Microsoft strove to deliver the most visually appealing Windows release

Jul 24, 2012 09:56 GMT  ·  By

One of the promises that Microsoft made regarding its Windows 8 platform was that users would benefit from a great visual experience on all devices that run under the platform.

The WinRT app development environment made it possible for all developers to take advantage of hardware-accelerated graphics to deliver more beautiful applications for the platform, Microsoft says.

DirectX, that Windows component that offers APIs for developers to benefit from when building their applications with three-dimensional scenes, text, shapes, and more, has evolved in time, now delivering impressively high performance levels and much richer visuals.

Based on this, Microsoft kicked off Windows 8’s development with a goal of making the entire Metro-style experience feel smooth and be rendered quickly.

The Redmond-based company was also focused on offering the hardware-accelerated platform to all Metro style apps, and to ensure a stunning visual experience through new DirectX capabilities.

Additionally, the software giant wanted to make sure that the new OS could offer support for the widest diversity of graphics hardware ever, Rob Copeland, the group program manager on Microsoft’s Graphics team, notes in a blog post.

The performance of Windows 8’s graphics should reach new levels, he notes, explaining that scenario-focused tests and metrics were used to determine how well the platform would perform.

When it comes to frame rate, for example, Windows 8 can deliver smooth animations at 60 FPS, while fitting nicely with computer screens with a refresh rate of 60 hertz.

They also looked into having no dropped frame in animations, and to improve the “time to first frame” for a fast visual experience. One other focus was on minimizing memory utilization for DirectX in Windows 8, while also dropping CPU utilization.

With all these set up, the company could continue looking into ways to optimize and improve text performance, Rob Copeland explains.

“The most noticeable performance improvement can be seen when scrolling through a long document on a touch screen. The reduction in time required to render the characters frees up CPU cycles to handle other tasks like processing high-frequency touch input, or displaying more complex document layouts,” he notes.

Additionally, the geometry rendering performance was greatly improved in Windows 8, Copeland says, adding that the company also focused on optimizing the rendering of images.

“We worked closely with our graphics hardware partners to design TIR. Dramatic improvements were made possible because of that partnership. DirectX 11.1 hardware is already on the market today and we’re working with our partners to make sure more TIR-capable products will be broadly available,” he continues.

In Windows 8, users will benefit from improved pixel format conversion and image scaling, while professionals will enjoy optimizations when it comes to working with JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats.

“From new ways to measure our progress, to optimizations for mainstream uses of our graphics platform, and new hardware features, we’ve created the best Windows graphics platform yet,” Rob Copeland notes in the aforementioned blog post.

Windows 8 is expected to become commercially available on October 26th this year. The platform will be loaded both on x86 and ARM devices, and will feature a great deal of optimizations for use on touch-enabled tablet PCs. Microsoft aims at releasing Windows 8 to manufacturing in early August.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

Windows 8
Windows 8 graphics performance
Open gallery