Vista will also have the Next-Gen 3D API build in. You can see it as DirectX 10, but it's officially called WGF 2.0.
One of the important features of WGF is the Longhorn Display Driver Model (LDDM). It is possible with LDDM to install a new graphics driver without even rebooting your system. LDDM will ship in two stages. The first, called basic, supports current generation graphics hardware: shader model 2.0 and 3.0 capable hardware. The second stage of LDDM, advanced, will support hardware features that ship at the same time or after Vista is released, but will work with the new features in WGF 2.0. Because of the competitive way of graphics hardware development, we'll probably see advanced LDDM capable hardware before Vista is released. The current Windows XP driver model is still supported, but will be frozen going forward.
Advantages of Vista above XP:
- run more than 15 graphical applications at the same time instead of 2
- complete control manager to optimize system resources
- every window in Vista will be a 3D surface (when opening My Computer you're actually watching an interactive 3D texture)
- applications can be bigger than graphic card memory currently allows (advanced VRAM simulation)
- split your monitor into four pieces and play games at the same time while listening to your favourite music with Winamp, watching a movie with Windows Media Player and posting spam on the Guru3D forums
- Vista uses DirectX (WGF) to draw the Windows Desktop
- you are able to rotate your windows in a 3D way, so you can push it to the background, put it upside down or squeeze it in a corner. This way you'll be able to have more windows on your screen at the same time
- Vista supports up to 160 open windows at the same time
- there are four different graphic modes for Vista (2GB/256MB/128MB/64MB textures)
- new motherboard BIOS'es will be integrated into Vista itself
- some of the BIOS settings can be changed within Windows and you won't even have to reboot to apply the new settings
- with XP, users got a lot of freedom to configure and tweak their system but Microsoft says that with Vista the 'more advanced' users will get the freedom to customize and tweak even more features of Windows that weren't possible in XP
Now some very important info about gaming on Vista:
- there will be NO graphical difference between an ATI or nVidia card anymore, the only difference will be overall performance
- WGF 2.0 allows GPU processing without CPU intervention
- The Xbox 360 uses some of the technology Vista will use to handle games on the PC
If you want to play a game, Vista will disable every component of your computer that isn't needed by the graphical interface and unloads the Windows Desktop (it's like running a game in MSDOS).
While it's true that the graphics technology for Vista is very advanced, it's also true that Microsoft is trying to have a wide array of hardware specifications. By the time Vista actually ships, almost every new PC should be able to support the user interface and Windows Graphics Foundation.
That doesn't mean users will need GeForce 6800 Ultras or comparable cards. As we've seen, the user interface will support four different qualities, the most basic should even run on most of today's hardware. If you want the full Vista experience, you'll want a heavy system and graphics hardware, and lots of memory.
Windows Vista will most probably be released in the second half of 2006.
Important:
- Don't think of buying a computer today and use it to run Vista next year on the highest settings
- Memory is the most important component for future computing (graphics and system memory)
Extreme minimum requirements:
1.4 GHz processor
256 MB memory
64 MB videocard
7200 RPM HD 2 MB cache
For the highest settings (speculation):
3.6 GHz processor
2 GB memory
1 GB videocard with WGF 2.0 support
15000 RPM HD 1 GB flash memory
The highest settings requirements are only for software and graphics developers.
This article contains information about how Windows Vista will handle 2D and 3D graphics and information about Vista's new features.
Vista uses the Windows Graphics Foundation, or WGF. WGF 1.0 will use DirectX 9.0c as its primary interface, but Vista will also have the Next-Gen 3D API build in. You can see it as DirectX 10, but it's officially called WGF 2.0.
One of the important features of WGF is the Longhorn Display Driver Model (LDDM). It is possible with LDDM to install a new graphics driver without even rebooting your system. LDDM will ship in two stages. The first, called basic, supports current generation graphics hardware: shader model 2.0 and 3.0 capable hardware. The second stage of LDDM, advanced, will support hardware features that ship at the same time or after Vista is released, but will work with the new features in WGF 2.0. Because of the competitive way of graphics hardware development, we'll probably see advanced LDDM capable hardware before Vista is released. The current Windows XP driver model is still supported, but will be frozen going forward.
Advantages of Vista above XP:
- run more than 15 graphical applications at the same time instead of 2
- complete control manager to optimize system resources
- every window in Vista will be a 3D surface (when opening My Computer you're actually watching an interactive 3D texture)
- applications can be bigger than graphic card memory currently allows (advanced VRAM simulation)
- split your monitor into four pieces and play games at the same time while listening to your favourite music with Winamp, watching a movie with Windows Media Player and posting spam on the Guru3D forums
- Vista uses DirectX (WGF) to draw the Windows Desktop
- you are able to rotate your windows in a 3D way, so you can push it to the background, put it upside down or squeeze it in a corner. This way you'll be able to have more windows on your screen at the same time
- Vista supports up to 160 open windows at the same time
- there are four different graphic modes for Vista (2GB/256MB/128MB/64MB textures)
- new motherboard BIOS'es will be integrated into Vista itself
- some of the BIOS settings can be changed within Windows and you won't even have to reboot to apply the new settings
- with XP, users got a lot of freedom to configure and tweak their system but Microsoft says that with Vista the 'more advanced' users will get the freedom to customize and tweak even more features of Windows that weren't possible in XP
Now some very important info about gaming on Vista:
- there will be NO graphical difference between an ATI or nVidia card anymore, the only difference will be overall performance
- WGF 2.0 allows GPU processing without CPU intervention
- The Xbox 360 uses some of the technology Vista will use to handle games on the PC
If you want to play a game, Vista will disable every component of your computer that isn't needed by the graphical interface and unloads the Windows Desktop (it's like running a game in MSDOS).
While it's true that the graphics technology for Vista is very advanced, it's also true that Microsoft is trying to have a wide array of hardware specifications. By the time Vista actually ships, almost every new PC should be able to support the user interface and Windows Graphics Foundation.
That doesn't mean users will need GeForce 6800 Ultras or comparable cards. As we've seen, the user interface will support four different qualities, the most basic should even run on most of today's hardware. If you want the full Vista experience, you'll want a heavy system and graphics hardware, and lots of memory.
Windows Vista will most probably be released in the second half of 2006.
Important:
- Don't think of buying a computer today and use it to run Vista next year on the highest settings
- Memory is the most important component for future computing (graphics and system memory)
Extreme minimum requirements:
1.4 GHz processor
256 MB memory
64 MB videocard
7200 RPM HD 2 MB cache
For the highest settings (speculation):
3.6 GHz processor
2 GB memory
1 GB videocard with WGF 2.0 support
15000 RPM HD 1 GB flash memory
The highest settings requirements are only for software and graphics developers.
I think what this article refers to is something like Tony Blair's African Aid Programme, you know when he addressed his briefing on how to help African countries out of poverty in G8 Summit, Scotland, he was actually in jeers and heckling
