View source for Direct3D

{{Short description|API used in Microsoft DirectX for 3D rendering}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2014}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Direct3D
| title = Direct3D
| logo = <!-- Image name is enough -->
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| developer = [[Microsoft]]
| released = {{Start date and age|1996|6|2}}
| discontinued = 
| latest release version = 12.0 Beta 3
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2015|01|13|df=}}
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| programming language = 
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Windows CE]], [[Windows Embedded]], [[Xbox system software]]
| platform = [[x86]], [[ARM architecture family|ARM]]
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| language count = <!-- Number only -->
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| genre = [[3D computer graphics]] API
| license = Proprietary
| website = {{URL|https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d}}
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}}
'''Direct3D''' is a graphics [[application programming interface]] (API) for [[Microsoft Windows]]. Part of [[DirectX]], Direct3D is used to render [[3D computer graphics|three-dimensional graphics]] in applications where performance is important, such as games. Direct3D uses [[hardware acceleration]] if available on the [[graphics card]], allowing for hardware acceleration of the entire 3D [[rendering pipeline]] or even only partial acceleration. Direct3D exposes the advanced graphics capabilities of 3D graphics hardware, including [[Z-buffering]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb205074(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Configuring Depth-Stencil Functionality|date=August 19, 2020 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> W-buffering,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb281055(v=vs.85).aspx|title=RenderStateManager.UseWBuffer|date=November 6, 2009 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> [[stencil buffer]]ing, [[spatial anti-aliasing]], [[alpha compositing|alpha blending]], color blending, [[mipmap]]ping, texture blending,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb206241(v=vs.85)|title=Texture Blending (Direct3D 9)|date=January 6, 2021 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb173463(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Geometry Blending (Direct3D 9)|date=January 6, 2021 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> [[Clipping (computer graphics)|clipping]], [[hidden-surface determination|culling]], atmospheric effects, perspective-correct [[texture mapping]], programmable [[HLSL]] [[shaders]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb509561(v=vs.85).aspx|title=HLSL|date=August 4, 2021 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> and effects.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476136(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Effects (Direct3D 11)|date=June 11, 2021 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> Integration with other DirectX technologies enables Direct3D to deliver such features as video mapping, hardware 3D rendering in 2D [[video overlay|overlay]] planes, and even [[sprite (computer graphics)|sprites]], providing the use of 2D and 3D graphics in interactive media ties.

Direct3D contains many commands for [[3D computer graphics]] rendering; however, since version 8, Direct3D has superseded the [[DirectDraw]] framework and also taken responsibility for the rendering of [[2D computer graphics|2D graphics]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=9977 |title=DirectX Software Development Kit, October 2006 |publisher=Microsoft |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111102052207/http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=9977 |archive-date=2011-11-02 }}</ref> Microsoft strives to continually update Direct3D to support the latest technology available on 3D graphics cards. Direct3D offers full vertex software [[emulator|emulation]] but no pixel software emulation for features not available in hardware. For example, if software programmed using Direct3D requires [[pixel shader]]s and the [[video card]] on the user's computer does not support that feature, Direct3D will not emulate it, although it will compute and render the polygons and textures of the 3D models, albeit at a usually degraded quality and performance compared to the hardware equivalent. The API does include a ''[[Reference Rasterizer]]'' (or REF device), which emulates a generic graphics card in software, although it is too slow for most real-time 3D applications and is typically only used for debugging. A new real-time software rasterizer, ''[[Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform|WARP]]'', designed to emulate the complete feature set of Direct3D 10.1, is included with [[Windows 7]] and [[Windows Vista|Windows Vista Service Pack 2]] with the Platform Update; its performance is said to be on par with lower-end 3D cards on multi-core CPUs.<ref name=WARPguide>{{cite web |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/gg615082#architecture |title=Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP) Guide – WARP Architecture and Performance|date=October 11, 2022 | publisher=MSDN}}</ref>

As part of [[DirectX]], Direct3D is available for [[Windows 95]] and above, and is the base for the [[vector graphics]] API on the different versions of [[Xbox]] console systems. The [[Wine (software)|Wine]] compatibility layer, a [[free software]] reimplementation of several Windows APIs, includes an implementation of Direct3D.

Direct3D's main competitor is Khronos' [[OpenGL]] and its follow-on [[Vulkan]]. [[Fahrenheit (graphics API)|Fahrenheit]] was an attempt by Microsoft and [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]] to unify OpenGL and Direct3D in the 1990s, but was eventually cancelled.

==Overview==
{{See also|DirectX#Version history}}

* Direct3D 6.0 – [[Texture mapping|Multitexturing]]
* Direct3D 7.0 – Hardware [[Transform, clipping, and lighting|Transformation, Clipping and Lighting]] (TCL/T&L), [[DXVA]] 1.0
* Direct3D 8.0 – Pixel [[Shader]] 1.0/1.1 & Vertex Shader 1.0/1.1<ref>{{cite web |title=DirectX 8: Raising the Ante for Realism in Graphics |url=https://www.evga.com/articles/images/11directx8.pdf |website=evga.com |access-date=6 September 2023}}</ref>
* Direct3D 8.1 – Pixel Shader 1.2/1.3/1.4<ref>{{cite web |title=Home> GPUs ATI SMARTSHADER Technology - Powering the next generation Radeon |url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/800/3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404224118/http://www.anandtech.com/show/800/3 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 4, 2017 |website=anandtech.com |access-date=6 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Vertex Shaders and Pixel Shaders |url=http://www.thg.ru/graphic/20020116/shaders-10.html |website=thg.ru/ |access-date=6 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Vertex Shaders and Pixel Shaders |url=http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020116/shaders-10.html |access-date=6 September 2023 |archive-date=August 16, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040816024841/http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020116/shaders-10.html |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>
* Direct3D 9.0 – Shader Model 2.0 (Pixel Shader 2.0 & Vertex Shader 2.0)
* Direct3D 9.0a – Shader Model 2.0a (Pixel Shader 2.0a & Vertex Shader 2.0a)
* Direct3D 9.0b – Pixel Shader 2.0b, [[H.264]]
* Direct3D 9.0c – last version supported for [[Windows 98]]/[[Windows Me|ME]] (early releases)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.falconfly.de/directx.htm |title=MicroSoft DirectX Downloads for Windows (Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, Win2000, WinXP) |website=www.falconfly.de |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110152918/http://www.falconfly.de/directx.htm |archive-date=10 November 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and for [[Windows 2000]]/[[Windows XP|XP]] (all releases);<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34429 |title=Download DirectX 9.0c End-User Runtime from Official Microsoft Download Center |website=www.microsoft.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150729053943/http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34429 |archive-date=29 July 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Shader Model 3.0 (Pixel Shader 3.0 & Vertex Shader 3.0)
* Direct3D 9.0L – [[Windows Vista]] only; Direct3D 9.0c, Shader Model 3.0, Windows Graphics Foundation 1.0, [[GPGPU]]
* Direct3D 10.0 – Windows Vista/Windows 7; [[Unified shader model|Shader Model 4.0]], Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0, DXVA 2.0
* Direct3D 10.1 – Windows Vista SP1/Windows 7; Shader Model 4.1, Windows Graphics Foundation 2.1, DXVA 2.1
* Direct3D 11.0 – Windows Vista SP2/[[Windows 7]]; Shader Model 5.0, Tessellation, Multithreaded rendering, [[Compute shader]]s, implemented by hardware and software running Direct3D 9/10/10.1
* Direct3D 11.1 – [[Windows 8]] (partially supported on Windows 7 SP1 also); Stereoscopic 3D Rendering, [[H.265]]
* Direct3D 11.2 – [[Windows 8.1]]; Tiled resources
* Direct3D 11.3 – [[Windows 10]]
* Direct3D 12.0 – [[Windows 10]]; low-level [[Rendering (computer graphics)|rendering]] [[Application programming interface|API]], Shader Model 5.1 and 6.0
* Direct3D 12.1 – Windows 10; [[DirectX Raytracing]]
* Direct3D 12.2 – Windows 10; [[DirectX 12 Ultimate]]

==Direct3D 2.0 and 3.0==
In 1992, Servan Keondjian, Doug Rabson and Kate Seekings started a company named RenderMorphics, which developed a 3D graphics API named [[Reality Lab]], which was used in medical imaging and CAD software.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.qubesoft.com/#clients-team-and-tech|title=Qube Soft Management Team|publisher=qubesoft.com|date=2017-04-04|access-date=2017-04-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406110841/http://www.qubesoft.com/#clients-team-and-tech|archive-date=2017-04-06|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Two versions of this API were released.<ref name=":2" /> Microsoft bought RenderMorphics in February 1995, bringing its staff on board to implement a 3D graphics engine for [[Windows 95|Windows&nbsp;95]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Prosise |first=Jeff |date=May 16, 1995 |title=Joining the Multimedia Party |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D4gTpBgpFgUC&dq=pc+magazine+windows+nt+3.5+opengl&pg=PA152 |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=[[PC Magazine]]}}</ref> The first version of Direct3D shipped in '''DirectX 2.0''' (June 2, 1996) and '''DirectX 3.0''' (September 26, 1996).

Direct3D initially implemented an "[[Immediate mode (computer graphics)|immediate mode]]" 3D API and layered upon it a "[[retained mode]]" 3D API.<ref>{{cite web |last=Thompson |first=Nigel |date=August 1996 |title=Building a Scene Using Retained Mode Direct3D |url=https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/GD_Mag_Archives/GDM_AugSept_1996.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126031359/https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/GD_Mag_Archives/GDM_AugSept_1996.pdf |archive-date=2021-01-26 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=[[Game Developer Magazine]]}}</ref> Both types of API were already offered with the second release of Reality Lab before Direct3D was released.<ref name=":2" /> Like other DirectX APIs, such as [[DirectDraw]], both were based on [[Component Object Model|COM]]. The retained mode API was a [[scene graph]] API that attained little adoption. Game developers clamored for more direct control of the hardware's activities than the Direct3D retained mode could provide. Only two games that sold a significant volume, ''[[Lego Island]]'' and ''[[Lego Rock Raiders (video game)|Lego Rock Raiders]]'', were based on the Direct3D retained mode, so Microsoft did not update the retained mode API after DirectX 3.0.

For DirectX 2.0 and 3.0, the Direct3D immediate mode used an "execute buffer" programming model that Microsoft hoped hardware vendors would support directly. Execute buffers were intended to be allocated in hardware memory and parsed by the hardware to perform the 3D rendering. They were considered extremely awkward to program at the time, however, hindering adoption of the new API and prompting calls for Microsoft to adopt OpenGL as the official 3D rendering API for games as well as workstation applications.<ref>{{cite web |last=Berkes |first=Otto |date=April 12, 2015 |title=DirectX |url=https://ottoberkes.wordpress.com/2015/04/12/directx |access-date=2022-08-22 |website=Otto Berkes’ weblog}}</ref>

Rather than adopt OpenGL as a gaming API, Microsoft chose to continue improving Direct3D, not only to be competitive with OpenGL, but to compete more effectively with other proprietary APIs such as [[3dfx]]'s [[Glide API|Glide]].

