Preface

The latest 3D graphics cards bring us amazing visuals in the latest games, from Indie to AAA titles. This is made possible on Microsoft platforms including PC, Xbox consoles, and mobile devices thanks to Direct3D—a component of the DirectX API dedicated to exposing 3D graphics hardware to programmers. Microsoft DirectX is the graphics technology powering today's hottest games on Microsoft platforms. DirectX 11 features hardware tessellation for rich geometric detail, compute shaders for custom graphics effects, and improved multithreading for better hardware utilization. With it comes a number of fundamental game changing improvements to the way in which we render 3D graphics.

The last decade has also seen the rise of General-Purpose computation on Graphics Processing Units (GPGPU), exposing the massively parallel computing power of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to programmers for scientific or technical computing. Some uses include implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced postprocessing and physics within games, powering complex scientific modeling, or contributing to large scale distributed computing projects.

Direct3D and related DirectX graphics APIs continue to be an important part of the Microsoft technology stack. Remaining an integral part of their graphics strategy on all platforms, the library advances in leaps and bounds with each new release, opening further opportunities for developers to exploit. With the release of the third generation Xbox console—the Xbox One—and the latest games embracing the recent DirectX 11 changes in 11.1 and 11.2, we will continue to see Direct3D be a leading 3D graphics API.

Direct3D Rendering Cookbook is a practical, example-driven, technical cookbook with numerous Direct3D 11.1 and 11.2 rendering techniques supported by illustrations, example images, strong sample code, and concise explanations.