Hardware Accelerating Everything: Windows 8 Graphics

I appreciate all the enhancements and acceleration, but none of this will matter that much if the interface is awful. I realize that the guys who made this video aren't in the GUI department, and that they don't have any control over that work, but I have a hard time getting excited about their work and results when I know that the GUI is going to prevent me from even CONSIDERING purchasing and utilizing their work.

If this software was ONLY going to be used on tablets, I could get excited about it.
 
News Flash: Microsoft finally does some actual work, improving their own product. Imagine that.

Tablets etc will be glad of it, but 4+Ghz desktops... cough.
 
heatlesssun said:
It makes a big difference even on laptops and desktops. Even desktop rendering in Windows 8 is noticeably smoother than 7. IE 10 rendering is fantastic and it's like butter on my tablets.

The more I use Windows 8 the more I appreciate the overall performance gains over 7. I'm doing as much work as I can on my x220t convertible tablet because it's just more responsive than my sig rig. I have a feeling that as much as some bash Windows 8 and say they won't polute their desktops with it, many of those people will end up using Windows 8 simply for the performance boost even if they hack out Metro and the Start Screen.
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A x220t is more responsive than a 980x desktop??

o wait you are still running an ancient platter drive for your OS nm.
 
Azhar said:
It's much more than Direct3D. There's DirectWrite for fonts, Direct2D for 2D rendering, there's DirectInput for mouse, keyboard and other peripherals, and so on.

Most of these DirectX functions were reserved for DirectX games. Microsoft broke it out into Windows as a whole.
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And that foundation (Desktop Window Manager) has existed since Vista. Each program has a buffer and is composted into a fullscreen Direct3D surface. As I mentioned before this is just extentions of WDDM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Display_Driver_Model

Quartz-1 said:
Are we going to see this technology in Windows 7?
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It will probably end up like WDDM 1.1 and Vista, where the Direct2D and write improvements are ported over but the DWM and other performance increases wont.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
A x220t is more responsive than a 980x desktop??

o wait you are still running an ancient platter drive for your OS nm.
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Well I'm also running a platter drive on the x220t and I have an SSD in my backup 920 580GTX Windows 7 gaming rig and 8 still feels faster in a lot of ways. Even on the same machine with an SSD like my Samsung Series 7 Slate, 8 is flat out faster on that device.
 
Too bad with all that hardware acceleration the metro interface still looks so damned flat and unappealing.
 
Wait, so even though the "oldschool" desktop is still functional and available in Windows 8, people are going to 100% dismiss it because of Metro?

Riiiiiiight...
 
Triple B said:
Wait, so even though the "oldschool" desktop is still functional and available in Windows 8, people are going to 100% dismiss it because of Metro?

Riiiiiiight...
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Didn't you hear? They're not going to make programs anymore and only invest in app development now! Thanks to Metro!
 
Azhar said:
Didn't you hear? They're not going to make programs anymore and only invest in app development now! Thanks to Metro!
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Of all of the things that I hear about Windows 8 and Metro, the idea that Microsoft wants the desktop to go away is the most bizarre. The Windows desktop is an enormous and powerful assets to Microsoft, it would benefit them in no way to kill the desktop. Of course people see Metro and Windows 8 and think that's exactly what Microsoft is doing but still no one can really explain how killing the desktop benefits Microsoft.

But of course the life of the desktop will be driven by demand. For the foreseeable future it's going to be a big market but in time I do see that market shirking and Microsoft does too, thus Windows 8.
 
SkribbelKat said:
Wait a minute...there's a difference in meaning between app and program?
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I was playing on the [H]'s hatred for the word "app", but in a general sense, an app is a smaller program with reduced functions compared to it's full fledge counterpart on the PC, Linux or Mac. Apps are generally on smaller devices with reduced functionality for convenience and with performance in mind while their PC/Linux/Mac counterparts have a great deal more options and features.

Of course, terminology-wise, there's no difference between the words application (app) and program.
 
heatlesssun said:
Don't know what all the constipation is over the term app, I've been using it since I started IT work 20 years ago, it's from an Apple hipster term.
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I use them along with the word application pretty much as though they have identical meanings. Though, I do admit it is kinda odd to hear even myself calling something an app. It just sounds and feels odd, but it's normal linguistic drift.
 
Azhar said:
I was playing on the [H]'s hatred for the word "app", but in a general sense, an app is a smaller program with reduced functions compared to it's full fledge counterpart on the PC, Linux or Mac. Apps are generally on smaller devices with reduced functionality for convenience and with performance in mind while their PC/Linux/Mac counterparts have a great deal more options and features.

Of course, terminology-wise, there's no difference between the words application (app) and program.
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Oh...you confuzzled me! (obviously) :)
 
I dont get the hate for the word app. It stands for application... and thats EXACTLY what it is.
 
Azhar said:
I was playing on the [H]'s hatred for the word "app", but in a general sense, an app is a smaller program with reduced functions compared to it's full fledge counterpart on the PC, Linux or Mac. Apps are generally on smaller devices with reduced functionality for convenience and with performance in mind while their PC/Linux/Mac counterparts have a great deal more options and features.

