Microsoft Releases "Avalon" UI for Windows XP

[nvening]

so its a new UI, so it will make xp look different and so will i be able to make my own UI with html code? Is it a UI creator program? All the guy on the vid seemed to be talkin abt was his magic xbox game online shop.

[Purple]

when writing software for PCs developers have to write the UI, which is currently a flat 2d interface which is grey and boring and frankly has been done. Windows XP allows you to do a bit more by allowing skinned Windows (something that was possible before XP but was a bit hardcore to program).

The Avalon 'method' of programming integrates into MS .net framework allowing you to write a user interface bloody easily and will look sweeeet as long as you have a very basic understanding of 3D programming (coord system, lighting, normals, transformations, viewports, cameras and projections, textures). Once you have your interface scripted in XAML you can add code in your facourite .net language to make it do functional stuff.

There will probably be a program that comes with the avalon framework that inserts a layer between GDI and Avalon to allow you to put your old ugly grey programs on a funky 3D rectangle as a texture allowing you to organise stuff in 3D space, but mainly avalon will be about new programs using it.

An example of a new program would be a media library that you can walk about in 3D space pick out a track from your MP3 collection open the box and pull out a virtual CD, admire the CDs GF6 rendered shinyness and hand it to your media player robot (who follows you around your library).

To program my well thought out example above in C would take a very long time, using the Avalon system it would take a lot less time and be a heck of a lot easier.

[nvening]

kk i get it now

[iMc]

"An example of a new program would be a media library that you can walk about in 3D space pick out a track from your MP3 collection open the box and pull out a virtual CD, admire the CDs GF6 rendered shinyness and hand it to your media player robot (who follows you around your library)."

I'd rather just double click it and get on with playing it.

I hope all this new 3D UI doesn't make everything ground to a halt. Sounds quite system intensive.

[Kumagoro]

I, you know, think that, you know, that it, you know, could be ,you know, quite a good, you know, you know, idea, you know. But, you know, i have the same, you know, concerns about, you know, power re, you know, quirements. You know.

[ikonia]

looks utter crap and pointless, I like the web stuff that seems to make its own web standards and really lock microsoft off from the rest of the web.

Just wait for project looking glass......this is a poor rip of with propritary junk

[Dorza]

Has any one got screenshots of this? Is it worth the download?

[Jonny M]

It's not a system to give XP users a nice Avalon theme, it's an SDK for people interested in developing UI's for Longhorn-based technologies.

[0iD]

Sorry to dig this one up, but I know this requires Visual Studio.net 2005 Beta 1 prior to installation. Now this is only available to the MSDN fraternity, which I'm not affluent to be a part of. So, is anyone a MSDN member & had a play with the SDK?