“The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline”

I’ve been writing this book off and on for a number of years. I started with version 8.0 of Direct3D, the first version to introduce shaders. I don’t write books for a living. This is the first book I have ever attempted to write. I work on it in my “copious spare time”, as they say. My intention was never to make money, but to help other people.

To that end, I have made the current draft available for free as PDF chapters that you can download. Chapters 1-9 reflect the Direct3D 9.0 API. Chapters 10-24 reflect the Direct3D 8.1 API. What you have here is approximately 500 pages of printed material, resulting in quite a thick book. Silly me, I picked a gigantic scope for my first book. I wrote the book that I wished I had when I started learning Direct3D. I hope it helps you.

Front Matter & Table of Contents
Part I: Preliminaries
1. Introduction
1.1 Overview 1.2 Display Technology 1.3 Gamma Correction 1.4 Color 1.5 Basic Mathematics 1.6 Homogeneous Coordinates 1.7 Vectors 1.8 Coordinate Systems	1.9 Matrices 1.10 Aliasing 1.11 Style Conventions 1.12 COM Objects 1.13 Code Techniques 1.14 Previous Versions of Direct3D 1.15 Further Reading
2. Direct3D
2.1 Overview 2.2 A Minimal Direct3D Application 2.3 Direct3D Architecture 2.4 Direct3D HRESULTs 2.5 Windowed and Exclusive Mode 2.6 Device Types 2.7 Resources 2.8 IDirect3D9	2.9 Selecting a Device 2.10 Determining Available Resource Memory 2.11 Device Capabilities 2.12 Identifying a Particular Device 2.13 Creating the Device 2.14 Multiple Monitors 2.15 Adapter Group Devices
3. Direct3D Devices
3.1 Overview 3.2 IDirect3DDevice9 3.3 Capabilities 3.4 Resources 3.5 IDirect3DResource9 3.6 Destroying a Device	3.7 Miscellaneous Properties 3.8 Device Queries 3.9 Device States 3.10 Device State Blocks 3.11 Pure Devices
4. 2D Applications
4.1 Overview 4.2 Pixel Surfaces 4.3 Accessing Surface Pixel Data 4.4 Using GDI On A Surface 4.5 Swap Chains 4.6 Presentation	4.7 Lost Devices and Reset 4.8 Video Scan Out 4.9 2D Pixel Copies 4.10 Filling Rectangles 4.11 Window Messages 4.12 rt_2DApp Sample Application
Part II: Geometry Processing
5. Modeling
5.1 Overview 5.2 Modeling Scenes 5.3 Visibility 5.4 Render Targets 5.5 Primitive Types 5.6 Vertex Data 5.7 Flexible Vertex Formats 5.8 Vertex Declarations 5.9 Vertex Buffers	5.10 Indexed Primitives 5.11 The Vertex Shader 5.12 Drawing Primitives 5.13 Vertex Data Streams 5.14 Capabilities for Vertex Assembly 5.15 Enhanced Primitives 5.16 Higher Order Surfaces 5.17 Object Approximations 5.18 Further Reading
6. Vertex Transformations
6.1 Overview 6.2 Vertex Processing 6.3 Transformation Matrices 6.4 Order of Transformations 6.5 World Transformation 6.6 Transformation Hierarchy 6.7 Vertex Blending	6.8 Vertex Fog 6.9 Face Culling 6.10 Clipping 6.11 Screen Space and the Viewport 6.12 rt_VertexBlend Sample Application 6.13 Further Reading
7. Viewing and Projection
7.1 Overview 7.2 Viewing Through a Virtual Camera 7.3 Planar Geometric Projections	7.4 Projection Transformation 7.5 Further Reading 7.6 rt_Views Sample Application
8. Lighting and Materials
8.1 Overview 8.2 Transformed Vertices 8.3 Lighting Calculations 8.4 Surface Material Properties	8.5 Light Sources 8.6 The Illumination Model 8.7 rt_Lighting Sample Application
9. Vertex Shaders
9.1 Overview 9.2 Vertex Shader Architecture 9.3 Vertex Shader 1.1 Architecture 9.4 Vertex Shader 2.0 Architecture 9.5 Vertex Shader 2.x Architecture 9.6 Vertex Shader 3.0 Architecture 9.7 Shader Instruction Syntax 9.8 Execution Model 9.9 Software Vertex Processing 9.10 Vertex Shader 1.1 Instructions 9.11 Vertex Shader 2.0 Instructions	9.12 Vertex Shader 2.x Instructions 9.13 Vertex Shader 3.0 Instructions 9.14 Manipulating Shaders 9.15 Drawing Multiple Instances 9.16 Shader Design 9.17 Common Computations 9.18 Fixed-Function Processing 9.19 Beyond Fixed-Function Processing 9.20 rt_VertexShader Sample Application 9.21 Vertex Shader SDK Samples
