The DirectX API that deals with hardware accelerated 3D graphics is the Direc3D API (and the subject of this article) however there are several more API’s which make up the DirectX SDK. Vs_5_0, ps_5_0, gs_5_0, ds_5_0, hs_5_0, cs_5_0Īs previously mentioned, the DirectX SDK is actually a collection of programming API’s. The table below shows the various releases of DirectX and the corresponding shader model and shader profiles. On March 20, 2014, Microsoft will announce the release of DirectX 12 which will no doubt require me to rewrite this entire article. Tessellation shaders provide the functionality to progressively refine the detail of a mesh at run-time while the compute shaders provide a general-purpose compute language that is executed on the GPU instead of the CPU. Shader Model 5.0 extended the vertex, pixel, and geometry shaders of Shader Model 4.0 as well as introduce tessellation and compute shader profiles. Support for the effect files was subsequently dropped in later versions of the Direct3D API.ĭirectX 11 was released in October 2009 together with Shader Model 5.0. Shader Model 4.0 also introduced the Effect Framework which allowed the graphics programmer to create effect files (.fx) that combined vertex, pixel, and geometry shaders in a single file. Shader Model 4.0 extended the functionality of the vertex shader and the pixel shader as well as introduced a new shader profile called the geometry shader. In November 2006, DirectX 10 was released which introduced Shader Model 4.0. Shader Model 3.0 extended the existing vertex shader and pixel shader profiles increasing the number of instructions and allowing for more complex shaders. Pixel shaders provided the ability to create per-pixel lighting.ĭirectX 9.0c was released in August 2004 together with the introduction of Shader Model 3.0. Shader Model 2.0 introduced a new vertex shader profile as well as a pixel shader profile. Shader Model 1 featured a single shader profile for creating a very simple vertex shader and did not provide a shader profile for pixel shading.ĭirectX 9.0 was released in December 2002 and introduced Shader Model 2.0. DirectX 8 introduced the first versions of a programmable shading language with Shader Model 1. This meant that the implementation of the rendering algorithms were fixed in the graphics hardware. Prior to DirectX 8.0, the graphics programmer was restricted to a fixed-function rendering pipeline.
Subsequent major revisions saw a release on an annual schedule until DirectX 9 which wasn’t introduced until two years after DirectX 8. Through the period of 1995-1997, the DirectX library went through several version changes to reach version 5. The first version of DirectX was released in September 1995 shortly after the release of Windows 95 under the name Windows Game SDK. The developers at Microsoft realized that in order to facilitate access to these low-level devices, APIs needed to be developed to provide an abstract way to access these low-level hardware devices. In Windows 95, access to these low-level hardware devices was restricted. Prior to the release of Windows 95, application programmers had direct access to low-level hardware devices such as video, mouse, and keyboards. The components of the DirectX API provides low-level access to the hardware running on a Windows based Operating System. 6.1.4.2 Load a Precompiled Shader ObjectĭirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (API).4.10.6 Create a Rasterizer State Object.4.10.5 Create a Depth-Stencil State Object.Click on the Start button and select Settings (gear icon).For those of you who want to uninstall DirectX for one reason, here is how to go about it on Windows 10. While you can’t uninstall DirectX in the traditional sense, i.e., completely rid your system of the program, you can still roll back from a newer version to an older version that worked without a hitch.
It is important to note that uninstalling a certain problematic DirectX version can help fix some existing errors. While Windows 10 is backward-compatible with every DirectX version that came before it, the older Windows versions are only compatible with specific DirectX variants. In case you are wondering which version of DirectX is supported by your current Windows OS, this table should help clear the air.