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April 28, 2003
WinHEC 2003: Tech Content Teaser
Conference: May 6–8, 2003
Exhibits: May 5–7, 2003
Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
Complete registration information, agenda, session descriptions, and conference updates are available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/winhec/
WinHEC 2003 Tech Content Teaser: 3D Graphics Enhancements in the Next Version of Microsoft Windows
The following extract is from "Graphics Hardware and Drivers for Windows Codenamed 'Longhorn'," an exclusive publication for WinHEC 2003 attendees which describes the enhancements to graphics capabilities and driver functionality in the next version of Microsoft® Windows® "Codenamed Longhorn."
3D Graphics Enhancements in Windows Longhorn
Windows Longhorn will foster a major step forward in terms of how graphics hardware is used by mainstream Windows-based applications, from the Windows desktop to consumer and line-of-business applications. To achieve this enhanced desktop experience, a new Windows Longhorn Display Driver model has been designed to radically advance functionality, stability, and reliability. Coupled with acceleration provided by current and future graphics hardware, this new graphics driver model enables Windows Longhorn to deliver a higher level of performance, quality, and a new desktop experience.
In the past, the OS desktop has been a single graphics surface, and each window was defined as a region on this shared surface. Each application was responsible for drawing to only its window regions of the shared surface. Visually, windows appear to overlap and usually only the front-most window at any pixel is actually drawn.
The Microsoft Windows Longhorn desktop is being drawn in a completely different way than all previous versions. Every window will have its own, full window-sized surface to draw to. The desktop will be dynamically composed many times a second from the contents of each window. The goal for desktop composition is to enable compelling new visual effects for both the Windows user interface and for applications created by third-party developers shown on increasingly affordable high-density displays.
Examples of visual effects that will be enabled in Windows Longhorn include:
- Windows tumbling onto the screen.
- Rotating windows.
- Warped windows.
- Alpha blending between windows.
- Threads.
- Events and other synchronization objects.
The Windows Longhorn Driver Model allows for the visual effects seen on a user's desktop to scale relative to the available graphics hardware. For example, the experience of viewing Windows Longhorn on hardware with capabilities equivalent to a high end DirectX® 9-compliant graphics chip will be much richer than Windows Longhorn displayed on baseline legacy graphics hardware.
More at WinHEC 2003
Come to WinHEC 2003 and witness demonstrations of the new graphics capabilities available in Windows Longhorn. WinHEC 2003 is your opportunity to learn more about how the new graphics infrastructure of Windows Longhorn will enable:
- Sub-pixel Microsoft ClearType® text display technology with anti-aliasing.
- Hardware accelerated and resolution independent anti-aliased 2D graphics.
- Rich 3D graphics using a higher level API, integrated with 2D API and controls infrastructure.
- Glitch-free video playback.
- Greater than 8 bits per component color pipeline.
- All graphical elements can be arbitrarily combined within applications and across the desktop using the Desktop Compositor.
- Support for higher pixel density on both LCD and CRT displays.
To engage Microsoft developers, engineers, and testers about this new technology, register to attend the WinHEC 2003 conference. http://www.microsoft.com/winhec/.
About WinHEC News
This newsletter provides current information about the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, including opportunities to participate in the conference and tradeshow. Information about WinHEC is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/winhec/
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