Does Aero just take continually updating screenshots of the background, add a gaussian blur and put it on the windowframes? Or does it use some other technique?

I'd really like to know how it's done, because it may help me in reproducing aero in Paint.NET.

Thanks

Maybe it uses transparency?

Aero is basically a transparent layer in the windows and taskbar.. it's nothing special to be honest and quite useless for window borders and such. (that's how I see it)

It might, plus some formula or code that tells it to blur...but i dunno.

AFAIK it has something to do with bringing th ebackground to the front..

anyway, some random info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero

Or, google is your friend.

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Originally posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager

With DWM running, applications do not draw directly to the video memory, but to an off-screen buffers in system memory that are then composited together by DWM to render the final screen, a number of times per second. In that sense, it is similar to the Quartz compositor in Mac OS X. Because the compositor has access to the graphics of all applications, it easily allows effects that string together visuals from multiple applications, such as transparency. DWM uses DirectX to perform the function of compositing and rendering in the GPU, freeing the CPU of the task of managing the rendering from the off-screen buffers to the display. However, it does not affect applications painting to the off-screen buffers; depending on the technologies used for that, it might still be CPU bound. DWM-agnostic rendering techniques like GDI are redirected to the buffers by rendering the UI as bitmaps. DWM-aware rendering technologies like WPF-directly make the internal data structures available in a DWM-compatible format. The window contents in the buffers are then converted to DirectX textures.

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Originally posted by -dt-

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Originally posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager

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Originally posted by Jesus

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Originally posted by -dt-

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Originally posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Window_Manager

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lol so I basically got the same in my linux install

except for the directX part ofcourse

and the amount of $$ paid/one should be paying for it.

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Originally posted by Ryxpia
it may help me in reproducing aero in Paint.NET.

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What I do in paint.NET to add a fake aero effect is make a semi-transparent rectangle (rounded usually), select it with Magic Wand, go to the background layer and gaussian blur it.

If I knew exactly how vista does aero, it might be useful to know.

Like this?




I just made a white box, lowered opacity to 50%-ish, added drop shadow, gaussian blur. Got bored

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Originally posted by ShawnZ

how do you "get" a method of accomplishing a task?

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