The HLSL compiler (D3DCompile*.dll) and the D3DX utility library for Direct3D 11 (D3DX11*.dll) are not built into any version of the Windows operating system, but they can be deployed as part of an application's installer by using the existing DirectSetup technology for more information about using DirectSetup, see DirectX Installation for Game Developers.

The D3D11InstallHelper sample is designed to simplify detection of the Direct3D 11 API, automatically install the system update if applicable to an end-user's computer, and to provide appropriate messages to the end-user on manual procedure if a newer Service Pack is required.

End-users with automatic updates enabled will, therefore, likely already have the Direct3D 11 components installed, as will all Windows 7 users. This update requires Windows Vista and Service Pack 2. The Direct3D 11 API and related components can also be installed on Windows Vista by using a system update from Windows Update. For information on these and other Windows graphics components, see Graphics APIs in Windows.Īll of these new graphics components are built into the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. In addition to the Direct3D 11 component, a number of additional graphics components are included in the DirectX 11 runtime: Direct3D 11, DXGI 1.1, 10level9 feature levels, WARP10 software rendering device, Direct2D, DirectWrite, and an updated Direct3D 10.1 with support for 10level9 and WARP10. The Direct3D 11 API extends the existing Direct3D 10.1 API with support for multithreaded rendering and resource creation, Compute Shader, hardware tessellation, BC6H/BC7 texture compression, and HLSL Shader Model 5.0 with Dynamic Shader Linkage. This article describes how to deploy the Direct3D 11 components on a system if necessary.

Directx version 8.1 windows 10