Of course, terminology-wise, there's no difference between the words application (app) and program.
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You're right of course in that "app" has been used for ages since it's simply short for application, which in turn is just another name for program. I'm sure many of us have used the term "app" as well as "prog" in many cases long before it became a household word. Sadly, the popularity of smartphones has made the term "app" synonymous with simple, low functionality applications, as well as simple icons that represent hyperlinks to the actual application hosted on a server. I think it's this branching off of the definition of the term "app" that messes with everyone. It sure would be nice if there were some type of distinction as to exactly which type of "app" was being dicussed.

Will it end up having to break it down to "prog" for PC and "app" for smartphone, etc. for there to be any true distinction?
 
lol. that video was crappy. it is not a selling point of why a technical incompetent consumer would buy windows 8.
 
Azhar said:
It's much more than Direct3D. There's DirectWrite for fonts, Direct2D for 2D rendering, there's DirectInput for mouse, keyboard and other peripherals, and so on.

Most of these DirectX functions were reserved for DirectX games. Microsoft broke it out into Windows as a whole.
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Aha, too bad Direct2D is utterly useless... and well, is pretty much dead in the water at this point anyway.
 
Benchmarks are overrated! :mad: Who cares how long does it take to render 102367923676 words when you can only read so many per second?

If Win8 can make games FPS 2x faster then I am impressed.
 
Allos said:
Benchmarks are overrated! :mad: Who cares how long does it take to render 102367923676 words when you can only read so many per second?

If Win8 can make games FPS 2x faster then I am impressed.
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Because hitting a smooth 60+ fps on older hardware and shit like tablets is very nice indeed. The Windows UI should be fast and feel fluid no matter what. These are good improvements.
 
Azhar said:
It's much more than Direct3D. There's DirectWrite for fonts, Direct2D for 2D rendering, there's DirectInput for mouse, keyboard and other peripherals, and so on.

Most of these DirectX functions were reserved for DirectX games. Microsoft broke it out into Windows as a whole.
socK said:
Aha, too bad Direct2D is utterly useless... and well, is pretty much dead in the water at this point anyway.
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@Azhar - Just to clarify: Direct2D is built on top of Direct3D.
@socK - A rather sweeping statement on your part. In what context is Direct2D 'utterly useless'?
 
kinjo said:
This all sounds awesome now just give me the ability to use a layout that looks and feels like windows 7 if I want to and I'm in for ten copies.

Seriously why couldn't they just have put in a classic mode, I am fine with the metro tile layout thing for tablets and smart phones but for my desktop I just want.... a desktop with icons and a start button.
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you don't know what you want... now shut up and buy windows 8
 
I realize you're probably joking, but I firmly believe that most people hating on Metro will come around pretty quickly once they get used to the idea of having one unified interface across multiple devices, all attached to the same ecosystem/cloud. I can tell you right now Apple is trying badly to play catch up already.
 
wonderfield said:
Apple isn't going down that path. If the past two releases of OS X haven't convinced you of this fact, I don't know what could.
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Apple may be taking a different road but they are going the same place. As much as people want to think that tablets and PCs are different ultimately they aren't. Apple is pushing more and more the idea that you don't need a PC, an iPad is all that you need and there's more and more effort on the enterprise and productivity applications. Even Apple admitted that iPad sales are hurting Mac sales.

Bottom line, tablets and PCs are converging and Apple is being just as aggressive about as Microsoft, just in a different way.
 
Safety said:
@Azhar - Just to clarify: Direct2D is built on top of Direct3D.
@socK - A rather sweeping statement on your part. In what context is Direct2D 'utterly useless'?
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Because the API is absolutely atrocious, and it's still internally stuck on D3D10 rather than using D3D11 and the feature levels. 2D isn't anything special to a 3D API, just use an orthographic projection and 2D will work exactly how you'd expect it.
 
I wouldn't say the API is atrocious. At least not from what I've seen of it. I would say that the documentation on it is pretty poor, which is just typical Microsoft. I'd also argue that it's probably better in 80-90% of cases just to write directly to Direct3D instead.

So "useless" is a fairly good word.
 
You could say the same thing about Direct3D when it was new. Direct2D will get better with time, just like how D2D in 7 sp1 was a lot better than the first version in 7. GDI needs to die sooner not later and while it's not perfect Direct2D is a step in that direction.

And a large reason they wrote support for D3D9 and 10 hardware is because just about everyone has something that's capable now. Remember how everyone was upset about how Vista initially was going to have a performance hit on non DX9 hardware? Hell, we are just now getting to the point where decent DX10 hardware is available low end.
 
Ryokurin said:
You could say the same thing about Direct3D when it was new. Direct2D will get better with time, just like how D2D in 7 sp1 was a lot better than the first version in 7. GDI needs to die sooner not later and while it's not perfect Direct2D is a step in that direction.
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Isnt Direct 2D just a new name for the old DirectDraw that's been in DX since it was first launched?
 
It's more than a name change, although they are similar DirectDraw isn't included in the SDK anymore and I believe has been depreciated since DirectX 7. I do know it's treated as a software renderer in 7 but I'm not familiar in how they are compare to each other.
 
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