This feature has greatly improved usability, support for Windows 8, and Direct3D 11.1, and integration with traditional Microsoft Visual Studio features such as call stacks and debugging windows for HLSL debugging. For DirectX 12 development, use the DXCompiler in the Windows SDK and hosted on GitHub.Ī replacement for the PIX for Windows tool is now a feature in Microsoft Visual Studio, called Visual Studio Graphics Debugger. The D3DCompiler API and redistributable DLL is available in the Windows SDK. The HLSL compiler is a tool in the appropriate architecture subdirectory under the bin folder in the Windows SDK. The D3DCSX DirectCompute utility library and redistributable DLL is available in the Windows SDK.

The deprecated D3DX9/D3DX10/D3DX11 utility libraries are available via NuGet, but there are also a number of open source alternatives. The headers and libraries for Direct3D and other Windows graphics APIs, like Direct2D, are available in the Windows SDK. The following technologies and tools, formerly part of the DirectX SDK, are now part of the Windows SDK. To download the Windows 11 SDK, Windows 10 SDK, or Windows 8.x SDK see Windows SDK and emulator archive. You can now use the Windows SDK to build great games for Windows. DirectX is now a fundamental part of Windows.īecause the Windows SDK is the primary developer SDK for Windows, DirectX is now included in it. In parallel, DirectX technologies are more integrated with Windows. Today, the availability of Direct3D hardware in computers drives even traditional desktop applications to use graphics hardware acceleration.

As DirectX technologies matured, they became relevant to a broader range of applications. We originally created the DirectX SDK as a high-performance platform for game development on top of Windows. Starting with Windows 8, the DirectX SDK is included as part of the Windows SDK.

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