From the beginning, the immediate mode also supported [[Microsoft Talisman|Talisman]]'s [[tiled rendering]] with the BeginScene/EndScene methods of the IDirect3DDevice interface.

==Direct3D 4.0==
No substantive changes were planned to Direct3D for '''DirectX 4.0''', which was scheduled to ship in late 1996 and then cancelled.<ref>{{cite web |last=Chen |first=Raymond |date=2004-01-22 |title=What happened to DirectX 4? |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040122-00/?p=40963 |access-date=2022-08-28 |website=The Old New Thing |publisher=[[Microsoft]]}}</ref>

==Direct3D 5.0==
In December 1996, a team in Redmond took over development of the Direct3D Immediate Mode, while the London-based RenderMorphics team continued work on the Retained Mode. The Redmond team added the DrawPrimitive API that eliminated the need for applications to construct execute buffers, making Direct3D more closely resemble other immediate mode rendering APIs such as [[Glide API|Glide]] and [[OpenGL]]. The first beta of DrawPrimitive shipped in February 1997,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.microsoft.com/1997/02/18/microsoft-multimedia-developers-convene-for-meltdown-97/|title=Press Release-Microsoft Meltdown (February 1997)|publisher=Microsoft Corporation|date=1997-02-18}}</ref> and the final version shipped with '''DirectX 5.0''' in August 1997.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://news.microsoft.com/1997/07/22/developers-for-microsoft-directx-convene-for-meltdown-97/ |title=Press Release-Microsoft Meltdown (July 1997)|publisher=Microsoft Corporation|date=1997-07-22}}</ref>

Besides introducing an easier-to-use immediate mode API, DirectX 5.0 added the SetRenderTarget method that enabled Direct3D devices to write their graphical output to a variety of DirectDraw surfaces.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.microsoft.com/msj/0298/primitive.aspx|title=Get Fast and Simple 3D Rendering with DrawPrimitive and DirectX 5.0|publisher=Microsoft Systems Journal|author=Ron Fosner}}</ref>

==Direct3D 6.0==
'''DirectX 6.0''' (released in August, 1998) introduced numerous features to cover contemporary hardware (such as [[Texture mapping|multitexture]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/reference/programming/directx/direct3d/direct3d-7-immediate-mode-framework-programming-r1028|title=Direct3D 7 Immediate Mode Framework Programming 3: Multitexturing|publisher=gamedev.net|date=2000-05-29|access-date=September 17, 2011|archive-date=August 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805004456/http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/reference/programming/directx/direct3d/direct3d-7-immediate-mode-framework-programming-r1028|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[stencil buffer]]s) as well as optimized [[geometry pipeline]]s for [[x87]], [[Streaming SIMD Extensions|SSE]] and [[3DNow!]] and optional texture management to simplify programming.<ref>{{cite web|title=Microsoft Ships Final Release of DirectX 6.0|url=http://news.microsoft.com/1998/08/07/microsoft-ships-final-release-of-directx-6-0/|publisher=Microsoft|date=1998-08-07}}</ref> Direct3D 6.0 also included support for features that had been licensed by Microsoft from specific hardware vendors for inclusion in the API, in exchange for the time-to-market advantage to the licensing vendor. [[S3TC|S3 texture compression]] support was one such feature, renamed as DXTC for purposes of inclusion in the API. Another was TriTech's proprietary [[bump mapping]] technique. Microsoft included these features in DirectX, then added them to the requirements needed for drivers to get a [[WHQL Testing|Windows logo]] to encourage broad adoption of the features in other vendors' hardware.

A minor update to '''DirectX 6.0''' came in the February, 1999 DirectX 6.1 update. Besides adding [[DirectMusic]] support for the first time, this release improved support for [[Intel Pentium III]] 3D extensions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Microsoft Ships DirectX 6.1|url=http://news.microsoft.com/1999/02/03/microsoft-ships-directx-6-1/|publisher=Microsoft|date=3 February 1999}}</ref>

A confidential memo sent in 1997<ref>{{cite web|title=Bill Gates April 1997 Talisman Update|url=http://www.alexstjohn.com/BillG_Apr_97_Talisman_update.pdf|publisher=Microsoft|date=1997-05-05|access-date=2015-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208112242/http://www.alexstjohn.com/BillG_Apr_97_Talisman_update.pdf|archive-date=2015-12-08|url-status=dead}}</ref> shows Microsoft planning to announce full support for [[Microsoft Talisman|Talisman]] in DirectX 6.0, but the API ended up being cancelled (See the [[Microsoft Talisman]] page for details).

==Direct3D 7.0==
'''DirectX 7.0''' (released in September, 1999) introduced the [[DirectDraw Surface|.dds]] texture format<ref>{{cite web |url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb943990 |title= DDS (DirectDraw Surface format) |date= August 19, 2020 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref> and support for [[transform and lighting]] [[hardware acceleration]]<ref name="dx7due799">{{cite news |title=DirectX 7: [due] July 99 |url=http://www.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/features/dx7/dx7_uk/ |access-date=July 20, 2019 |work=[[GameSpot]] |date=March 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990508133655/http://www.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/features/dx7/dx7_uk/ |archive-date=May 8, 1999 |location=UK}}</ref> (first available on PC hardware with Nvidia's [[GeForce 256]]), as well as the ability to allocate vertex buffers in hardware memory. Hardware vertex buffers represent the first substantive improvement over OpenGL in DirectX history. Direct3D 7.0 also augmented DirectX support for multitexturing hardware, and represents the pinnacle of fixed-function multitexture pipeline features: although powerful, it was so complicated to program that a new programming model was needed to expose the shading capabilities of graphics hardware. Direct3D 7.0 also introduced [[DXVA]] features.

==Direct3D 8.0==
'''DirectX 8.0''' (released in November, 2000) introduced programmability in the form of vertex and pixel [[shader]]s, enabling developers to write code without worrying about superfluous hardware state.<ref>{{cite web|title=Microsoft Announces Release of DirectX 8.0|url=http://news.microsoft.com/2000/11/09/microsoft-announces-release-of-directx-8-0/|publisher=Microsoft|access-date=7 January 2015|date=9 November 2000}}</ref> The complexity of the shader programs depended on the complexity of the task, and the [[device driver|display driver]] [[compiled]] those shaders to instructions that could be understood by the hardware. Direct3D 8.0 and its programmable shading capabilities were the first major departure from an OpenGL-style fixed-function architecture, where drawing is controlled by a complicated state machine. Direct3D 8.0 also eliminated [[DirectDraw]] as a separate API.<ref name="dx8featuresgs">{{cite news |title=Direct Action Feature: DirectX 8.0 |url=http://extra.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/features/directaction_uk/ |access-date=July 20, 2019 |work=[[GameSpot]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010223225852/http://extra.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/features/directaction_uk/ |archive-date=February 23, 2001 |location=UK}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1247.asp |title=DirectX 8 Graphics and Video: A Fresh Start |date=2000-11-30 |publisher=gamedev.net |access-date=2007-02-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604171620/http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1247.asp |archive-date=2007-06-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Direct3D subsumed all remaining DirectDraw API calls still needed for application development, such as Present(), the function used to display rendering results.

Direct3D was not considered to be user friendly, but as of DirectX version 8.1, many usability problems were resolved. Direct3D 8 contained many powerful 3D graphics features, such as [[vertex shaders]], [[pixel shaders]], [[Distance fog|fog]], [[bump mapping]] and [[texture mapping]].

==Direct3D 9==
'''Direct3D 9.0'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb219837(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Direct3D 9 Graphics|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> (released in December, 2002) added a new version of the [[High Level Shader Language]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb944006(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Writing HLSL Shaders in Direct3D 9|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/Jan03/01-22DirectXHLSLPR.mspx |title=HLSL in Direct3D 9.0 |website=[[Microsoft]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100827232558/http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/Jan03/01-22DirectXHLSLPR.mspx |archive-date=2010-08-27 }}</ref> support for floating-point texture formats, [[Multiple Render Targets]] (MRT),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb147221(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Multiple Render Targets (Direct3D 9)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> Multiple-Element Textures,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb147219(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Multiple-element Textures (Direct3D 9)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> texture lookups in the vertex shader and stencil buffer techniques.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb206123(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Stencil Buffer Techniques (Direct3D 9)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

===Direct3D 9Ex===

'''Direct3D 9Ex'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee890072(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Direct3D 9Ex Improvements|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> (previously versioned 9.0L, with "L" standing for Longhorn, the codename for Windows Vista), an extension only available on Windows Vista and newer, allows the use of the advantages offered by Windows Vista's [[Windows Display Driver Model]] (WDDM) and is used for [[Windows Aero]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee417756|title=Graphics APIs in Windows|date=August 2009|publisher=MSDN}}</ref> Direct3D 9Ex, in conjunction with DirectX 9 class WDDM drivers allows graphics memory to be virtualized and [[paging|paged out]] to system memory, allows graphics operations to be interrupted and scheduled and allow DirectX surfaces to be shared across processes.<ref name="gs">{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/archive/2006/04/02/566767.aspx|title=The role of the Windows Display Driver Model in the DWM|date=2006-04-02}}</ref> Direct3D 9Ex was previously known as version 1.0 of Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF).

[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/direct3darticles/direct3d-9ex-improvements Direct3D 9Ex improvements - Win32 apps]

==Direct3D 10==
{{See also|Windows Display Driver Model}}

[[Windows Vista]] includes a major update to the Direct3D API. Originally called WGF 2.0 (Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0), then DirectX 10 and DirectX Next, '''Direct3D 10'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb172268(v=vs.85).aspx|title=API Features (Direct3D 10)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> features an updated [[shader model]] 4.0 and optional interruptibility for shader programs.<ref name="gs"/> In this model shaders still consist of fixed stages as in previous versions, but all stages support a nearly unified interface, as well as a unified access paradigm for resources such as textures and shader constants. The language itself has been extended to be more expressive, including integer operations, a greatly increased instruction count, and more C-like language constructs. In addition to the previously available [[vertex shader|vertex]] and [[pixel shader]] stages, the API includes a [[geometry shader]] stage that breaks the old model of one vertex in/one vertex out, to allow geometry to be generated from within a shader, thus allowing for complex geometry to be generated entirely by the graphics hardware.

Windows XP and earlier are not supported by DirectX&nbsp;10.0 and above. Furthermore, Direct3D&nbsp;10 dropped support for the retained mode API which had been a part of Direct3D since the beginning, making Windows Vista incompatible with 3D games that had used the retained mode API as their [[Rendering (computer graphics)|rendering engine]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Microsoft Support |date=March 17, 2009 |title=Direct3D Retained Mode removed from Windows Vista |url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969150 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601172521/http://support.microsoft.com:80/kb/969150 |archive-date=June 1, 2013}}</ref>

Unlike prior versions of the API, Direct3D 10 no longer uses "capability bits" (or "caps") to indicate which features are supported on a given graphics device. Instead, it defines a minimum standard of hardware capabilities which must be supported for a display system to be "Direct3D&nbsp;10 compatible". This is a significant departure, with the goal of streamlining application code by removing capability-checking code and special cases based on the presence or absence of specific capabilities.