Part III: Pixel Processing
10. Rasterization and Shading
10.1 Overview 10.2 Shading and Filling 10.3 Scanline Rendering	10.4 Source Pixel Generation 10.5 Source Pixel Data 10.6 rt_Rasterize Sample Application
11. Basic Texturing
11.1 Overview 11.2 Direct3D Multitexture Architecture 11.3 Texture Resources 11.4 Texture Formats 11.5 Texture Coordinate Processing 11.6 Texture Sampling	11.7 Texture Stage Processing 11.8 Examples 11.9 Specular Addition 11.10 Textured Primitives 11.11 Further Reading 11.12 Sample Applications
12. Advanced Texturing (not available)
12.1 Overview 12.2 Multiple Texture Stages 12.3 Environment Mapping	12.4 Bump Mapping Techniques 12.5 Texturing Sample Applications
13. Pixel Shaders
13.1 Overview 13.2 Pixel Shader Architecture 13.3 Pixel Shader Architecture Versions 13.4 Instruction Set 13.5 PS 2.0 Instructions 13.6 PS 2.x Instructions	13.7 PS 3.0 Instructions 13.8 Manipulating Pixel Shaders 13.9 Texture Stage States 13.10 Examples 13.11 Debugging a Pixel Shader
14. The Frame Buffer
14.1 Overview 14.2 Fog Blending 14.3 Alpha Test 14.4 The Z Buffer and Visibility 14.5 Stencil Test	14.6 Alpha Blending 14.7 Dithering 14.8 Multisampling 14.9 Writing to the Render Target 14.10 rt_FrameBuffer Sample Application
Part IV: The D3DX Library
15. The D3DX Utility Library
15.1 Overview 15.2 Headers and Libraries 15.3 Data Types 15.4 Helper Objects 15.5 Meshes 15.6 Resources 15.7 Resource Image Information 15.8 Resource Requirements 15.9 Format Conversion 15.10 Creating Texture Resources 15.11 Loading Resources	15.12 Saving Resources 15.13 Filling Textures 15.14 Filtering Textures 15.15 Creating Normal Maps 15.16 Miscellaneous 15.17 Error Handling 15.18 ID3DXBuffer 15.19 Vertex Declarations 15.20 Intersection Testing 15.21 Shader Assembly 15.22 Further Reading
16. D3DX Concrete Types
16.1 Overview 16.2 Colors 16.3 Vectors	16.4 Matrices 16.5 Planes 16.6 Quaternions
17. D3DX Helper Objects
17.1 Overview 17.2 Matrix Stacks 17.3 Fonts	17.4 Sprites 17.5 Surface Rendering 17.6 Environment Map Rendering
18. High Level Shaders and Effects (not available)
18.1 Overview 18.2 Visual Effects	18.3 Sample Applications
19. D3DX Mesh Objects
19.1 Overview 19.2 Use of const Qualifiers 19.3 Triangle Adjacencies 19.4 Vertex and Triangle Remapping 19.5 Base Mesh 19.6 Mesh	19.7 Progressive Mesh 19.8 Simplification Mesh 19.9 Skin Mesh 19.10 rt_D3DXSphere Sample Application 19.11 SDK Samples 19.12 Further Reading
20. D3DX Animation Objects (not available)
20.1 Overview
Part V: The Application
21. X Files
21.1 Overview 21.1 X File Structure 21.3 Text Encoding 21.4 Binary Encoding 21.5 Predefined Templates 21.6 Headers, Libraries and Interfaces 21.7 IDirectXFile 21.8 IDirectXFileEnumObject 21.9 IDirectXFileObject	21.10 IDirectXFileData 21.11 IDirectXFileBinary 21.12 IDirectXFileDataReference 21.13 IDirectXFileSaveObject 21.14 Reading Scene Data 21.15 Writing Scene Data 21.16 Exporting and Conversion 21.17 Example X Files 21.18 rt_MakeScene Sample Program
22. Debugging
22.1 Overview 22.2 Version Control Systems 22.3 C++ Debugging 22.4 Debugging Windows Applications 22.5 Debugging With Visual C++ 6	22.6 Debugging With Direct3D 22.7 DirectX Diagnostic Tool 22.8 DirectX Control Panel Applet 22.9 Getting Help 22.10 Filing Bug Reports
23. Performance (not available)
23.1 Overview 23.2 Pipeline Bottlenecks 23.3 Optimization Techniques 23.4 Strategies 23.5 Image Compositing 23.6 Vertex Buffers 23.7 Texture Map Size	23.8 Scalable Shading 23.9 Model Simplification 23.10 Alpha Test 23.11 Stencil Test 23.12 Z Buffer Test 23.13 Guard Band Clip
24. Installation and Setup
24.1 Overview 24.2 Determining the DirectX Version 24.3 DirectSetup 24.4 Windows Installer	24.5 Logo Requirements 24.6 AutoRun Enabled Installations 24.7 Testing Installation Programs 24.8 Sample Program