Direct3D 12 Programming Guide

Some information relates to pre-released product which may be substantially modified before it's commercially released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.]

Direct3D 12 provides an API and platform that allows apps to take advantage of the graphics and computing capabilities of PCs equipped with one or more Direct3D 12-compatible GPUs.

In this section

TopicDescription

What is Direct3D 12?

DirectX 12 introduces the next version of Direct3D, the 3D graphics API at the heart of DirectX. This version of Direct3D is faster and more efficient than any previous version. Direct3D 12 enables richer scenes, more objects, more complex effects, and full utilization of modern GPU hardware.

Understanding Direct3D 12

To write 3D games and apps for Windows 10 Insider Preview and Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview, you must understand the basics of the Direct3D 12 technology, and how to prepare to use it in your games and apps.

Work Submission in Direct3D 12

To improve the CPU efficiency of Direct3D apps, Direct3D 12 no longer supports an immediate context associated with a device. Instead, apps record and then submit command lists, which contain drawing and resource management calls. These command lists can be submitted from multiple threads to one or more command queues, which manage the execution of the commands. This fundamental change increases single-threaded efficiency by allowing apps to pre-compute rendering work for later re-use, and it takes advantage of multi-core systems by spreading rendering work across multiple threads.

Resource Binding in Direct3D 12

Binding is the process of linking resource objects to the graphics pipeline. The key to resource binding in DirectX 12 are the concepts of a descriptor, descriptor tables, descriptor heaps, and aroot signature.

Memory Management in Direct3D 12

In Direct3D 12, memory is largely managed by the app. Resources held in memory are managed inresource heaps.

Rendering

This section contains information about rendering features new to Direct3D 12 (and Direct3D 11.3).

Counters, Queries and Performance Measurement

The following sections describe features for use in performance testing and improvement, such as queries, counters, timing, and predication.

Direct3D 12 Interop

D3D12 can interop both with existing code written using other Windows graphics APIs, as well as with new code written using D3D12 which implements a portion of a graphics engine.