Because Direct3D&nbsp;10 hardware was comparatively rare after the initial release of [[Windows Vista]] and because of the massive install base of non-Direct3D&nbsp;10 compatible graphics cards, the first Direct3D&nbsp;10-compatible games still provide Direct3D 9 render paths. Examples of such titles are games originally written for Direct3D&nbsp;9 and ported to Direct3D&nbsp;10 after their release, such as ''[[Company of Heroes]]'', or games originally developed for Direct3D&nbsp;9 with a Direct3D&nbsp;10 path retrofitted later during their development, such as ''[[Hellgate: London]]'' or ''[[Crysis]]''. The DirectX&nbsp;10 SDK became available in February 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=9539|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120903141508/http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=9539|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-09-03|title=DirectX Software Development Kit, February 2007|publisher=Microsoft}}</ref>

===Direct3D 10.0===
'''Direct3D&nbsp;10.0''' level hardware must support the following features: the ability to process entire primitives in the new geometry-shader stage, the ability to output pipeline-generated vertex data to memory using the stream-output stage, multisampled alpha-to-coverage support, readback of a depth/stencil surface or a multisampled resource once it is no longer bound as a render target, full HLSL integration – all Direct3D&nbsp;10 shaders are written in HLSL and implemented with the common-shader core, integer and bitwise shader operations, organization of pipeline state into 5 immutable state objects, organization of shader constants into constant buffers, increased number of render targets, textures, and samplers, no shader length limit, new resource types and resource formats,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb205133(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Resource Types (Direct3D 10)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> layered runtime/API layers,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb205068(v=vs.85).aspx|title=API Layers (Direct3D 10)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> option to perform per-primitive material swapping and setup using a geometry shader, increased generalization of resource access using a view, removed legacy hardware capability bits (caps).
* Fixed pipelines<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.com.com/An+inside+look+at+Windows+Vista+-+page+4/2100-1043_3-6051736-4.html?tag=st.num|title=CNet News|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> are being done away with in favor of fully programmable pipelines (often referred to as unified pipeline architecture), which can be programmed to emulate the same.
* New state object to enable (mostly) the CPU to change states efficiently.
* [[Unified shader model]] enhances the programmability of the [[graphics pipeline]]. It adds instructions for integer and bitwise calculations.
* The common shader core<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb509580(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Common-Shader Core|date=June 30, 2021 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> provides a full set of IEEE-compliant 32-bit integer and bitwise operations. These operations enable a new class of algorithms in graphics hardware—examples include compression and packing techniques, FFTs, and bitfield program-flow control.
* [[Geometry shaders]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff471423(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Geometry Shader Features|date=August 23, 2019 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb205146(v=vs.85).aspx#Geometry_Shader_Stage|title=Shader Stages|date=October 11, 2016 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> which work on adjacent triangles which form a [[Polygon mesh|mesh]].
* [[Texture mapping|Texture]] arrays enable swapping of textures in GPU without CPU intervention.
* [[Predicated rendering]] allows drawing calls to be ignored based on some other conditions. This enables rapid [[hidden-surface determination|occlusion culling]], which prevents objects from being rendered if it is not visible or too far to be visible.
* [[Geometry instancing|Instancing 2.0]] support, allowing multiple instances of similar meshes, such as armies, or grass or trees, to be rendered in a single draw call, reducing the processing time needed for multiple similar objects to that of a single one.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/direct3d-10,1356-6.html |title=What Direct3D 10 is all about – Additional Improvements |date=2006-11-08|publisher=Tom's Hardware}}</ref>

===Direct3D 10.1===
'''Direct3D 10.1'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb694530(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Direct3D 10.1 Features|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> was announced by Microsoft shortly after the release of Direct3D 10 as a minor update. The specification was finalized with the release of November 2007 DirectX SDK and the runtime was shipped with the [[Windows Vista]] [[Windows Vista Service Pack 1|SP1]], which is available since mid-March 2008.

Direct3D 10.1 sets a few more image quality standards for graphics vendors, and gives developers more control over image quality.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/57370-microsoft-presents-directx-101-details-at-siggraph |title=Microsoft Presents DirectX 10.1 Details at SIGGRAPH|date=2007-08-07|publisher=ExtremeTech}}</ref><ref name=D3D10_1_features>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb694530 |title=Direct3D 10.1 Features |date=January 6, 2021 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref> Features include finer control over anti-aliasing (both multisampling and supersampling with per sample shading and application control over sample position) and more flexibilities to some of the existing features (cubemap arrays and independent blending modes). Direct3D 10.1 level hardware must support the following features: Multisampling has been enhanced to generalize coverage based transparency and make multisampling work more effectively with multi-pass rendering, better culling behavior – Zero-area faces are automatically culled; this affects wireframe rendering only, independent blend modes per render target, new sample-frequency pixel shader execution with primitive rasterization, increased pipeline stage bandwidth, both color and depth/stencil MSAA surfaces can now be used with CopyResource as either a source or destination, MultisampleEnable only affects line rasterization (points and triangles are unaffected), and is used to choose a line drawing algorithm. This means that some multisample rasterization from Direct3D 10 are no longer supported, Texture Sampling – sample_c and sample_c_lz instructions are defined to work with both Texture2DArrays and TextureCubeArrays use the Location member (the alpha component) to specify an array index, support for TextureCubeArrays.
* Mandatory 32-bit [[floating point]] filtering.
* Floating Point Rules – Uses the same IEEE-754 rules for floating-point EXCEPT 32-bit floating point operations have been tightened to produce a result within 0.5 unit-last-place (0.5 ULP) of the infinitely precise result. This applies to addition, subtraction, and multiplication. (accuracy to 0.5 ULP for multiply, 1.0 ULP for reciprocal).
* Formats – The precision of float16 blending has increased to 0.5 ULP. Blending is also required for UNORM16/SNORM16/SNORM8 formats.
* Format Conversion while copying between certain 32/64/128 bit prestructured, typed resources and compressed representations of the same bit widths.
* Mandatory support for 4x MSAA for all render targets except R32G32B32A32 and R32G32B32.<ref name="msdn.microsoft.com">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476499(v=vs.85).aspx|title=ID3D11Device::CheckMultisampleQualityLevels method|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>
* [[High Level Shader Language|Shader model]] 4.1

Unlike Direct3D 10 which strictly required Direct3D 10-class hardware and driver interfaces, Direct3D 10.1 runtime can run on Direct3D 10.0 hardware using a concept of "[[#Feature levels|feature levels]]",<ref name=D3DFeatureLevels_chuckw/><ref name="D3D10featurelevel">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb694529 |title=D3D10_FEATURE_LEVEL1 enumeration |access-date=2009-11-22 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476876.aspx|title=Direct3D feature levels|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> but new features are supported exclusively by new hardware which expose feature level 10_1.

The only available Direct3D 10.1 hardware as of June 2008 were the [[Radeon R600|Radeon HD 3000 series]] and [[Radeon R700|Radeon HD 4000 series]] from [[ATI (brand)|ATI]]; in 2009, they were joined by [[S3 Chrome#Chrome 400|Chrome 430/440GT]] GPUs from [[S3 Graphics]] and select lower-end models in [[GeForce 200 series]] from [[Nvidia]]. In 2011, [[Intel]] chipsets started supporting Direct3D 10.1 with the introduction of [[Intel HD Graphics]] 2000 (GMA HD).

==Direct3D 11==
{{See also|Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform}}

'''Direct3D 11'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476342(v=vs.85).aspx#Full|title=Direct3D 11 Features|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> was released as part of Windows 7. It was presented at Gamefest 2008 on July 22, 2008 and demonstrated at the [[Nvision]] 08 technical conference on August 26, 2008.<ref name="gamefest2008">{{cite web | url = http://www.microsoftgamefest.com/presentations/2008.htm | title = Gamefest 2008 Presentations | publisher = Microsoft | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131113193604/http://www.microsoftgamefest.com/presentations/2008.htm | archive-date = 2013-11-13 }}</ref><ref name="nvision08">{{cite web | url = http://www.nvidia.com/content/nvision2008/tech_presentations.html | access-date = 2011-09-16 | title = Nvision 08 Tech Presentations|publisher=Nvidia}}</ref> The Direct3D 11 Technical Preview has been included in November 2008 release of DirectX SDK.<ref name=Nov2008SDK>{{cite web|url=http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=4064 |title=DirectX Software Development Kit, November 2008|publisher=Microsoft|date=2008-11-07}}</ref> AMD previewed working DirectX11 hardware at Computex on June 3, 2009, running some DirectX 11 SDK samples.<ref name="computex2009">{{cite web | url = https://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/amd-shows-off-worlds-first-directx-11-gpu/| date=2009-06-03 |title = AMD shows off world's first DirectX 11 GPU|publisher=Engadget}}</ref>

The Direct3D 11 runtime is able to run on Direct3D 9 and 10.x-class hardware and [[Device Driver Interface|drivers]] using the concept of [[#Feature levels|"feature levels"]], expanding on the functionality first introduced in Direct3D 10.1 runtime.<ref name=D3DFeatureLevels_chuckw>{{cite web | url = http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chuckw/archive/2012/06/20/direct3d-feature-levels.aspx | title = Direct3D Feature Levels | work = Games for Windows and the DirectX SDK Blog | author = Chuck Walbourn |date = June 20, 2012}}</ref><ref name="GF08_D3D11downlevel">{{cite web| url=http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15051| archive-url=https://archive.today/20130128162239/http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15051| url-status=dead| archive-date=2013-01-28| title=GameFest 2008: Introduction to the Direct3D 11 Graphics Pipeline| at=Slide 56| publisher=Microsoft}}</ref><ref name="D3D11_downlevel">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476872|title=Direct3D 11 on Downlevel Hardware|access-date=2012-11-18 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref> Feature levels allow developers to unify the rendering pipeline under Direct3D 11 API and make use of API improvements such as better resource management and multithreading even on entry-level cards, though advanced features such as new shader models and rendering stages will only be exposed on up-level hardware.<ref name="GF08_D3D11downlevel"/><ref name="D3D11DDI">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff569862 |title=Windows Driver Kit – Supporting Direct3D 11|publisher=MSDN|access-date=2009-06-13}}</ref> There are three "10 Level 9" profiles which encapsulate various capabilities of popular DirectX 9.0a cards, and Direct3D 10, 10.1, and 11 each have a separate feature level; each upper level is a strict superset of a lower level.<ref name="FeatureLevels">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476876|title=Direct3D feature levels|publisher=MSDN|access-date=2012-07-02}}</ref>

[[Tessellation (computer graphics)|Tessellation]] was earlier considered for Direct3D 10, but was later abandoned. GPUs such as [[Radeon R600]] feature a tessellation engine that can be used with Direct3D 9/10/10.1<ref name="dx9tessellation">{{cite web | url = https://null-ptr.blogspot.com/2008/07/using-ati-hardware-tesselation-in-dx9.html | date = 2008-07-14 | title = Using ATI hardware tessellation in DX9}}</ref><ref name="dx9-10-10.1tessellationSDK">{{cite web | url = http://developer.amd.com/gpu/radeon/Tessellation/Pages/default.aspx | title = AMD DX9 Tessellation SDK | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101108055325/http://developer.amd.com/gpu/radeon/tessellation/pages/default.aspx | archive-date = 2010-11-08 }}</ref><ref name="dx9-10-10.1realtimetesselation">{{cite web | url = http://developer.amd.com/gpu_assets/Real-Time_Tessellation_on_GPU.pdf | title = Programming for Real-Time Tessellation on GPU | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110727235724/http://developer.amd.com/gpu_assets/Real-Time_Tessellation_on_GPU.pdf | archive-date = 2011-07-27 }}</ref> and OpenGL,<ref name="ogltesselation">{{cite web | url = http://developer.amd.com/gpu/wgsdk/Pages/default.aspx | title = OpenGL Tessellation Samples | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100409071830/http://developer.amd.com/GPU/WGSDK/Pages/default.aspx | archive-date = 2010-04-09 }}</ref> but it's not compatible with Direct3D 11 (according to Microsoft). Older graphics hardware such as Radeon 8xxx, GeForce 3/4 had support for another form of tesselation (RT patches, N patches) but those technologies never saw substantial use. As such, their support was dropped from newer hardware.

