[opensource-dev] DirectX SDK update: should we use it ?

[Darien Caldwell]

This is being offered to all Windows 7 Users, not just developers. Reading
deeper here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/jj863687.aspx

It's mostly backporting new features from Windows 8 to Windows 7. That's
why they say you'll need the newer SDK, to take advantage of those new
features. There's a lot of Win 8 features that are unsupported on Win 7 of
course. But I only see one specific case of breakage mentioned:

"For developers currently working on applications in Microsoft Visual
Studio 2010 or earlier using the
*D3D11_CREATE_DEVICE_DEBUG*<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/windows/apps/ff476107.aspx>flag,
be aware that calls to
*D3D11CreateDevice*<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/windows/apps/ff476082.aspx>will
fail. This is because the D3D11.1 runtime now requires
D3D11_1SDKLayers.dll instead of D3D11SDKLayers.dll. To get this new DLL
(D3D11_1SDKLayers.dll), install the Windows 8
SDK<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/hh852363>,
or Visual Studio 2012 <http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/downloads>,
or the Visual Studio 2012 remote debugging tools. See the Debug
Layer<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/windows/apps/ff476881.aspx>documentation
for more info. You can download Visual Studio 2012 remote
debugging tools from either of these links:"

Basically it's all centered around  D3D11, which I really doubt LL's viewer
is using. I'd say it's safe to upgrade, as long as you don't plan on
writing D3D11 apps. Of course I'm not exactly sure what parts of D3D the
viewer is using, I was always under the impression it used OpenGL.



On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 11:09 AM, Henri Beauchamp <sldev at free.fr> wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Today, Windows Update proposed me this update:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2670838
>
> I was well inspired to follow the "Find out more about this update"
> link, because in the explanation page, they state:
>
> "If you are a Windows 7 DirectX developer who uses the June 2010 DirectX
> Software Development Kit (SDK), you will have to update your development
> environments after you install this platform update."
>
> And the June 2010 DirectX SDK is precisely used by the viewer...
>
> Not being a Windows guru, I don't know whether applying the proposed
> update and updating to the Windows 8 SDK (which is listed among the
> possible solutions) is a good idea or not: will it break the viewer
> builds ?... If not, will the viewer builds still work under Windows XP,
> Vista and 7 ?... Couldn't we simply get entirely rid of the DirectX
> calls in the Windows viewer builds ?
>
> Any thought about this ?
>
> Henri.
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