14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has updated the collection of resources built with the Windows graphics technology at the core with a new set of downloads now available free of charge via the Download Center. Essentially, the Redmond company is offering refreshed versions of the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer, DirectX End-User Runtimes and the DirectX Software Development Kit. All the downloads have been updated as of June 2010, and tailored to the latest iteration of Microsoft’s development platform, Visual Studio 2010 RTM.
The DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) is set up to deliver the DirectX end-user redistributable that can be included with third-party products. According to the software giant, this particular package is localized in a number of languages including Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, and English.
With the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer, Microsoft is serving updates to DX 9.0c and previous versions of the Windows graphics technology. “The DirectX end-user installation includes all the latest and previous[ly] released DirectX runtime. This includes the bi-monthly D3DX, XInput, and Managed DirectX components. The DirectX runtime cannot be uninstalled,” Microsoft stated.
Of course that the DirectX SDK is the heavyweight of the new Windows 7 DX updates Microsoft shipped earlier this month. The Redmond company underlined that the June 2010 DirectX SDK was designed to play nice with Visual Studio 2010, but that, at the same time, Visual Studio 2008 (SP1) also continued to be supported. It is important to note that, as of June 2010, developers still running Visual Studio 2005 will no longer enjoy support for the DX SDK. Devs that want to keep building with VS2005 will need to stick with the February 2010 release of the DirectX SDK. At the same time, with the advent of the June 2010 DirectX SDK, Microsoft has dropped support for operating systems earlier than Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1, as far as DirectSetup is concerned.
Microsoft enumerated the changes with the June 2010 DirectX SDK:
“PIX: Object Naming Support
“The June 2010 version of PIX supports naming for most resource objects in Direct3D (D3D). Direct3D enables developers to attach arbitrary data to objects in D3D code using the SetPrivateData API for application-specific usage. PIX will now display specific string data for objects in the Object Table and other user interface elements where a human-readable object name will provide a much more effective experience for the user.
“PIX: Usability Improvements
“The June 2010 version of PIX includes improvements to the PIX user interface:
“- The Object Table shows the size and shader model for each shader.
“- In the Shader Debugger, there is a new toolbar button that enables the display of all constant registers/variables immediately, rather than the first time they are read.
“- In the Shader Debugger, it is possible to copy register and variable data to the clipboard.
“- The Summary pane has a new Direct3D Information section that shows details about what Direct3D capabilities are present on the computer.
“XNAMath C++ SIMD Math Library
“The June 2010 release updates XNAMath to version 2.03, which includes the following changes:
“- Addition of XMVectorDivide to optimize SSE2 vector division operations.
“- Unified handling of floating-point specials between the Windows SSE2 and no-intrinsics implementations.
“- Use of Visual Studio style SAL annotations.
“- Modifications to the C++ declarations for XMFLOAT2A/3A/4A/4X3A/4X4A to better support these types in C++ templates.
“Version-less Naming of Cross-Runtime Data Types
“The June 2010 DirectX SDK removes versioning from several Direct3D data types that cross runtime versions. This change makes legacy data-type names equivalent to the new version-less data-type names. Therefore, you can use either legacy or version-less names. However, your code will be cleaner and easier to maintain if you use the version-less names.
“New D3DCreateBlob Function
“The June 2010 DirectX SDK includes a D3dcompiler_43.dll that exports the new D3DCreateBlob function. Therefore, you are no longer required to use D3d10.dll to create and use an arbitrary length data object.
“New ID3D11ShaderReflection Method
“The June 2010 DirectX SDK adds the following new method to the ID3D11ShaderReflection interface: GetThreadGroupSize.
“New HLSL Language fixes and features
“- HLSL has been updated with the following fixes and features: The frexp intrinsic function has been updated to return a mantissa in the range of [0.5,1.0].
“- New intrinsic functions have been added for better debugging support. - printf -- submits custom shader messages to the information queue. - errorf -- submits custom shader error messages to the information queue. - abort -- submits custom shader error messages to the information queue and terminates the current draw or dispatch call being executed.
“Left-Hand-Side typecasting is now illegal and will cause a compile error. Expressions such as (int)myFloat = myInt; are no longer valid. Use myFloat = (float)myInt; type syntax instead.
“New HLSL Compiler fixes and features
“The HLSL Effects compiler (fxc.exe) has been updated with the following fixes and features: “- No-optimization (/Od) compiles will produce less-optimized code than before in order to provide improved debugging.
“- No-optimization (/Od) now implies (/Gfp).
“- New compression (/compress) and decompression (/decompress) options have been added to enable the bundling and unbundling of shader files.
“- A new numbering instructions (/Ni) flag has been added to turn on numbering of instructions in shader disassembly.
“- Fxc.exe has a new @command.option.file feature for specifying command options in a file. This enables the /compress and /decompress options to be used on many files at once.
“New D3D11 HLSL Format Conversion Functions
“The new D3DX_DXGIFormatConvert.inl inline header includes light-weight conversion functions for use in Compute Shaders or Pixel Shaders on D3D11 Hardware that can be useful when applications need to simultaneously read and write to textures, such as in-place editing scenarios.
“Documentation Enhancements
“The June 2010 DirectX SDK includes the following documentation enhancements:
“- Added links to descriptions of data types for parameters and return values to help developers locate related types.
“- Added additional header and lib information to reference pages for APIs implemented in DirectX samples.”
DirectX Software Development Kit is available for download here.
DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer is available for download here.
DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Premium is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate is available for download here.
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 is available for download here.
.NET Framework 4 RTM is available for download here.