Microsoft has also hinted at other features such as [[order independent transparency]], which was never exposed by the Direct3D API but supported almost transparently by early Direct3D hardware such as Videologic's [[PowerVR]] line of chips.

===Direct3D 11.0===
{{Redirect|DX11|the digital synthesizer|Yamaha DX11}}

'''Direct3D 11.0''' features include: Support for Shader Model 5.0, Dynamic shader linking, addressable resources, additional resource types,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476335(v=vs.85).aspx#Read_Write|title=New Resource Types|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> subroutines, geometry instancing, coverage as pixel shader input, 
programmable interpolation of inputs, new texture compression formats (1 new LDR format and 1 new HDR format), texture clamps to limit WDDM preload, require 8-bits of subtexel and sub-mip precision on texture filtering, 16K texture limits, Gather4(support for multi-component textures, support for programmable offsets), DrawIndirect, conservative oDepth, Depth Bias,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc308048(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Depth Bias|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404489(v=vs.85).aspx|title=D3D11_RASTERIZER_DESC1 structure|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> addressable stream output, per-resource mipmap clamping, floating-point viewports, shader conversion instructions, improved multithreading.
* Shader Model 5<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff471356(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Shader Model 5|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>
* Support for '''[[Tessellation (computer graphics)|Tessellation]]'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476340(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Tessellation Overview|date=September 16, 2020 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> and Tessellation Shaders<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476340(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Tessellation Overview|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> to increase at runtime the number of visible polygons from a low detail polygonal model
* '''[[Thread (computer science)|Multithreaded]] rendering''' — to render to the same Direct3D device object from different threads for multi core CPUs
* '''[[GPGPU|Compute shaders]]''' — which exposes the shader pipeline for non-graphical tasks such as [[stream processing]] and physics acceleration, similar in spirit to what [[OpenCL]], Nvidia [[CUDA]], [[ATI Stream]], and [[High Level Shader Language|HLSL]] [[Shader]] Model 5 achieve among others.<ref name="gamefest2008"/><ref name="nvision08"/>
* Mandatory support for 4x MSAA for all render targets and 8x MSAA for all render target formats except R32G32B32A32 formats.<ref name="msdn.microsoft.com"/>

Other notable features are the addition of two new texture compression algorithms for more efficient packing of high quality and HDR/alpha textures and an increased [[texture cache]].

First seen in the [[Release Candidate]] version, [[Windows 7]] integrates the first released Direct3D 11 support. The [[Windows Vista#Platform Update|Platform Update]] for [[Windows Vista]] includes full-featured Direct3D 11 runtime and DXGI 1.1 update, as well as other related components from Windows 7 like [[Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform|WARP]], [[Direct2D]], [[DirectWrite]], and [[Windows Imaging Component|WIC]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971644 |title=Description of the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and the Platform Update for Windows Vista |publisher=Support.microsoft.com |date=2012-10-02 |access-date=2013-06-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.msdn.com/directx/archive/2009/09/10/windows-7-transition-pack-for-windows-vista.aspx |title=The Platform Update for Windows Vista – DirectX Developer Blog – Site Home – MSDN Blogs |publisher=Blogs.msdn.com |date=2009-09-10 |access-date=2013-06-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408062133/http://blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2009/09/10/windows-7-transition-pack-for-windows-vista.aspx |archive-date=2014-04-08 }}</ref>

===Direct3D 11.1===
'''Direct3D 11.1'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404562(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Direct3D 11.1 Features|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404457(v=vs.85).aspx|title=D3D11_FEATURE_DATA_D3D11_OPTIONS structure|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> is an update to the API that ships with [[Windows 8]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn653328(v=vs.85).aspx#tir|title=DirectX feature improvements in Windows 8|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="D3D11.1_Features">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404562 |title=Direct3D 11.1 Features|access-date=2009-09-13 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref> The Direct3D runtime in Windows 8 features [[DirectX Graphics Infrastructure|DXGI]] 1.2<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404490(v=vs.85).aspx|title=DXGI 1.2 Improvements|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> and requires new [[Windows Display Driver Model|WDDM 1.2]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn653373(v=vs.85).aspx|title=WDDM 1.2 features|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> device drivers.<ref name=wddm_w8>{{cite web| url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/br259098 |title=Windows Display Driver Model Enhancements in Windows Developer Preview|date=2011-09-13| publisher=MSDN}}</ref> Preliminary version of the Windows SDK for Windows 8 Developer Preview was released on September 13, 2011.

The new API features shader [[Tracing (software)|tracing]] and HLSL compiler enhancements, support for minimum precision HLSL scalar data types,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb509646(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Scalar Types|access-date=2 October 2014}}</ref> UAVs (Unordered Access Views) at every pipeline stage, target-independent rasterization (TIR), option to map SRVs of dynamic buffers with NO_OVERWRITE, shader processing of video resources, option to use logical operations in a render target, option to bind a subrange of a constant buffer to a shader and retrieve it, option to create larger constant buffers than a shader can access, option to discard resources and resource views, option to change subresources with new copy options, option to force the sample count to create a rasterizer state, option to clear all or part of a resource view, option to use Direct3D in Session 0 processes, option to specify user clip planes in HLSL on feature level 9 and higher, support for [[shadow buffer]] on feature level 9, support for video playback, extended support for shared Texture2D resources, and on-the-fly swapping between Direct3D 10 and 11 contexts and feature levels. Direct3D 11.1 includes new feature level 11_1, which brings minor updates to the shader language, such as larger constant buffers and optional double-precision instructions, as well as improved blending modes and mandatory support for 16-bit color formats to improve the performance of entry-level GPUs such as [[Intel HD Graphics]].<ref name=wddm_w8/><ref name="intelDX11.1">{{cite web| url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/4585/intels-haswell-igp-to-feature-directx-111-increased-professional-application-support | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110913170852/http://www.anandtech.com/show/4585/intels-haswell-igp-to-feature-directx-111-increased-professional-application-support | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 13, 2011 |title=Intel's Haswell IGP to Feature DirectX 11.1, Increased Professional Application Support|date=2011-08-05|publisher=AnandTech}}</ref> WARP has been updated to support feature level 11_1.

The [[Windows 7#Platform Update|Platform Update]] for [[Windows 7]] includes a limited set of features from Direct3D 11.1, though components that depend on WDDM 1.2 – such as [[#Feature levels|feature level]] 11_1 and its related APIs, or [[quad buffering]] for [[stereoscopic]] rendering – are not present.<ref name=W7PU_MSDN>{{cite web | url = http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj863687.aspx| title = DirectX Graphics – Platform Update for Windows 7 |date=2012-11-14| publisher=MSDN}}</ref><ref name=D3D11.1W7>{{cite web | url = http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chuckw/archive/2012/11/14/directx-11-1-and-windows-7.aspx| title = DirectX 11.1 and Windows 7 | work = Games for Windows and the DirectX SDK Blog | date = November 13, 2012}}</ref>

===Direct3D 11.2===
'''Direct3D 11.2'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182880.aspx|title=DirectX programming|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031094305/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182880.aspx|archive-date=31 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn312084(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Direct3D 11.2 Features|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn280377(v=vs.85).aspx|title=D3D11_FEATURE_DATA_D3D11_OPTIONS1 structure|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> was shipped with [[Windows 8.1]].<ref name=DXSDK8.1>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182880|work=MSDN Library|title=Windows 8.1 Feature Guide – DirectX programming|date=June 26, 2013|access-date=June 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150827064512/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182880|archive-date=August 27, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=D3D11.2W8.1>{{cite web|url=http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/3-062|author=Bennett Sorbo|title=What's New in Direct3D 11.2|work =Channel9 – [[Build (developer conference)|BUILD]] 2013| date=June 26, 2013}}</ref> New hardware features require DXGI 1.3<ref name=MSDN_DXGI1.3>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn280344 |title=DXGI 1.3 Improvements|work=MSDN Library|date=June 26, 2013}}</ref> with WDDM 1.3<ref name=wddm1.3>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn265512|title=What's new for Windows 8.1 Preview display drivers (WDDM 1.3)|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> drivers and include runtime shader modification and linking, Function linking graph(FLG), inbox [[HLSL]] compiler, option to annotate graphics commands.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182880.aspx |title=Content Moved (Windows) |access-date=2015-03-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115537/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/bg182880.aspx |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Feature levels 11_0 and 11_1 introduce optional support for tiled resources with shader level of detail clamp (Tier2).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn280435(v=vs.85).aspx|title=D3D11_TILED_RESOURCES_TIER enumeration|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> The latter feature effectively provides control over the hardware [[page table]]s present in many current GPUs.<ref name="build2013_D3Dtile">{{cite web|url = http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013/4-063|title = Massive Virtual Textures for Games: Direct3D Tiled Resources|work = Channel9 – [[Build (developer conference)|BUILD]] 2013|date = June 26, 2013|author = Charles Hollemeersch, Matt Sandy}}</ref> [[Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform|WARP]] was updated to fully support the new features.<ref name="DXSDK8.1" /><ref name="MDSN_D3D11.2features">{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn312084|title=Direct3D 11.2 Features|work=MSDN Library|date=June 26, 2013}}</ref> There is no feature level 11_2 however; the new features are dispersed across existing feature levels. Those that are hardware-dependent can be checked individually via <code>CheckFeatureSupport</code>.<ref name=D3D11.2W8.1/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chuckw/archive/2013/07/01/where-is-the-directx-sdk-2013-edition.aspx|title=MSDN Blogs|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> Some of the "new" features in Direct3D 11.2 actually expose some old hardware features in a more granular way; for example <code>D3D11_FEATURE_D3D9_SIMPLE_INSTANCING_SUPPORT</code> exposes partial support for instancing on feature level 9_1 and 9_2 hardware, otherwise fully supported from feature level 9_3 onward.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn280414(v=vs.85).aspx|title=D3D11_FEATURE_DATA_D3D9_SIMPLE_INSTANCING_SUPPORT structure|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

