Description Helpers For Direct3D 10, 10.1 and 11

In Direct3D 10, a number of device render states were aggregated into immutable objects. These immutable objects simplify state management on the device for the runtime and the driver, making it quicker to switch between state configurations on the device. These immutable state objects are created by filling in a description structure and creating the object. This mechanism is present in Direct3D 10.1 and Direct3D 11 as well. In this post, I will discuss some helper classes for constructing these state objects in a manner that more clearly reveals your intention.

Direct3D Programming Tip #7: Use Smart Resource Locks

In Direct3D9, direct CPU access to a resource is obtained by obtaining a lock on the resource. Every time you obtain the lock, you must make sure that you release it. In Direct3D10 and Direct3D11, a similar situation is faced with resources, but the terminology has changed to mapping the resource. Using a helper class to handle the lock and unlock operations on a resource helps you create exception safe code in C++.

Refactoring Tools Shoot Out

Over the past few years, I’ve been using a number of refactoring add-ons for Visual Studio.  The three refactoring add-ins I have tried are: Refactor! Pro from DevExpress, Visual Assist X from Whole Tomato and ReSharper from JetBrains. In this post, I’ll review and compare these refactoring add-ons.