The DirectDraw API has been more or less deprecated for game developers since the release of DirectX 9.0 SDK back in 2002. The last time we shipped samples or documentation on DirectDraw dates back to the DirectX 8.1 SDK . Game developers looking to do...

The Gamefest 2010 Conference US and UK content (presentations and audio where available) is now available on Microsoft downloads, and the website has been updated with a complete index of talks ( US UK ). All of the Project Natal material is of course...

The DirectX SDK (June 2010) release includes the fixes to the DDSWithoutD3DX and DDSWithoutD3DX11 samples I mentioned in earlier posts. The Programmer's Guide for DDS in the Windows DirectX Graphics documentation was also updated to reflect the latest...

Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4.0 (v7.1) is now available. It includes a free command-line version of the Visual C++ 2010 compiler including support for /analyze static code analysis. This release of the Windows SDK supports Windows 7,...

With the June 2010 DirectX SDK, one of our work items was to try out the various DirectX 11 samples against the NVIDIA DirectX 11 graphics parts (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 / 480 ) now that they are available. For the August 2009 and February 2010 releases...

The June 2010 release of the DirectX SDK is now available on Microsoft Downloads . This release introduces official support for Visual Studio 2010, an updated version of the HLSL compiler with numerous fixes and minor improvements, improved documentation...

For most of the early evolution of the HLSL language, the compiler was part of the D3DX utility library (aka D3DX9). This compiler supported Shader Models 1.x, 2.0, and 3.0 for Direct3D 9 vertex shaders and pixel shaders. For Direct3D 10, the graphics...

One of the new features for the PIX for Windows tool for the upcoming June 2010 DirectX SDK release is support for object naming. This is a long-standing feature of the Direct3D 10.x and Direct3D 11 SDK Debug Layers, but not a well advertised one. We...

The next release of the DirectX SDK is scheduled to ship to developers in early June 2010. This release will be the first update to the Windows Graphics components since the August 2009 release and will also introduce support for Visual Studio 2010. ...

Visual Studio 2010 launched today. The DirectX SDK team is very excited about this new version because amoung the many improvements and new technologies for this release (upgraded IDE, C++ 0x supprt, .NET Framework 4.0, Concurrency Runtime, etc.) there...

I'm off to San Francisco for this week's conference . Microsoft will be doing two tutorials days again this year, but unlike previous years it is a mixed track of Windows, Xbox 360, and other Microsoft game platforms including XNA Game Studio material...

There are many version numbers in Windows, and many different ways to obtain and use them. The plethora of ways to get versioning information, and the many different kinds of components involved, has typically resulted in lots of rope for developers to...

The DirectX SDK (February 2010) release is live on Microsoft downloads . See that page for full release notes. This release contains: Improvements to PIX particularly for Direct3D 11 support a minor update to XNAMath v2.02 including some notable...

For anyone doing work with DirectX, you've likely run into texture data being stored as a .DDS file. This format has it roots in the misty dark ages of DirectX history and in fact "DDS" stands for "DirectDraw Surface". The format is largely just a binary...

The DirectX SDK (August 2009) release was our "RTM" release for DirectX 11 and includes the final versions of headers, link libraries, deployment details, and samples for shipping DirectX 11 applications. The Direct3D 11 Deployment for Game Developers...

Gamefest has traditionally been held as a public event, but if you've tried registering for this year's conference you will notice that registration requires a username and password. Gamefest serves as the primary development conference for professional...

Over the past year or so, one of my projects has been the XNAMath library which shipped for the first time to Windows developers in the DirectX SDK (March 2008). XNAMath began life back in 2004 as "xboxmath" for the Xbox 360, and was originally developed...

After 5 years of focusing on game developer relations at Microsoft, I recently accepted a new position as the Lead Developer for the DirectX SDK . My work in the XNA Developer Connection group has included numerous contributions to the DirectX SDK over...