'''Direct3D 11.X'''

[[Direct3D 11.X]] is a superset of DirectX 11.2 running on the [[Xbox One]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2013/10/14/raising-the-bar-with-direct3d/|title=Raising the Bar with Direct3D|work=Building Apps for Windows|date=October 14, 2013|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://semiaccurate.com/2013/10/16/microsoft-rejects-mantle/|title=Microsoft officially turns down Mantle|date=October 16, 2013|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> It includes some features, such as draw bundles, that were later announced as part of DirectX 12.<ref name="channel9.msdn.com">Chris Tector's segment of http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/DirectX-Developer-Blog/DirectX-Evolving-Microsoft-s-Graphics-Platform (starting approx. 18 minute in.)</ref>

===Direct3D 11.3===
'''Direct3D 11.3'''<ref name="ReferenceD">{{cite web | url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn903943(v=vs.85).aspx | title=Rendering (Direct3D 12 Graphics) - Win32 apps | date=December 30, 2021 }}</ref> shipped in July 2015 with Windows 10; it includes minor rendering features from Direct3D 12, while keeping the overall structure of the Direct3D 11.x API.<ref name="anandtech.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/8544|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140920010710/http://www.anandtech.com/show/8544|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 20, 2014|title=AnandTech – Microsoft Details Direct3D 11.3 & 12 New Rendering Features|author=Ryan Smith|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/8526/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-review/4|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140920005900/http://www.anandtech.com/show/8526/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-review/4|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 20, 2014|title=AnandTech – The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Review: Maxwell Mark 2|author=Ryan Smith|access-date=30 September 2014|quote = First and foremost among Maxwell 2's new features is the inclusion of full Direct3D 11.2/11.3 compatibility.}}</ref><ref name="redgamingtech.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.redgamingtech.com/directx-11-3-new-features-outline-tiled-resources-typed-uav-loads/|title=DirectX 11.3 New Features Outline – Tiled Resources – Typed UAV Loads|date=September 19, 2014|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> Direct3D 11.3 introduces optional Shader Specified Stencil Reference Value, Typed Unordered Access View Loads, Rasterizer Ordered Views (ROVs), optional Standard Swizzle, optional Default Texture Mapping, Conservative Rasterization (out of three tiers),<ref name="MSDN_CR_TIER">{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn859364.aspx|title=D3D11_CONSERVATIVE_RASTERIZATION_TIER enumeration|date=22 February 2015|work=MSDN library|access-date=22 February 2015}}</ref> optional [[Uniform memory access|Unified Memory Access (UMA)]] support, and additional Tiled Resources (tier 2) (Volume tiled resources).<ref name="D3D11.3_MSDN">{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn914596(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Direct3D 11.3 Features|date=28 March 2015|work=MSDN library|access-date=28 March 2015}}</ref>

===Direct3D 11.4===
* '''Direct3D 11.4 version 1511''' – Initial Direct3D 11.4 was introduced with Windows 10 Threshold 2 update (version 1511) improving external graphics adapters support and DXGI 1.5.<ref name="Windows 10 SDK (November 2015)">{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/chuckw/2015/11/30/windows-10-sdk-november-2015/|title = Games for Windows and the DirectX SDK blog}}</ref>
* '''Direct3D 11.4 version 1607''' – Updated Direct3D 11.4 with Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607) includes support WDDM 2.1 and for UHDTV HDR10 format ([[SMPTE ST 2084|ST 2084]]) and variable refresh rates support for UWP applications.

==Direct3D 12==
{{see also|DirectX Raytracing}}
'''Direct3D 12'''<ref name="anand12">{{cite web |url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/7889/microsoft-announces-directx-12-low-level-graphics-programming-comes-to-directx/2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327014604/http://www.anandtech.com/show/7889/microsoft-announces-directx-12-low-level-graphics-programming-comes-to-directx/2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 27, 2014 |title=AnandTech – Microsoft Announces DirectX 12: Low-Level Graphics Programming Comes To DirectX |author=Ryan Smith |access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> allows a lower level of hardware abstraction than earlier versions, enabling future applications to significantly improve multithreaded scaling and decrease CPU utilization. This is achieved by better matching the Direct3D abstraction layer with the underlying hardware, through new features such as Indirect Drawing, descriptor tables, concise pipeline state objects, and draw call bundles. Reducing driver overhead is the main attraction of Direct3D 12, similarly to AMD's [[Mantle (API)|Mantle]].<ref name="anand12"/> In the words of its lead developer Max McMullen, the main goal of Direct3D 12 is to achieve "console-level efficiency" and improved CPU parallelism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/overview.html|title=Intel Developer Zone|website=Intel|accessdate=December 21, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2014/07/17/direct3d-overview-part-1-closer-to-the-metal |title=Direct3D 12 Overview Part 1: 'Closer To The Metal' |access-date=2 October 2014}}</ref><ref>first two minutes of https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2014/3-564</ref>

Although Nvidia has announced broad support for Direct3D 12, they were also somewhat reserved about the universal appeal of the new API, noting that while game engine developers may be enthusiastic about directly managing GPU resources from their application code, "a lot of [other] folks wouldn't" be happy to have to do that.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://techreport.com/review/26239/a-closer-look-at-directx-12/3 |title=A closer look at DirectX 12 – The Tech Report – Page 3 |date=March 31, 2014 |access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

Some new hardware features are also in Direct3D 12,<ref name="redgamingtech.com"/><ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite web |url=http://www.anandtech.com/show/8544/microsoft-details-direct3d-113-12-new-features |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140921000530/http://www.anandtech.com/show/8544/microsoft-details-direct3d-113-12-new-features |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 21, 2014 |title=AnandTech – Microsoft Details Direct3D 11.3 & 12 New Rendering Features |author=Ryan Smith |access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/823/8237367/2484602-pixel+ordered+uav.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-09-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430181827/http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/823/8237367/2484602-pixel+ordered+uav.jpg |archive-date=2018-04-30 |url-status=dead}}</ref> including Shader Model 5.1,<ref name="ReferenceE">{{cite web | url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn933277(v=vs.85).aspx | title=Shader Model 5.1 - Win32 apps | date=November 20, 2019 }}</ref> Volume Tiled Resources(Tier 2),<ref name="ReferenceE"/> Shader Specified Stencil Reference Value, Typed UAV Load, Conservative Rasterization(Tier 1), better collision and culling with Conservative Rasterization, Rasterizer Ordered Views (ROVs), Standard Swizzles, Default Texture Mapping, Swap Chains, [[swizzled textures|swizzled resources]] and [[compressed textures|compressed resources]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/2110085/next-gen-directx-12-graphics-tech-revealed-hitting-microsoft-platforms-in-2015.html |title=Meet the future of PC graphics: Microsoft reveals faster, console-like DirectX 12 |date=20 March 2014 |work=PCWorld |access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> additional [[blend mode]]s,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://techreport.com/news/26210/directx-12-will-also-add-new-features-for-next-gen-gpus|title=DirectX 12 will also add new features for next-gen GPUs|date=March 21, 2014|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref> programmable blend and efficient [[order-independent transparency]] (OIT) with pixel ordered UAV.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kowaliski |first=Cyril |date=March 21, 2014 |title=DirectX 12 will also add new features for next-gen GPUs |url=http://techreport.com/news/26210/directx-12-will-also-add-new-features-for-next-gen-gpus |newspaper=The Tech Report |access-date=April 1, 2014}}</ref>

Pipeline state objects (PSOs)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/library.html|title=Technical Library|website=Intel|accessdate=December 21, 2022}}</ref> have evolved from Direct3D 11, and the new concise pipeline states mean that the process has been simplified. DirectX 11 offered flexibility in how its states could be altered, to the detriment of performance. Simplifying the process and unifying the pipelines (e.g. pixel shader states) lead to a more streamlined process, significantly reducing the overheads and allowing the graphics card to draw more calls for each frame. Once created, the PSO is immutable.<ref>{{Cite web |last=stevewhims |date=2021-12-30 |title=Pipelines and Shaders with Direct3D 12 - Win32 apps |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/pipelines-and-shaders-with-directx-12 |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=learn.microsoft.com |language=en-us}}</ref>

Root signatures introduce configurations to link command lists to resources required by shaders. They define the layout of resources that shaders will use and specifies what resources will be bound to the pipeline. A graphics command list has both a graphics and compute root signature, while a compute command list will have only a compute root signature. These root signatures are completely independent of each other. While the root signature lays out the types of data for shaders to use, it does not define or map the actual memory or data.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=stevewhims |date=2023-02-06 |title=Root Signatures Overview - Win32 apps |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/root-signatures-overview |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=learn.microsoft.com |language=en-us}}</ref>

Root parameters are one type of entry in a root signature. The actual values of the root parameters that are modified at runtime are called root arguments. This is the data that the shaders read.<ref name=":3" />

Within Direct3D 11, the commands are sent from the CPU to the GPU one by one, and the GPU works through these commands sequentially. This means that commands are bottlenecked by the speed at which the CPU could send these commands in a linear fashion. Within DirectX 12 these commands are sent as command lists, containing all the required information within a single package. The GPU is then capable of computing and executing this command in one single process, without having to wait on any additional information from the CPU.

Within these command lists are bundles. Where previously commands were just taken, used, and then forgotten by the GPU, bundles can be reused. This decreases the workload of the GPU and means repeated assets can be used much faster.

While resource binding is fairly convenient in Direct3D 11 for developers at the moment, its inefficiency means several modern hardware capabilities are being drastically underused. When a game engine needed resources in DX11, it had to draw the data from scratch every time, meaning repeat processes and unnecessary uses. In Direct3D 12, descriptor heaps and tables mean the most often used resources can be allocated by developers in tables, which the GPU can quickly and easily access. This can contribute to better performance than Direct3D 11 on equivalent hardware, but it also entails more work for the developer.

