Aero Diamond doesn't exist, is not coming

[Long]

In my quest to find out the truth about Aero Diamond, I got the official word from a Microsft manager who worked directly with or overlooked the codename "Diamond" project.

Diamond was the codename for the Media Center functionality in Vista. Aero is the codename/feature name for the 3D desktop. Looks to me like someone jammed them together.

Technically, Aero Diamond did not exist. Aero did, and so did Diamond, but not as Aero Diamond. So what the ATI presentation slide was referring to was only to the Media Centre experience. Someone along the way must have combined the terms Aero and Diamond to describe the UI in Vista's Media Center, but that mislead many Vista community members.

From that point onwards, people labelled Aero Diamond as an UI experience a tier above Aero Glass and began to speculate what it looked like. Of course, during the few years as a rumour, no one could ever discover what it looked like. This lead some to believe it was Microsoft's secret theme for Vista, but no one could prove it. And now we now why.

Aero will ship.

Diamond will ship.

Aero Diamond did not exist and will definetely not ship with Windows Vista

From my blog: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060810/aero-diamond-doesnt-exist-is-not-coming/

[seblanger]

okay, thx for the information.

[AJerman]

There was much more than just the ATI slide that discussed an "AERO Diamond" "theme". One of the more notable being when it actually showed up in the WinSAT help file. It most certainly did exist at one point. Perhaps it wont ever see the light of day, but it was discussed and worked on for a while. If he claims that it doesn't and never did exist, then he's just trying to cover it up now.

[tomwarren Veteran]

That's inaccurate.

Aero Diamond did exist and it's well documented. It was ment to be the highest tier of Aero but since the Diamond name was being used as a codename by the ehome team it was scrapped. It was just a codename they threw about which was then put into documentation and that's how ATi picked up on it originally.

[leXorNet]

Trying to prove that Aero Dimond does not exist by quoting MS officials is pritty pointless.

The whole argument of Aero Dimond is that it's a secret suprise, still to come, late in the Vista development.

If there is indeed a Aero Dimond coming (which there may or may not be), it's going to be denied, by all MS employees, until it shows up.

[Angel Blue01]

I thought Aero Diamond was supposed to be the Aero version of Media Center.

[+Elі Subscriber²]

And the endless speculation goes on and on......................... LOL

[tomwarren Veteran]

I'd speculate it could eventually surface as an additional theme to Vista for those who use MCE. Like Royale in XP.

[Long]

I'd speculate it could eventually surface as an additional theme to Vista for those who use MCE. Like Royale in XP.

But Tom, Media Centre is no longer an additional SKU. In Vista, Media Centre is just another application. How would Microsoft provide an additional theme just for users who install this application? Would people who purchase Vista Ultimate but choose not to install Media Centre get this theme too?

I don't think Aero Diamond is an additional theme. True, it was internally documented, but it could have just been used to codename the UI for the Media Centre application. Since obviously it wasn't Glass, but something that reflected the aesthetics of Aero. And one guy thought it might have been smart to combine "Aero", the general UI aesthetics with "Diamond", the codename for Media Centre.

[SionicIon]

May I remind you all of Vector Glass? Aero Diamond is Vector Glass, Vector Glass is just the codename, Aero Diamond is the true name. Here is a video at a Microsoft demo of what vector glass is(link1), but this is an old build of Longhorn, Aero Diamond will look way better, and here is a video of how to trigger Aero Diamond in Vista but fails to begin all the way(link2)!

link1: http://winsupersite.com/files/winhec2005_glass_demo.wmv

link2: http://www.aeroxp.org/board/index.php?show...amp;#entry37356

[seblanger]

I don't think Aero Diamond still exist. We have Aero, Windows Basic and Windows Classic Theme. So what the heck should be Aero Diamond? It should be the highest of those three. So Aero Diamond is our Aero. And there won't be any vector glass. Just my thought...

[SionicIon]

Aero Diamond is coming, look at my sig, thats what Aero Diamond is. Compare that to the current buttons in the titlebar! :)

[User6060]

I hope Aero Diamond is real, though the lack of anything but speculation just makes the topic cold.

[Xerxes]

But Tom, Media Centre is no longer an additional SKU. In Vista, Media Centre is just another application. How would Microsoft provide an additional theme just for users who install this application? Would people who purchase Vista Ultimate but choose not to install Media Centre get this theme too?

I don't think Aero Diamond is an additional theme. True, it was internally documented, but it could have just been used to codename the UI for the Media Centre application. Since obviously it wasn't Glass, but something that reflected the aesthetics of Aero. And one guy thought it might have been smart to combine "Aero", the general UI aesthetics with "Diamond", the codename for Media Centre.

