What's New in the August 2005 DirectX SDK

The following features have changed in the August 2005 DirectX SDK update:

SDK Updates
Graphics Updates

SDK Updates

The following features have been updated in the SDK:

Performance Tools

Performance Tools

Enhancements to PIX include:

You can use the new object view to analyze properties of Direct3D objects in a PIXRun file.
You can view detailed properties of shader, vertex declaration, and state block objects.
You can use the new events toolbar to navigate by draw calls and events, or find specific calls or memory addresses within events.
You can use the previous draws brightness slider in the render window to analyze the results of individual draw calls.

The following graphics-related features have been updated in this release:

D3DX

Effects System: Use ID3DXEffect::SetRawValue to set a contiguous range of shader constants with a memory copy. For instance, you could set an array of twenty matrices with 20 calls to ID3DXBaseEffect::SetMatrix or by calling SetRawValue once.
ID3DXTextureGutterHelper::ResampleTex - Resamples a texture from one parameterization into another. This can be used in conjunction with the UVAtlas Functions to create a new, optimal texture atlas for a mesh and then resample the original texture into the new parameterization.
Sprite depth and texture sort - When submitting sprites for rendering, you may sort sprite drawing order by depth (D3DXSPRITE_SORT_DEPTH_FRONTTOBACK or D3DXSPRITE_SORT_DEPTH_BACKTOFRONT) and then by texture (D3DXSPRITE_SORT_TEXTURE). This is useful for rendering UI components as sprites (see D3DXSPRITE).
Skipping the highest mip levels during texture loading - You can now choose to skip the highest mip level(s) when loading a texture from file. This can be useful for adapting applications to low-memory situations, and can be specified in the extended texture creation API's (such as D3DXCreateTextureFromFileEx).
Using PRT with textures - Instead of representing transfer vectors at the vertices of a mesh, you could use PRT to represent transfer vectors in texture maps. This alternative has the same data cost but is independent of mesh complexity. See Representing PRT With Textures.

Samples and Tools

DirectX Viewer (dxviewer.exe) - This tool is designed for viewing any DXSAS compliant effect on geometry in an x file. See note 1.
IrradianceVolume Sample - This sample donated by ATI Technologies (www.ati.com) builds upon the PRTDemo Sample and adds preprocessing of the scene to allow a PRT object to use the local lighting environment as it moves through a scene.