Dynamic Heaps are also a feature of Direct3D 12.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2014/08/27/direct3d-12-overview-part-7-dynamic-heaps |title=Direct3D 12 Overview Part 7: Dynamic Heaps |access-date=2 October 2014}}</ref>

Direct3D 12 features explicit multi-adapter support, allowing the explicit control of multiple GPUs (mGPU) configuration systems. Such configurations can be built with graphics adapter of the same hardware vendor as well of different hardware vendor together.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn933253(v=vs.85).aspx |title=Multi-Adapter |access-date=August 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914035639/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dn933253(v=vs.85).aspx |archive-date=September 14, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

An experimental support of D3D 12 for Windows 7 SP1 has been released by Microsoft in 2019 via a dedicated NuGet package.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aka.ms/d3d12on7|title = Porting DirectX 12 games to Windows 7|date = August 21, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://microsoft.github.io/DirectX-Specs/d3d/D3D12onWin7.html|title = DirectX-Specs}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Direct3D.D3D12On7|title = Microsoft.Direct3D.D3D12On7 1.1.0}}</ref>

* '''Direct3D 12 version 1607''' – With the Windows 10 anniversary update (version 1607), released on August 2, 2016, the Direct3D 12 runtime has been updated to support constructs for explicit multithreading and inter-process communication, allowing developers to take advantage of modern massively parallel GPUs.<ref>[https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt733232(v=vs.85).aspx HLSL Shader Model 6.0]</ref> Other features include updated root signatures version 1.1, as well as support for [[HDR10]] format and [[variable refresh rate]]s.
* '''Direct3D 12 version 1703''' – With the Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703), released on April 11, 2017, the Direct3D 12 runtime has been updated to support Shader Model 6.0 and [[DirectX Intermediate Language|DXIL]]. and Shader Model 6.0 requires Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607), WDDM 2.1. New graphical features are Depth Bounds Testing and Programmable MSAA.<ref name=":0" />
* '''Direct3D 12 version 1709''' – Direct3D in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709), released on October 17, 2017, includes improved debugging.<ref name=":0" />
* '''Direct3D 12 version 1809''' – Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) brings support for [[DirectX Raytracing]] so GPUs can benefit from its API.
* '''Direct3D 12 version 1903''' – Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903) brings support for DirectML and [[Neural Processing Unit|NPU]]s.<ref name="directml" /><ref name="directml2" /> DirectML can support both [[compute shader]]s and [[tensor shader]]s.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}
* '''Direct3D 12 version 2004''' – Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004) brings support for [[DirectX 12 Ultimate]], Mesh & Amplification Shaders,<ref name=":1" /> Sampler Feedback,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/coming-to-directx-12-sampler-feedback-some-useful-once-hidden-data-unlocked/|title=Coming to DirectX 12— Sampler Feedback: some useful once-hidden data, unlocked |work=DirectX Developer Blog|access-date=2019-11-04|language=en-US}}</ref> as well DirectX Raytracing Tier 1.1<ref>{{cite news |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/dxr-1-1/ |title=DirectX Raytracing (DXR) Tier 1.1 |work=DirectX Developer Blog |access-date=2019-11-06 |language=en-US}}</ref> and memory allocation improvements.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/coming-to-directx-12-more-control-over-memory-allocation/ |title=Coming to DirectX 12: More control over memory allocation |work=DirectX Developer Blog |access-date=2019-11-11 |language=en-US}}</ref>
* '''Direct3D 12 version 21H2''' – Windows 10 version 21H2 and Windows 11 version 21H2 brings support for [[DirectStorage]].

==Architecture==
{{Update|section|date=August 2014}}
[[Image:D3D Abs.svg|thumb|right|190px|Abstract Layer]]
Direct3D is a Microsoft [[DirectX]] API subsystem component. The aim of Direct3D is to abstract the communication between a graphics application and the graphics hardware drivers. It is presented like a thin abstract layer at a level comparable to [[Graphics Device Interface|GDI]] (see attached diagram). Direct3D contains numerous features that GDI lacks.

Direct3D is an ''Immediate mode'' graphics API. It provides a low-level interface to every video card 3D function (''[[transform, clipping, and lighting|transformations, clipping, lighting]]'', ''materials'', ''textures'', ''[[Z-buffering|depth buffering]]'' and so on). It once had a higher level ''Retained mode'' component, now officially discontinued.

Direct3D immediate mode presents three main abstractions: ''devices'', ''resources'' and ''[[Swap Chain]]s'' (see attached diagram). ''Devices'' are responsible for rendering the 3D scene. They provide an interface with different rendering capabilities. For example, the [[monochrome|mono]] device provides white and black rendering, while the [[RGB color model|RGB]] device renders in color. There are four types of devices:

* '''HAL''' ([[hardware abstraction layer]]) device: For devices supporting hardware acceleration.
[[Image:D3DDevice.svg|thumb|right|190px|Device]]
* '''Reference''' device: Simulates new functions not yet available in hardware. It is necessary to install the Direct3D [[Software development kit|SDK]] to use this device type.
* '''Null reference''' device: Does nothing. This device is used when the SDK is not installed and a reference device is requested.
* '''Pluggable software''' device: Performs software rendering. This device was introduced with '''DirectX 9.0'''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=1839 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120904042640/http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=1839 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-09-04 |title=Software Rasterizer for DirectX 9.0 SDK |date=2005-08-01 |publisher=Microsoft }}</ref>

Every device contains at least one ''swap chain''. A ''swap chain'' is made up of one or more back [[Buffer (computer science)|buffer]] surfaces. Rendering occurs in the [[Double buffering|back buffer]].

Moreover, devices contain a collection of ''resources''; specific data used during rendering. Each resource has four attributes:

* '''Type''': Determines the type of resource: surface, volume, texture, cube texture, volume texture, surface texture, index buffer or vertex buffer.
* '''[[Memory pool|Pool]]''':<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/d3d_resources.html#MemoryPool |title=Direct3D Resources – Memory pool |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509150221/http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/d3d_resources.html#MemoryPool |archive-date=2008-05-09 }}</ref> Describes how the resource is managed by the runtime and where it is stored. In the '''Default''' pool the resource will exist only in device memory. Resources in the '''managed''' pool will be stored in system memory, and will be sent to the device when required. Resources in '''system memory''' pool will only exist in system memory. Finally, the '''scratch''' pool is basically the same as the system memory pool, but resources are not bound by hardware restrictions.
* '''Format''': Describes the layout of the resource data in memory. For example, ''D3DFMT_R8G8B8'' format value means a 24 bits [[color depth]] (8 bits for red, 8 bits for green and 8 bits for blue).
* '''Usage''': Describes, with a collection of [[Flag (computing)|flag]] bits, how the resource will be used by the application. These flags dictate which resources are used in dynamic or static access patterns. Static resource values don't change after being loaded, whereas dynamic resource values may be modified.

Direct3D implements two display modes:

* Fullscreen mode: The Direct3D application generates all of the graphical output for a display device. In this mode Direct3D automatically captures Alt-Tab and sets/restores screen resolution and pixel format without the programmer intervention. This also provides plenty of problems for debugging due to the 'Exclusive Cooperative Mode'.{{Citation needed|date=February 2011}}
* Windowed mode: The result is shown inside the area of a window. Direct3D communicates with [[Graphics Device Interface|GDI]] to generate the graphical output in the display. Windowed mode can have the same level of performance as full-screen, depending on driver support.

==Pipeline==
[[File:D3D11 Pipeline.svg|thumb|right|Direct3D 11 graphics pipeline process]]
The Microsoft Direct3D 11 API defines a process to convert a group of vertices, textures, buffers, and state into an image on the screen. This process is described as a rendering pipeline with several distinct stages. The different stages of the Direct3D 11 pipeline are:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/overviews-direct3d-11-graphics-pipeline |title=Graphics Pipeline |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref>

# '''Input-Assembler''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/d3d10-graphics-programming-guide-input-assembler-stage |title=Input-Assembler Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=November 4, 2020 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Reads in vertex data from an application supplied vertex buffer and feeds them down the pipeline.
# '''[[Vertex shader|Vertex Shader]]''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/vertex-shader-stage |title=Vertex Shader Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Performs operations on a single vertex at a time, such as transformations, skinning, or lighting.
# '''[[Hull shader|Hull-Shader]]''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/direct3d-11-advanced-stages-tessellation |title=Tessellation Stages |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=September 16, 2020 |at=Hull-Shader Stage |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Performs operations on sets of patch control points, and generates additional data known as patch constants.
# '''Tessellator''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/direct3d-11-advanced-stages-tessellation |title=Tessellation Stages |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=September 16, 2020 |at=Tessellator Stage |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Subdivides geometry to create higher-order representations of the hull.
# '''[[Domain shader|Domain-Shader]]''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/direct3d-11-advanced-stages-tessellation |title=Tessellation Stages |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=September 16, 2020 |at=Domain-Shader Stage |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Performs operations on vertices output by the tessellation stage, in much the same way as a vertex shader.
# '''[[Geometry shader|Geometry Shader]]''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/geometry-shader-stage |title=Geometry Shader Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=May 24, 2021 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Processes entire primitives such as triangles, points, or lines. Given a primitive, this stage discards it, or generates one or more new primitives.
# '''Stream-Output''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/d3d10-graphics-programming-guide-output-stream-stage |title=Stream-Output Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=November 4, 2020 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Can write out the previous stage's results to memory. This is useful to recirculate data back into the pipeline.
# '''Rasterizer''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/desktop/bb322826(v=vs.85) |title=RenderStates |department=DirectX 9.0 for Managed Code |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=November 6, 2009 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/d3d10-graphics-programming-guide-rasterizer-stage |title=Rasterizer Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=November 4, 2020 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Converts primitives into pixels, feeding these pixels into the pixel shader. The Rasterizer may also perform other tasks such as clipping what is not visible, or interpolating vertex data into per-pixel data.
# '''[[Pixel shader|Pixel Shader]]''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/pixel-shader-stage |title=Pixel Shader Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=August 19, 2020 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Determines the final pixel color to be written to the render target and can also calculate a depth value to be written to the depth buffer.
# '''Output-Merger''':<ref>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/d3d10-graphics-programming-guide-output-merger-stage |title=Output-Merger Stage |department=Direct3D 11 Graphics |website=[[Microsoft Docs]] |date=May 24, 2021 |access-date=2021-10-19}}</ref> Merges various types of output data ([[pixel shader]] values, alpha blending, depth/stencil...) to build the final result.

The pipeline stages illustrated with a round box are fully programmable. The application provides a shader program that describes the exact operations to be completed for that stage. Many stages are optional and can be disabled altogether.
{{Clear}}

==Feature levels==
{{Main article|Feature levels in Direct3D}}
{{Anchor|Direct3D 9.3}}

In Direct3D 5 to 9, when new versions of the API introduced support for new hardware capabilities, most of them were optional – each graphics vendor maintained their own set of supported features in addition to the basic required functionality. Support for individual features had to be determined using "capability bits" or "caps", making cross-vendor graphics programming a complex task.

Direct3D 10 introduced a much simplified set of mandatory hardware requirements based on most popular Direct3D 9 capabilities which all supporting graphics cards had to adhere to, with only a few optional capabilities for supported texture formats and operations.

