What's New in the February 2006 DirectX SDK
The following features have changed in the February 2006 DirectX SDK update:
Direct3D 10 Technology Preview
FXC10 D3D9 HLSL Shader Compilation
- The HLSL compiler included in this update to the Direct3D10 Tech Preview now targets downlevel shader models. Using FXC10.exe included in this SDK, you can try out the new compiler (with new language features such as Improved Flow Control Management) on Shader Model 3.0 and below. Keep in mind that only a subset of HLSL optimizations and new features are active in this release. Generated shaders will not be fully optimized.
New Direct3D 10 Samples and Tutorials
- A new sample illustrating object-space motion blur (MotionBlur10) has been added. No filter kernels are used: High-quality motion blur is achieved via fin extrusion in the Geometry Shader and accumulated in the frame buffer using Alpha-To-Coverage. Texture-space motion blur is achieved using anisotropic filtering.
- A new tutorial illustrating manipulation of Direct3D10 rendering state has been added. See Tutorial 14.
D3DX10
- A series of improvements have been made to the ID3DX10Sprite interface. Sprites now take advantage of additional Direct3D10 features (geometry shader, texture arrays) to achieve higher performance. See ID3DX10Sprite.
- The D3DX interfaces for multithreaded [asynchronous] resource loading and processing have been improved in this release. See ID3DX10ThreadPump and related pages.
Direct3D10 Debug Layer
- Additional pipeline and parameter validation has been added to the Direct3D10 Debug Layer.
For more information on the Direct3D10 February 2006 Technology Preview, see the Direct3D 10 documentation. For known limitations of this Technology Preview, refer to the Microsoft DirectX SDK ReadMe.
To access the Direct3D 10 documentation, click the Start Menu, choose All Programs, Microsoft DirectX SDK (February 2006), and select "Documentation for Direct3D 10". To access the ReadMe, click the Start Menu, choose All Programs, Microsoft DirectX SDK (February 2006), and select "Microsoft DirectX SDK ReadMe".
D3DX9
UVAtlas
- UVAtlas now supports texture parameterization for polygonal meshes. By providing a list of false edges to the UVAtlas APIs, meshes comprised of quads or N-sided polygons can be atlased. False edges will not be split during parameterization. See D3DXUVAtlasCreate, D3DXUVAtlasPartition.
- A new adjacency input parameter has been added to D3DXUVAtlasPack. This change was required to fix special cases where D3DXUVAtlasPack was classifying meshes incorrectly as non-manifold. The new adjacency output parameter from D3DXUVAtlasPartition will provide this adjacency information. See D3DXUVAtlasPartition, D3DXUVAtlasPack.
- A callback has been added to monitor progress of IMT computation. See D3DXComputeIMTFromSignal, D3DXComputeIMTFromTexture, D3DXComputeIMTFromPerVertexSignal.
- A new primitive ID parameter has been added to the app-specified-signal callback for IMT computation. This can be used to specify custom signals that vary over a mesh. See LPD3DXIMTSIGNALCALLBACK.
Microsoft Cross-Platform Audio Creation Tool (XACT)
XACT has been updated for February with new features, as well as improved performance.
For a more detailed list of engine updates and changes to the XACT authoring tool, see What's New In XACT.
Windows Vista Game Explorer (Beta)
The Windows Vista Game Explorer has been updated for February with new features:
- Applications can now take advantage of Rich Save Games in Windows Vista.
- The Game Definition File schema now includes a required manifest of the executables that a game installs or extracts.
To access the Game Explorer documentation, click the Start Menu, choose All Programs, Microsoft DirectX SDK (February 2006), and select "Documentation for Game Explorer".
Tools
PIX
PIX has been updated with these workflow improvements:
- PIX now supports single-frame capture and playback of Direct3D10 applications.
- PIX now supports the display of Direct3D10 texture resources, including the back buffer. Image data can be viewed with or without the alpha channel. See View Texture Data.
- CreateObject and DestroyObject events are now added to PIXRun files, to more clearly indicate when Direct3D objects are created and destroyed.
Note Direct3D 10 support is only available on Windows Vista
See Also
What's New in the October 2006 DirectX SDK
