Ten Years of D3D12

Summary

For those of us that have been using it from the start, it can be hard to believe that Direct3D 12 has been around for ten years now. Windows 10 was released on July 29th 2015, and D3D12 has been with us ever since. While it’s true that this is the longest we’ve gone between major D3D version updates, it’s also not fair to say that the API has remained static. On the contrary, D3D12 has received a steady stream of new interfaces, functions, and shader models. These updates have included some very major features that have gathered lots of press and attention, such as DXR or Work Graphs. But there’s also been a long line of smaller features and quality-of-life updates that can make a developer’s life easier. In addition, HLSL as a shader language has also seen steady updates, with some of them being rather transformative. Given the recently-passed 10 year anniversary, I thought it would be a good time to look back at what’s changed in the world of D3D12 since it was released. After that, I thought it would also be interesting to reflect on what’s changed for me personally as my coding and development style has evolved along with APIs and programming languages. In some cases I’ve been able to streamline things quite a bit thanks to API enhancements, and in others I’ve just embraced new ways of doing things. Let’s dive In! Feel free to use the TOC below if you want to skip around. Additions To the Core D3D12 API Programmable Sample Points Spec Link This is not a commonly used feature, since its use cases are pretty niche and MSAA is no longer popular. In short, this adds a new API that lets you provide your own custom MSAA subsample positions instead of using the rotated grid pattern that the “standard” sample provides: The API allows you to specify the positions over a 2x2 quad of pixels rather than just a single pixel, which you could potentially use to get a more irregular sampling pattern that changes aliasing characteristics. Or at least, you can do that if you sti...