Direct3D 10.1 added a few new mandatory hardware requirements, and to remain compatible with 10.0 hardware and drivers, these features were encapsulated in two sets called "feature levels", with 10.1 level forming a superset of 10.0 level. As Direct3D 11.0, 11.1 and 12 added support for new hardware, new mandatory capabilities were further grouped in upper feature levels.<ref name=D3DFeatureLevels_chuckw/>

Direct3D 11 also introduced "10level9", a subset of the Direct3D 10 API with three feature levels encapsulating various Direct3D 9 cards with [[WDDM]] [[Device Driver Interface|drivers]], and Direct3D 11.1 re-introduced a few optional features for all levels,<ref name="CheckFeatureSupport">{{Cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh404562#check_support_of_new_direct3d_11.1_features_and_formats|title = Direct3D 11.1 Features - Win32 apps| date=August 19, 2020 }}</ref> which were expanded in Direct3D 11.2 and later versions.

This approach allows developers to unify the rendering pipeline and use a single version of the API on both newer and older hardware, taking advantage of performance and usability improvements in the newer runtime.<ref name="gamefest2008"/>

New feature levels are introduced with updated versions of the API and typically encapsulate:

* major mandatory features – (Direct3D 11.0, 12),
* a few minor features (Direct3D 10.1, 11.1), or
* a common set of previously optional features (Direct3D 11.0 "10 level 9").

Each upper level is a strict superset of a lower level, with only a few new or previously optional features that move to the core functionality on an upper level.<ref name="FeatureLevels"/> More advanced features in a major revision of the Direct3D API such as new shader models and rendering stages are only exposed on up-level hardware.<ref name="D3D11_downlevel"/><ref name="D3D11DDI"/>

Separate capabilities exist to indicate support for specific texture operations and resource formats; these are specified per each texture format using a combination of capability flags.<ref name="format_support">{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476134 |title=D3D11_FORMAT_SUPPORT enumeration |access-date=2015-06-16 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref><ref name="format_support2">{{cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476135 |title=D3D11_FORMAT_SUPPORT2 enumeration |access-date=2015-06-16 |publisher=MSDN}}</ref>

Feature levels use underscore as a delimiter (i.e. "12_1"), while API/runtime versions use dot (i.e. "Direct3D 11.4").

===Direct3D 11 levels===
In Direct3D 11.4 for Windows 10, there are nine feature levels provided by {{code|D3D_FEATURE_LEVEL}} structure; levels 9_1, 9_2 and 9_3 (collectively known as '''Direct3D 10 Level 9''') re-encapsulate various features of popular Direct3D 9 cards, levels 10_0, 10_1 refer to respective legacy versions of Direct3D 10,<ref name="D3D11_downlevel"/> 11_0 and 11_1 reflects the feature introduced with Direct3D 11 and Direct3D 11.1 APIs and runtimes, while levels 12_0 and 12_1 correspond the new feature levels introduced with the Direct3D 12 API.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
|+ Feature levels in Direct3D 11.4
|-
! Feature level !! Mandatory hardware features !! Optional features 
|-
| '''9_1'''
|Shader Model 2.0 ({{code|vs_2_0}}/{{code|ps_2_0}}), 2K textures, volume textures, event queries, BC1-3 (a.k.a. DXTn), a few other specific capabilities.
| rowspan="3" {{N/A}}
|-
| '''9_2'''
| Occlusion queries, floating-point formats (no blending), extended caps, all 9_1 features.
|-
| '''9_3'''
| {{code|vs_2_a}}/{{code|ps_2_x}} with instancing and additional shader caps, 4K textures, multiple render targets (4 MRTs), floating-point blending (limited), all 9_2 features.
|-
| '''10_0'''
| Shader Model 4.0, geometry shader, stream out, alpha-to-coverage, 8K textures, MSAA textures, 2-sided stencil, general render target views, texture arrays, BC4/BC5, full floating-point format support, all 9_3 features.
| rowspan="2"| Logical blend operations, DirectCompute (CS 4.0/4.1), extended pixel formats.<ref name="CheckFeatureSupport"/><br /> 
|-
| '''10_1'''
| Shader Model 4.1, cubemap arrays, extended MSAA, all 10_0 features.
|-
| '''11_0'''
| Shader Model 5.0/5.1, hull & domain shaders, DirectCompute (CS 5.0/5.1), 16K textures, BC6H/BC7, extended pixel formats, all 10_1 features.
|style="border-bottom-style:hidden"| UAV only rendering with force sample count, constant buffer offsetting and partial updates, double precision (64-bit) floating point operations, minimum floating-point precision (10- or [[16-bit computing|16-bit]]), min/max filtering.
|-
| '''11_1'''
| Logical blend operations, target-independent rasterization, UAVs at every pipeline stage with increased slot count, UAV only rendering with force sample count, constant buffer offsetting and partial updates, all 11_0 features.
|rowspan=3 style="border-top-style:hidden"| Tiled resources (four tiers), conservative rasterization (three tiers), stencil reference value from Pixel Shader, rasterizer ordered views, typed UAV loads for additional formats.
|-
| '''12_0''' 
| Tiled Resources Tier 2 (Texture2D), Typed UAV Loads (additional formats).
|-
| '''12_1'''
| Conservative Rasterization Tier 1, Rasterizer Ordered Views.
|}

===Direct3D 12 levels===
Direct3D 12 for Windows 10 requires graphics hardware conforming to feature levels 11_0 and 11_1 which support virtual memory address translations and requires WDDM 2.0 drivers. There are two new feature levels, 12_0 and 12_1, which include some new features exposed by Direct3D 12 that are optional on levels 11_0 and 11_1.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/hardware-support|title=Hardware Tiers - Win32 apps|website=learn.microsoft.com|date=December 30, 2021 |accessdate=December 21, 2022}}</ref> Some previously optional features are realigned as baseline on levels 11_0 and 11_1. Shader Model 6.0 has been released with Windows 10 Creators Update and requires Windows 10 Anniversary Update, WDDM 2.1 drivers.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%"
|+ Direct3D 12 feature levels
|-
! Level !!style="width:50%;"|Mandatory features !! Optional features 
|-
| rowspan="2"|'''11_0'''
| All mandatory 11_0 features from Direct3D 11, Shader Model 5.1, Resource binding Tier 1.
| rowspan="6"| Logical blend operations, double precision (64-bit) floating point operations, minimum floating point precision (10- or 16-bit).
Resource binding (three tiers), tiled resources (four tiers), conservative rasterization (three tiers), stencil reference value from Pixel Shader, rasterizer ordered views, typed UAV loads for additional formats, view instancing.

Shader Model 6.0–6.7

Metacommands, variable shading rate, raytracing, mesh shaders, sampler feedback.

Other optional features.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/d3d12/ne-d3d12-d3d12_feature|title = D3D12_FEATURE - Win32 apps| date=February 14, 2023 }}</ref>
|-
|style="border-bottom-style:hidden"| UAVs at every pipeline stage, UAV only rendering with force sample count, constant buffer offsetting and partial updates.
|-
| '''11_1'''
| style="border-top-style:hidden"| Logical blend operations, target-independent rasterization, increased UAV slot count.
|-
| '''12_0''' 
| Resource Binding Tier 2, Tiled Resources Tier 2 (Texture2D), Typed UAV Loads (additional formats), Shader Model 6.0.
|-
| '''12_1'''
| Conservative Rasterization Tier 1, Rasterizer Ordered Views.
|-
| '''12_2'''
| ''DirectX 12 Ultimate'': Shader Model 6.5, Raytracing Tier 1.1, Mesh Shaders, Variable-Rate Shading, Sampler Feedback, Resource Binding Tier 3, Tiled Resources Tier 3 (Texture3D), Conservative Rasterization Tier 3, 40-bit virtual address space.
|}

Direct3D 12 introduces a revamped resource binding model which allows explicit control of memory. Abstract "resource view" objects<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476900(v=vs.85).aspx|title = Introduction to a Resource in Direct3D 11 - Win32 apps| date=October 6, 2021 }}</ref> are now represented with resource descriptors, which are allocated using memory heaps and tables.<ref name="engel">{{cite web |url=https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/introduction-to-resource-binding-in-microsoft-directx-12 |author=[[Wolfgang Engel]] |title=Introduction to Resource Binding in Microsoft DirectX 12}}</ref> Resource Binding tiers define maximum number of resources that can be addressed using CBV (constant buffer view), SRV (shader resource view) and UAV (unordered access view), as well as texture sampler units. Tier 3 hardware allows fully bindless resources only restricted by the size of the descriptor heap, while Tier 1 and Tier 2 hardware impose some limits on the number of descriptors ("views") that can be used simultaneously.<ref>[https://intel.lanyonevents.com/sf14/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=1315 GVCS005 - Microsoft Direct3D 12: New API Details and Intel Optimizations] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404102336/https://intel.lanyonevents.com/sf14/connect/sessionDetail.ww?SESSION_ID=1315 |date=April 4, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=
"Build2015_McMullen">{{Cite web|url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/|title=Shows|website=learn.microsoft.com|accessdate=December 21, 2022}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%" 
|+ Resource binding tiers
|-
! Resource limits !! Tier 1 !! Tier 2 !! Tier 3
|-
| Descriptors in CBV/SRV/UAV heap ||1M||1M||'''>1M'''
|-
| CBVs per shader stage||14||14||'''full heap'''
|-
| SRVs per shader stage||128||colspan="2"| '''full heap'''
|-
| UAVs across all stages||8, 64<sup>†</sup> ||64||'''full heap'''
|-
| Samplers per shader stage||16||colspan="2"| '''full heap'''
|-
|colspan=4|<sup>†</sup> 64 slots on feature level 11_1 hardware
|}

==Multithreading==
WDDM driver model in Windows Vista and higher supports arbitrarily large number of execution contexts (or threads) in hardware or in software. Windows XP only supported multitasked access to Direct3D, where separate applications could execute in different windows and be hardware accelerated, and the OS had limited control about what the GPU could do and the driver could switch execution threads arbitrarily.

The ability to execute the runtime in a multi-threaded mode has been introduced with Direct3D 11 runtime. Each execution context is presented with a resource view of the GPU. Execution contexts are protected from each other, however a rogue or badly written app can take control of the execution in the user-mode driver and could potentially access data from another process within GPU memory by sending modified commands. Though protected from access by another app, a well-written app still needs to protect itself against failures and device loss caused by other applications.

The OS manages the threads all by itself, allowing the hardware to switch from one thread to the other when appropriate, and also handles memory management and paging (to system memory and to disk) via integrated OS-kernel memory management.

Finer-grained context switching, i.e. being able to switch two execution threads at the shader-instruction level instead of the single-command level or even batch of commands, was introduced in WDDM/DXGI 1.2 which shipped with Windows 8.<ref name=wddm_w8/> This overcomes a potential scheduling problem when application would have very long execution of a single command/batch of commands and will have to be terminated by the OS watchdog timer.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/wddm_timeout.mspx | title=Timeout detection and recovery (TDR) - Windows drivers | website=[[Microsoft]] }}</ref>

WDDM 2.0 and DirectX 12 have been reengineered to allow fully multithreaded draw calls. This was achieved by making all resources immutable (i.e. read-only), serializing the rendering states and using draw call bundles. This avoids complex resource management in the kernel-mode driver, making possible multiple reentrant calls to the user-mode driver via concurrent executions contexts supplied by separate rendering threads in the same application.

