Important reads before porting c++ application from Directx9 to Directx10

Question

I'm on the edge of starting a large refactor round in our software. At the moment, the render component is still based upon DX9. The new version will use DX10.

Before I start, are there any important and well written guides or overviews on porting DX9 to DX10? I have found some minor information, but can't find any well written posts, guides, or overviews. I want to prevent myself from making 'classical' mistakes, which I could prevent by reading before starting to port.

My intent is to read up on "general" porting guides as well as more specific examples. The software renders both meshes as well as volumes so information on these topics is much appreciated. Other keywords are - but not exclusively - : buffers, memory management, and multi-gpu.

The DX11 SDK comes with a manual that includes porting advice from DX9 and DX10... — Kerrek SB, Dec 19 '11 at 16:33

bastijn · Answer 1 · 2012-01-09T13:05:00.283

Since it seems no-one has a definite list, I will start collecting my findings in a separate answer as well. To the best of my knowledge, very limited information is available on the web about this subject.

General

Direct3D 10 Frequently Asked Questions
Direct3D 9 to Direct3D 10 Considerations (Direct3D 10) Basic outline of key differences between Direct3D 9 and Direct3D 10. The outline below provides some insight to assist developers with Direct3D 9 experience to explore and relate to Direct3D 10.
Fixed Function EMU Sample Shows how to emulate certain aspects of the Direct3D 9 fixed function pipeline in a Direct3D 10 environment.
Windows to Reality: Getting the Most out of Direct3D 10 Graphics in Your Games Although it has "games" in the title, the contents of the presentation do not. In the presentation they examine common performance and architectural issues, along with content development and other issues we encountered when moving high-end D3D9 engines to D3D10. In addition they have a specific "porting tips" part.
GPU Performance Programming with DirectX 10 In this talk, they discuss a variety of performance considerations and cover aspects of Direct3D 10 and 10.1 performance programming common to all vendors. In addition they cover performance considerations with multiple GPU configurations.
Windows Vista Graphics Development Drilldown: Direct3D 10 and 10.1 In this presentation they discuss various differences between D3D9 and D3D10. Although the contents are somewhat more games-based, the information can be used in any category of DX programming.

Buffer differences

Vertex Buffer differences DX9/DX10

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 19 '11 at 17:50

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The biggest difference is there are no cards that support partial features. A card either supports Direct3D 10 or not. If you want your application to run on old hardware, or on XP, then it needs to be dual-mode DirectX 9 or 10. If it only needs to run on supported graphics cards on Vista or higher, then it can be 10 only.

AFAICT, MSDN does not give a differences guide. They treat Direct3D 10 as a new API in parallel with other APIs. See here. I did find one useful summary of differences here.

answered Dec 19 '11 at 17:50

Steve C

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Hm, not really what I am looking for. Although a page accessible from your link is usefull: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416643(v=VS.85).aspx – bastijn Dec 21 '11 at 08:01
"If you want your application to run on old hardware" Not true any more with DirectX 11, as there is now thing called [a feature level](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476876(v=vs.85).aspx) – Suma Jan 04 '12 at 09:14

Important reads before porting c++ application from Directx9 to Directx10

2 Answers2