What Tom said is possible, don't forget MCE functionality is not included in all versions of Vista. The "Aero Diamond" could possibly be an additional theme that is only available in "MCE enabled" versions of Vista, just a thought.

[Digitalx]

considering it was an idea throwen around by ATi god knows considering they maybe dissolving into amd..

maybe it was an idea for beta 1 but never showed up at winhec 2005. just like others probably a dropped feature

traces are probably still in it like alot of things are but dosent mean they will ever work like they were planned to. so the registry modifications arnt that much proof and considering what you have in your sig i think you sound just like a religious preacher for a thing that dosent exsist a.k.a aero diamond. and i dunno when you done your sig but windows vista by default for a long time now has DirectX 10 installed. so i dont see why you may think its a directx 10 hidden feature or somthing because it isnt.

[Andy1369]

Aero Diamond is coming, look at my sig, thats what Aero Diamond is. Compare that to the current buttons in the titlebar! :)

Huh? They look the same as Aero Glass itself. :blink:

[XerXis]

no, they are different, more transparent and more shadow effects and supposed to be vector, but ... they were just an early mock up

http://blogs.msdn.com/kamvedbrat/archive/2.../06/658310.aspx

[HawkMan]

Huh? They look the same as Aero Glass itself. :blink:

well if you ignore the fact that those are vectors and thus scale up to the hugely oversized size without loss of quality :) yes then they look identical :)

[tomwarren Veteran]

May I remind you all of Vector Glass? Aero Diamond is Vector Glass, Vector Glass is just the codename, Aero Diamond is the true name. Here is a video at a Microsoft demo of what vector glass is(link1), but this is an old build of Longhorn, Aero Diamond will look way better, and here is a video of how to trigger Aero Diamond in Vista but fails to begin all the way(link2)!

link1: http://winsupersite.com/files/winhec2005_glass_demo.wmv

link2: http://www.aeroxp.org/board/index.php?show...amp;#entry37356

That has been dropped, we're approaching 2 years after that idea was brought into the product. You'd see it in betas by now if it was going to ship for RTM!

[seblanger]

In the past month I can't remember that Microsoft officialy said that vector glass will be included in Windows Vista...

[Digitalx]

the image in your sig is a blowen up concept image done obviously with photoshop or along-the-lines of program the same and dosent show any proof or anything, the background image in ur sig is the default wallpaper in 4074 figure how old that is...

[seblanger]

there were some good concept screens at the begin of development, but they never released a working version of them in windows vista. I don't know if they are coming or not, but we'll see. I also want to see "something nice"...whatever it is.

[rjtd]

Ahah!

If you think MS will add a large feature like "vector glass" you must be dreamin man. The development process is near completion, and MS wants to test every bit so that the OS is as much bug-free as thay can. Do you think they will add a complex feature on RC1, and shop it without proper testing?

The thing we can see is a new theme, but even that I doubt, because MS is polishing the current Aero. Why would they polish it, if it was to be dropped? Also, current Aero is everywhere in Vista site and keynotes.

And even if they introduce "vector glass", who gives a damn if it looks the same as current Aero? The thing is that it can scale to large resolutions, being resolution independent.

But you know, we still don't pay taxes for dreaming.

[y_notm]

What Tom said is possible, don't forget MCE functionality is not included in all versions of Vista. The "Aero Diamond" could possibly be an additional theme that is only available in "MCE enabled" versions of Vista, just a thought.

They've already added a premium theme for MCE+ editions of vista, its called Aero Glass, and its not available in Home Basic.

[Timothy003]

Aero Diamond is coming, look at my sig, thats what Aero Diamond is. Compare that to the current buttons in the titlebar! :)

Yeah, I was wondering about that picture, too... But it was originally from here. And from that page, you can basically see that the picture was included only to demonstrate transparencies in Windows Aero. Here's the caption under the picture:

Windows Vista Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through.

considering it was an idea throwen around by ATi god knows considering they maybe dissolving into amd..

maybe it was an idea for beta 1 but never showed up at winhec 2005. just like others probably a dropped feature

traces are probably still in it like alot of things are but dosent mean they will ever work like they were planned to. so the registry modifications arnt that much proof and considering what you have in your sig i think you sound just like a religious preacher for a thing that dosent exsist a.k.a aero diamond. and i dunno when you done your sig but windows vista by default for a long time now has DirectX 10 installed. so i dont see why you may think its a directx 10 hidden feature or somthing because it isnt.

By "DirectX 10 installed" he means the computer has a DirectX 10 graphic card. Right now, nobody owns one of those. 'Aero Diamond' was supposed to use DirectX 9 to render anyway.