==Direct3D Mobile==
Direct3D Mobile is derived from Direct3D but has a smaller [[memory footprint]]. [[Windows CE]] provides Direct3D Mobile support.<ref>[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee491072.aspx Direct3D Mobile], Microsoft, 6 January 2010.</ref>

==Alternative implementations{{anchor|Wrappers}}==
The following alternative implementations of Direct3D API exist. They are useful for non-Windows platforms and for hardware without some versions of DX support:

* '''[[Wine (software)#Direct3D|WineD3D]]''' – The Wine open source project has working implementations of the Direct3D APIs via translation to [[OpenGL]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.winehq.org/announce/4.0|title=The Wine team is proud to announce that the stable release Wine 4.0|website=WineHQ|language=en|access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref> Wine's implementation can also be run on Windows under certain conditions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wiki.winehq.org/WineD3DOnWindows |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090117122345/http://wiki.winehq.org/WineD3DOnWindows |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-01-17 |title=WineD3DOnWindows – The Official Wine Wiki |publisher=Wiki.winehq.org |date=2013-06-02 |access-date=2013-06-15 }}</ref>
* '''vkd3d''' – vkd3d is an open source 3D graphics library built on top of Vulkan which allows to run Direct3D 12 applications on top of [[Vulkan (API)|Vulkan]].<ref>{{Citation|title=WineHQ - vkd3d|date=2019-04-03|url=https://source.winehq.org/git/vkd3d.git/|publisher=Direct3D 12|access-date=2020-06-30}}</ref> It's primarily used by the [[Wine (software)|Wine]] project,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.winehq.org/news/2018052301|title=Vkd3d 1.0 Released|website=WineHQ|language=en|access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref><ref name="3d12wine23">{{cite web |author1=Michael Larabel |title=Valve's Proton Offers Branch With VKD3D For Direct3D 12 Over Vulkan |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=VKD3D-Proton-Building |website=[[Phoronix.com|Phoronix]] |access-date=October 7, 2019 |date=August 23, 2019}}</ref> and is now included with Valve's Proton project bundled with Steam on Linux.
* '''[[DXVK]]''' – An open source [[Vulkan (API)|Vulkan]]-based translation layer for Direct3D 8/9/10/11 which allows running 3D applications on [[Linux]] using Wine.<ref name="forbes10vl6">{{cite web |author1=Jason Evangelho |title=Windows 10 Versus Linux: 6 Steam Games Benchmarked On Intel's Hades Canyon NUC |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/03/01/windows-10-versus-linux-6-steam-games-benchmarked-on-intels-hades-canyon-nuc/ |website=[[Forbes]] |access-date=October 7, 2019 |date=March 1, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Rebohle|first=Philip|title=Vulkan-based D3D11 and D3D10 implementation for Linux / Wine: doitsujin/dxvk|date=2019-04-03|url=https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk|access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref> It is used by [[Proton (Compatibility layer)|Proton]]/[[Steam (service)|Steam]]<ref>{{Citation|title=Compatibility tool for Steam Play based on Wine and additional components: ValveSoftware/Proton|date=2019-04-03|url=https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton|publisher=[[Valve Corporation|Valve]]|access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref> for Linux. DXVK is able to run a large number of modern Windows games under Linux.
** '''D9VK''' – An obsolete fork of DXVK for adding Direct3D 9 support,<ref>{{cite web |title=D9VK GitHub repository |url=https://github.com/Joshua-Ashton/d9vk |publisher=GitHub |access-date=6 October 2019}}</ref> included with Steam/Proton on Linux.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Michael Larabel |title=Proton Re-Based To Wine 4.11, Adds D9VK Direct3D 9, Better CPU Utilization & DXVK 1.3 |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Proton-4.11-Released |website=[[Phoronix.com|Phoronix]] |access-date=October 7, 2019 |date=July 30, 2019}}</ref> On December 16, 2019 D9VK was merged into DXVK.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/pull/1275|title=Implement Direct3D9 Frontend by Joshua-Ashton · Pull Request #1275 · doitsujin/dxvk|website=GitHub|language=en|access-date=2019-12-17}}</ref>
** '''D8VK''' – An obsolete fork of DXVK for adding Direct3D 8 support on Linux.<ref>{{cite web|title=D8VK GitHub repository |url=https://github.com/AlpyneDreams/d8vk |publisher=GitHub |access-date=2 February 2024}}</ref> It was merged with DXVK version 2.4 which was released on July 10, 2024.
* '''Gallium Nine''' – Gallium Nine makes it possible to run Direct3D 9 applications on Linux natively, i.e. without any calls translation which allows for a near native speed. It depends on Wine and [[Mesa (computer graphics)|Mesa]].<ref>{{Citation|title=Build Gallium Nine support on top of an existing WINE installation: iXit/wine-nine-standalone|date=2019-04-03|url=https://github.com/iXit/wine-nine-standalone|publisher=iXit Group|access-date=2019-04-03}}</ref><ref name="ubuntug918">{{cite web |author1=Joey Sneddon |title=Ubuntu 18.10 Adds Gallium Nine Support, Latest Mesa 18.2.2 |url=https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/10/gallium-nine-ubuntu-18-10 |website=OMG! Ubuntu! |access-date=October 7, 2019 |date=October 10, 2018}}</ref>

==Related tools==

===D3DX===
{{Main article|D3DX}}
Direct3D comes with D3DX, a library of tools designed to perform common mathematical calculations on [[Euclidean vector|vectors]], [[matrix (mathematics)|matrices]] and colors, calculating look-at and [[projection (mathematics)|projection]] matrices, [[spline interpolation]]s, and several more complicated tasks, such as compiling or assembling shaders used for 3D graphic programming, compressed [[skeletal animation]] storage and matrix stacks. There are several functions that provide complex operations over 3D [[mesh]]es like tangent-space computation, mesh simplification, [[precomputed radiance transfer]], optimizing for vertex cache friendliness and stripification, and generators for 3D text meshes. 2D features include classes for drawing screen-space lines, text and [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprite]] based [[particle system]]s. Spatial functions include various intersection routines, conversion from/to [[barycentric coordinates (mathematics)|barycentric coordinates]] and [[bounding box]]/sphere generators. D3DX is provided as a [[dynamic link library]] (DLL). D3DX is deprecated from Windows 8 onward and can't be used in Windows Store apps.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476162(v=vs.85).aspx|title=D3DX 11 Reference|publisher=MSDN|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>

Some features present in previous versions of D3DX were removed in Direct3D 11 and now provided as separate sources:<ref name=LivingWithoutD3DX>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chuckw/archive/2013/08/21/living-without-d3dx.aspx |title=Living without D3DX| publisher=MSDN}}</ref>

* Windows SDK and Visual Studio<ref>{{cite web|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb232919(v=vs.85).aspx|title=Effect-Compiler Tool|date=August 19, 2020 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref>
* A large part of the math library has been removed. Microsoft recommends use of the DirectX Math library instead.
* Spherical harmonics math has been removed and is now distributed as source.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chuckw/archive/2012/07/28/spherical-harmonics-math.aspx|title=Spherical Harmonics Math|work=msdn.com|access-date=23 November 2014}}</ref>
* The Effect framework has been removed and is now distributed as source via CodePlex.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fx11.codeplex.com/|title=Effects 11|work=CodePlex|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=September 24, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924100132/https://fx11.codeplex.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The Mesh interface and geometry functions have been removed and are now distributed as source via CodePlex under DirectXMesh geometry processing library.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://directxmesh.codeplex.com/|title=DirectXMesh geometry processing library|work=CodePlex|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=September 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140929072508/http://directxmesh.codeplex.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Texture functions have been removed and are now distributed as source via CodePlex under DirectXTex texture processing library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://directxtex.codeplex.com/|title=DirectXTex texture processing library|work=CodePlex|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=September 25, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140925083258/http://directxtex.codeplex.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* General helpers have been removed and are now distributed as source via CodePlex under DirectX Tool Kit (DirectXTK) project.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://directxtk.codeplex.com/|title=DirectX Tool Kit|work=CodePlex|access-date=30 September 2014|archive-date=September 29, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140929072523/http://directxtk.codeplex.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The isochart texture atlas has been removed and is now distributed as source via CodePlex under UVAtlas project.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uvatlas.codeplex.com/|title=UVAtrlas|work=CodePlex|access-date=23 November 2014|archive-date=June 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627044227/https://uvatlas.codeplex.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===DXUT===
DXUT (also called the sample framework) is a layer built on top of the Direct3D API. The framework is designed to help the programmer spend less time with mundane tasks, such as creating a window, creating a device, processing Windows messages and handling device events. DXUT have been removed with the Windows SDK 8.0 and now distributed as source via CodePlex.<ref name=DXUTWin32>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chuckw/archive/2013/09/14/dxut-for-win32-desktop-update.aspx |title=DXUT for Win32 Desktop Update| publisher=MSDN}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of rendering APIs#3D rendering APIs|List of 3D rendering APIs]]
* [[List of 3D graphics libraries]]
* [[High-Level Shader Language]]
* [[Shader]]
* [[DirectX]] – collection of APIs in which Direct3D is implemented
* [[DirectDraw]]
* [[3D computer graphics]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name=":0">{{cite news |url=https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/directx/2017/11/07/announcing-new-directx-12-features/ |title=Announcing new DirectX 12 features |work=DirectX Developer Blog |language=en-US |access-date=2018-02-24}}</ref>

<ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/coming-to-directx-12-mesh-shaders-and-amplification-shaders-reinventing-the-geometry-pipeline/ |title=Coming to DirectX 12— Mesh Shaders and Amplification Shaders: Reinventing the Geometry Pipeline |work=DirectX Developer Blog |language=en-US |access-date=2020-06-28}}</ref>

<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Claro |first=Nicole |date=April 1995 |title=Further Rendering |url=https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/GD_Mag_Archives/GDM_AprMay_1995.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126032759/https://ubm-twvideo01.s3.amazonaws.com/o1/vault/GD_Mag_Archives/GDM_AprMay_1995.pdf |archive-date=2021-01-26 |url-status=live |website=[[Game Developer Magazine]] |access-date=2022-08-21}}</ref>

<ref name="directml">{{cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d12/dml |title=Direct Machine Learning (DirectML) |publisher=Microsoft Docs |access-date=2020-06-28}}</ref>

<ref name="directml2">{{cite web |url=https://microsoft.github.io/DirectML/ |title=DirectML |publisher=Microsoft Docs}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
* [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d DirectX website]
* [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/win32/directx MSDN: DirectX Graphics and Gaming]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061202144304/http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/11/30/directx10_future_of_pc_gaming/1.html DirectX 10: The Future of PC Gaming], technical article discussing the new features of DirectX 10 and their impact on computer games

{{Microsoft APIs}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Direct3d, Microsoft}}
[[Category:1995 software]]
[[Category:3D graphics APIs]]
[[Category:DirectX|3d Microsoft Direct3D]]
[[Category:Graphics libraries]]