Vista - desktop effects

[Echo toxin]

Hi,

Because Apple's Mac OS X desktop system is based around PDF/OpenGL, it can do some pretty snazzy things. For example, twizzle your desktop around on the side of a cube when you change users, allow an animated background.

Will Windows Vista be able to do these same kind of things with the Aero interface when it is rendered by the GPU? Something that I've not heard much of lately is the idea of the whole desktop being drawn with vector graphics and the text being anti-aliased, etc. Is this not happening anymore?

 

[csmager]

As the desktop and all windows are stored on the Graphics RAM as textures, it's quite easy to manipulate them without much effort (e.g. Flip3D).

I don't believe vector graphics is going to make an appearance, but I'm always open to surprises.