DirectX Developer Blog

Video acceleration API (VA-API) now available on Windows!

February 15, 2023 Feb 15, 2023 02/15/23

Sil Vilerino

IntroductionWhat's VA-API?Originally developed by Intel, VAAPI (Video Acceleration API) is an open-source library and API specification, which provides access to graphics hardware acceleration capabilities for video processing. It consists of a main library and driver-specific acceleration backends for each supported hardware vendor. Apps ...

Navigating the Redesigned Graphics Settings page

January 19, 2023 Jan 19, 2023 01/19/23

Wendy Ho

In the settings app, the graphics page lets you adjust settings related to ‘GPU Preference,’ ‘Auto HDR,’ ‘Optimizations for windowed games’, and more to get the most out of your graphics experience on your PC. Aligning with the new Windows 11 UI design, we’ve redesigned the graphics settings page to help you get to the settings ...

Updates in d3dx12.h: Nuget Packaging, Header Bloat Reduction, and D3DX12GetCopyableFootprints

January 6, 2023 Jan 6, 2023 01/6/23

Roland Shum

Hey everyone, we recently updated our d3dx12.h file! Previously, users were required to head to DirectX-Headers repo to grab the nice d3dx12.h helper files. The recent Agility SDK 1.608.2 release bundles this repo with the Nuget packages! There are no differences between the two packages. Header Bloat Reduction Next, ...

DirectStorage GDeflate Reference Implementation Now Available

December 13, 2022 Dec 13, 2022 12/13/22

Cassie Hoef, Damyan Pepper

The GDeflate reference implementation is now available from the DirectStorage repo on GitHub. Developers can use this to easily integrate GDeflate into their asset compression tool chains and build compatible compressors. The compression and decompression algorithms are open sourced under the Apache 2.0 license.How to Build:The GDeflate ...

Agility SDK 1.608.0: Enhanced Barriers and more

November 18, 2022 Nov 18, 2022 11/18/22

Jacques van Rhyn, Bill Kristiansen, Giancarlo Devich

We’ve published another Agility SDK, version 1.608.0.  This Agility SDK has support for Enhanced Barriers, and a few minor DX12 features. That’s right: these features no longer require developer mode to run on your machine!Head to Agility SDK Downloads to grab it.Enhanced BarriersFor an overview of Enhanced Barriers, please see ...

DirectStorage 1.1 Now Available

November 7, 2022 Nov 7, 2022 11/7/22

Cassie Hoef, Damyan Pepper

The DirectStorage team is pleased to share that GPU decompression with DirectStorage 1.1 is available now. This new version of DirectStorage contains everything a developer needs to get started with GPU decompression. For more information on this feature and how it benefits gamers, check out our previous blog post: DirectStorage 1.1 Coming ...

DirectStorage 1.1 Coming Soon

October 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022 10/13/22

Cassie Hoef

When we shared our first public release of DirectStorage on Windows to reduce CPU overhead and increase IO throughput, we also shared that GPU decompression was next on our roadmap. We are now in the final stretch of development and plan to release DirectStorage 1.1 with GPU Decompression to developers by the end of 2022. This is one of our ...

Advancing the State of Color Management in Windows

October 12, 2022 Oct 12, 2022 10/12/22

Ana Marta Carvalho

If you're an app developer who cares about color accuracy, this is the right place to learn about some changes we made in the Windows 11 2022 Update!Let’s start by talking about color management – it is the technology and practice of ensuring accurate and consistent color reproduction across devices. If you're a creative professional/...