update 13:59 PDT: DreamScene is not available in the Windows Vista SP1 Beta; however, it will be made available with a later release of SP1.
Barry Goffe, Director of Marketing for Windows Vista Ultimate, has posted an update about Ultimate Extras over on windowsultimate.com. The upshot of Barry's note is that today we're releasing via Windows Update the final version of Windows DreamScene, as we'd committed to doing earlier this summer. We're doing this in conjunction with Stardock, with whom we're offering some really cool new 3D animated DreamScene desktops. Stardock has been a terrific community partner in helping us finalize the DreamScene release and further extending the capabilities of Windows Vista. In fact, Stardock has created DeskScapes, a tool that extends Windows DreamScene by enabling it to run animated wallpapers as .dream files. These files can be looped video or dynamically generated 3D content, and can even change based on a set of triggers. The Stardock Dream Gallery is the place for the community to create, upload and share custom DreamScenes with the Windows Vista Ultimate community.
Pop over to Stardock's Dream.WinCustomize.com website to upload and share the new DreamScenes.
Barry also notes that because delivering only high-quality Extras is our top priority, we're delaying delivery of the remaining MUI Language Packs for the moment. This is certainly disappointing news, but because we found an installation bug late in the release validation process, we are not comfortable with releasing the remaining Language Packs before that installation issue is resolved. It's far more important to provide Extras that give Ultimate customers a completely superlative experience than to meet a deadline by providing a compromised product.
As an aside, Ultimate customers will notice that in anticipation of SP1, the screen that welcomes you to Windows Ultimate Extras has been simplified and the explanation more focused on the breadth of features that future Extras will bring. Windows Ultimate Extras was conceived to extend Windows features and to make using your computer more fun, so this text better reflects our direction.
We expect to provide additional updates on the availability of the Language Packs -- along with news on the pipeline of future Extras -- in the very near future. I'll have more information here on the blog when that occurs.