release

DirectX Tool Kit for DirectX 12

https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=615561

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.

May 7, 2026

This package contains the "DirectX Tool Kit", a collection of helper classes for writing Direct3D 12 C++ code for Win32 desktop applications for Windows 11 and Windows 10, game titles for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps for Windows 11 and Windows 10.

This code is designed to build with Visual Studio 2022, Visual Studio 2026, clang for Windows v12 or later, or MinGW. Use of the Windows 11 SDK (22000) or later is required for Visual Studio.

These components are designed to work without requiring any content from the legacy DirectX SDK. For details, see Where is the DirectX SDK?.

Directory Layout

• Inc\

  • Public Header Files (in the DirectX C++ namespace):

    • Audio.h - low-level audio API using XAudio2 (DirectXTK for Audio public header)
    • BufferHelpers.h - C++ helpers for creating D3D resources from CPU data
    • CommonStates.h - common D3D state combinations
    • DDSTextureLoader.h - light-weight DDS file texture loader
    • DescriptorHeap.h - helper for managing DX12 descriptor heaps
    • DirectXHelpers.h - misc C++ helpers for D3D programming
    • EffectPipelineStateDescription.h - helper for creating PSOs
    • Effects.h - set of built-in shaders for common rendering tasks
    • GamePad.h - gamepad controller helper using Windows.Gaming.Input or GameInput
    • GeometricPrimitive.h - draws basic shapes such as cubes and spheres
    • GraphicsMemory.h - helper for managing dynamic graphics memory allocation
    • Keyboard.h - keyboard state tracking helper
    • Model.h - draws meshes loaded from .CMO, .SDKMESH, or .VBO files
    • Mouse.h - mouse helper
    • PostProcess.h - set of built-in shaders for common post-processing operations
    • PrimitiveBatch.h - simple and efficient way to draw user primitives
    • RenderTargetState.h - helper for communicating render target requirements when creating PSOs
    • ResourceUploadBatch.h - helper for managing texture resource upload to the GPU
    • ScreenGrab.h - light-weight screen shot saver
    • SimpleMath.h - simplified C++ wrapper for DirectXMath
    • SpriteBatch.h - simple & efficient 2D sprite rendering
    • SpriteFont.h - bitmap based text rendering
    • VertexTypes.h - structures for commonly used vertex data formats
    • WICTextureLoader.h - WIC-based image file texture loader
    • XboxDDSTextureLoader.h - Xbox exclusive apps variant of DDSTextureLoader

• Src\

  • DirectXTK12 source files and internal implementation headers

• Audio\

  • DirectXTK12 for Audio source files and internal implementation headers

• build\

  • Contains miscellaneous build files and scripts.

• skills\

  • Contains published CoPilot skills for use by developers.

MakeSpriteFont and XWBTool can be found in the DirectX Tool Kit for DirectX 11. Audio, GamePad, Keyboard, Mouse, and SimpleMath are identical between both versions of the toolkit.

Documentation

Documentation is available on the GitHub wiki.

CoPilot Usage

For CoPilot CLI assistance with using DirectX Tool Kit, try:

winget install GitHub.Copilot
winget install GitHub.cli
gh skill install microsoft/directxtk12
copilot
/skills list

Notices

All content and source code for this package are subject to the terms of the MIT License.

For the latest version of DirectXTK12, bug reports, etc. please visit the project site on GitHub.

Comparisons to DirectX 11 Version

• No support for Visual Studio Directed Graph Shader Language (DGSL) effect shaders (i.e. DGSLEffect). CMO files are loaded using BasicEffect or SkinnedEffect materials.

• VertexTypes does not include VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTexture or VertexPositionNormalTangentColorTextureSkinning which were intended for use with the DGSL pipeline.

• DirectX Tool Kit for DirectX 11 supports Feature Level 9.x, while DirectX 12 requires Direct3D Feature Level 11.0. There are no expected DirectX 12 drivers for any lower feature level devices.

• The library assumes it is building for Windows 10 (aka _WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00) so it makes use of XAudio 2.9 and WIC2 as well as DirectX 12.

• DirectX Tool Kit for Audio, GamePad, Keyboard, Mouse, and SimpleMath are identical to the DirectX 11 version.

Release Notes

FOR SECURITY ADVISORIES, see GitHub.

For a full change history, see CHANGELOG.md.

• clang-format use for this project must match the version use by GitHub Super-Linter to pass the validation. VS 2022 and VS 2026 come with different versions, so to match use:

winget install --id=LLVM.LLVM --version 21.1.2
powershell -File build/Format.ps1 -LLVM

• The directxtk12_desktop_win10 and directxtk12_uwp NuGet packages are deprecated. The best way to integrate the latest DirectX Tool Kit into your C++ project is using vcpkg.

• The CMake projects require 3.21 or later.

• In the June 2024 release, the defaulted parameter initialState for the CreateUploadBuffer function in BufferHelpers was removed. Per the DirectX 12 validation layer, the only valid initial state for an upload buffer is D3D12_RESOURCE_STATE_GENERIC_READ.

• Starting with the February 2023 release, the Mouse class implementation of relative mouse movement was updated to accumulate changes between calls to GetState. By default, each time you call GetState the deltas are reset which works for scenarios where you use relative movement but only call the method once per frame. If you call it more than once per frame, then add an explicit call to EndOfInputFrame to use an explicit reset model instead.

• As of the September 2022 release, the library makes use of C++11 inline namespaces for differing types that have the same names in the DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 version of the DirectX Tool Kit. This provides a link-unique name such as DirectX::DX12::SpriteBatch that will appear in linker output messages. In most use cases, however, there is no need to add explicit DX12 namespace resolution in client code.

• Starting with the June 2021 release, this library builds the HLSL shaders with Shader Model 6 via DXC. See this wiki page for more information. The Microsoft GDK projects have always used Shader Model 6.

• Starting with the June 2020 release, this library makes use of typed enum bitmask flags per the recommendation of the C++ Standard section 17.5.2.1.3 Bitmask types. This may have _breaking change impacts to client code:

  • You cannot pass the 0 literal as your flags value. Instead you must make use of the appropriate default enum value: AudioEngine_Default, SoundEffectInstance_Default, ModelLoader_Clockwise, DDS_LOADER_DEFAULT, or WIC_LOADER_DEFAULT.

  • Use the enum type instead of DWORD if building up flags values locally with bitmask operations. For example, WIC_LOADER_FLAGS flags = WIC_LOADER_DEFAULT; if (...) flags |= WIC_LOADER_FORCE_SRGB;

• The UWP projects and the Win10 classic desktop project include configurations for the ARM64 platform. Building these requires installing the ARM64 toolset.

• When using clang/LLVM for the ARM64/AArch64 platform, the Windows 11 SDK ([22000](https://walbourn.github.io/windo