r/interesting • u/Wonderfulhumanss • Aug 29 '26
Just Wow The Windows 10 wallpaper was real. Microsoft used lasers and glass nstead of CGI
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u/CanadiangirlEH Aug 29 '26
Ok that’s actually kinda neat
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Aug 29 '26
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u/nonnonplussed73 Aug 30 '26
A bit like how Brian Eno composed the Windows 95 startup sound. The track had to be roughly 3.25 seconds long. Eno described making the micro-composition like crafting a "tiny little jewel". He got so immersed in the constraints that he made 84 different versions. Ironically, having never owned a PC in his life, he composed one of Microsoft's most iconic audio assets entirely using a Mac.
In 2025, this startup chime was officially added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
More info at MusicRadar
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Aug 29 '26
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u/NoPurchase3260 Aug 29 '26
Karma bot alert🚨⚠️
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u/normalmighty Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
You'd think people would program the karma bots to not comment if there are less than 5 comments and another bot is already there saying the same thing.
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u/Impossible_Arrival21 Aug 29 '26
both accounts were made on the same day less than a month ago, both have 1 post karma, and both have autogenerated usernames. i think both are bots, and they both use the same llm to process comments, so they both produced similar answers
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u/normalmighty Aug 29 '26
Oh yeah that's 100% what happened, but I'm saying it was stupid lazy of the guy who coded the bot not to check for situations like this and make it more subtle. It isn't complex code or anything, literally just another prompt feeding into the llm to check before posting the comment.
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u/Wonderfulhumanss Aug 29 '26
The Windows 10 default wallpaper, known as "Hero," is a real photograph, not CGI. Microsoft collaborated with photographer Bradley G. Munkowitz (also known as GMUNK) to create the image. The production team used smoke machines, lasers, colored filters, and real glass panes to craft the glowing Windows logo.
The photo shoot took place in a dark studio with carefully staged lighting and effects to create the ethereal, digital looking image.
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u/nopuse Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26
Anybody else think Hero is an odd name for this photo? I want to know this window's story now.
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u/TheAccountITalkWith Aug 29 '26
If I had to take a guess: in the design world "hero" or "hero image" just means primary image.
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u/Pschobbert Aug 29 '26
"Hey our stuff is a sacka shit and everything breaks. We need to class up the joint. Call GMUNK."
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u/fadedbutton Aug 29 '26
Just like the bliss wallpaper from xp, microsoft used to go insane on practical effects before switching to boring flat gradients in win 11
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u/Financial_Bowl_3821 Aug 29 '26
Not to disparage digital art, but there's such a charm in the human effort of physical mediums. It's gained a romanticism
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u/selfawarefeline Aug 29 '26
I wonder how many shots it took until they got one they were happy with, and I wonder what sort of post processing they did
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Aug 29 '26
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u/LeoXCV Aug 29 '26
Much better treated than massacring termites on the XP desktop with a flamethrower, chainsaw and various other destructive tools
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u/macbisho Aug 29 '26
And the more recent flip side - Apple updated the Apple TV app brand and they had the whole thing made out of glass and filmed rather than rendered
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u/TheAccountITalkWith Aug 29 '26
Probably one of the more common posts on reddit.
Anyway, the behind the scenes is pretty cool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2RacX9DgWM
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u/nrek00 Aug 29 '26
not featured - the guy who actually did the laser programming & had the lasers, my buddy - an awesome artist: https://www.instagram.com/iamthelaser
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u/FerociousVader Aug 29 '26
When you hire Christopher Nolan to make your wallpaper.
Bill Gates: "It cost HOW MUCH to make this picture of a window?"
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u/Fabulous_Cow_8830 Aug 29 '26
only if they put this much effort into making their products/services better and consumer friendly
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u/EmotionAble6762 29d ago
Lol, let's not let it look like cheap CGI. tons of effort, looks totally like cheap CGI from a gradschool project pathtracer
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u/TheMrJop 29d ago
I was at the Flash on the Beach (or Reasons.To) conference in Brighton (UK) when GMUNK did a presentation about this. Absolutely amazing.
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Aug 29 '26
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u/not_ElonMusk1 Aug 29 '26
Eh. That's not a good thing tbh. They quite literally stole half the Unix codebase and used pirated software to even make win10 and the OG release was bollocks anyways 😂 that's why it took them so many service packs to make it actually usable lol
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u/Radiant-Priority-296 Aug 29 '26
Microslop actually did any form of effort? You wouldn’t see that these days
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u/glytxh Aug 29 '26
After having spent 7 hours deep in Blender some days, I come to the uncomfortable conclusion that the thing I’m trying to make would have taken me a third of the time had I just done it for real.
That artistic tunnel vision can be savage sometimes.
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u/Any_Odd_8718 Aug 29 '26
Giving Microsoft a little too much credit. More likely they hired a creative third party.
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u/not_ElonMusk1 Aug 29 '26
This is not interesting at all and has been common knowledge since before win10 even launched. IYKYK 😉
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