DXtestWPF

A small WPF + C# test application that acts as:

• a hardware / display diagnostics launcher, and
• a Direct3D 11 demo host

The app was built as a modern replacement for the old "DirectX SDK sample launcher" style workflow:

• inspect the PC
• show graphics/display information
• then launch a separate 3D demo window

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What the project currently does

WPF diagnostics launcher

The main window shows:

• machine and OS information
• .NET runtime and process architecture
• logical processor count
• physical memory summary
• detected display adapters
• detected monitors and current resolutions
• basic Direct3D probe results

Direct3D 11 demo window

The demo window:

• opens in a separate WPF window

• hosts native Direct3D rendering through HwndHost

• creates a Direct3D 11 device and swap chain

• renders a rotating textured cube

• uses Assets/world.png as the cube texture

• supports:

  • F11 to toggle borderless fullscreen
  • Esc to close the demo window

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Technology stack

• C# / .NET
• WPF for the launcher UI and demo window shell
• WinForms support for monitor enumeration via Screen.AllScreens
• Vortice.Direct3D11 for Direct3D 11 bindings
• Vortice.DXGI for swap chain / DXGI integration
• HLSL shaders compiled with fxc.exe from the Windows SDK

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Project structure

File / Folder	Purpose
DXtestWPF/DXtestWPF.csproj	Project configuration, NuGet references, shader compilation build step, asset copy rules
DXtestWPF/MainWindow.xaml	Launcher UI
DXtestWPF/MainWindow.xaml.cs	Loads diagnostics data and opens the Direct3D demo
DXtestWPF/HardwareInfoService.cs	Collects system, display, and basic Direct3D information
DXtestWPF/Dx11DemoWindow.xaml	Separate Direct3D demo window
DXtestWPF/Dx11DemoWindow.xaml.cs	Demo window behavior and keyboard handling
DXtestWPF/Dx11RenderHost.cs	WPF HwndHost that creates a native child window for Direct3D rendering
DXtestWPF/D3D11Renderer.cs	Direct3D 11 renderer, cube geometry, texture loading, render loop, resize handling
DXtestWPF/Assets/world.png	Texture used on all faces of the cube
DXtestWPF/Shaders/TexturedCubeShader.hlsl	HLSL shader source for the textured cube

Note: TexturedCubeShader.hlsl is compiled by fxc.exe during build.

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Direct3D details implemented so far

Device / swap chain

The renderer currently creates:

• a Direct3D 11 device
• an immediate context
• a DXGI swap chain
• a render target view
• a depth/stencil buffer and depth/stencil view

It first tries:

• hardware device creation

and falls back to:

• WARP if hardware creation fails

Pipeline resources

The renderer sets up:

• vertex shader
• pixel shader
• input layout
• vertex buffer
• index buffer
• constant buffer
• sampler state
• rasterizer state
• texture shader resource view

Scene

The demo currently renders:

• a textured cube
• perspective projection
• continuous rotation over time
• anisotropic texture sampling
• no lighting yet

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Direct3D information shown in the launcher

The launcher currently reports:

• whether Direct3D device creation used hardware or WARP fallback
• the detected feature level
• an estimated shader model based on feature level

The shader model shown in the launcher is an estimate derived from feature level. It is not a full shader capability matrix.

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Build requirements

Required

To build the shader bytecode for the cube demo, the project needs:

• a Windows SDK installation that includes fxc.exe

Typical location:

C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\bin\\<sdk-version>\\x64\\fxc.exe

If auto-detection does not work

Set FxcPath explicitly in DXtestWPF/DXtestWPF.csproj:

<PropertyGroup>
  <FxcPath>C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Kits\\10\\bin\\<sdk-version>\\x64\\fxc.exe</FxcPath>
</PropertyGroup>

Build-time shader output

The project compiles these shader objects during build:

• Shaders/TexturedCubeVS.cso
• Shaders/TexturedCubePS.cso

These are written to the build output folder and loaded by D3D11Renderer at runtime.

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How to run

1. Open the solution in Visual Studio.

2. Ensure the Windows SDK / HLSL compiler tools are installed.

3. Verify FxcPath if needed.

4. Build the project.

5. Run the app.

6. In the main window:

   • review the hardware / display information
   • click Start DirectX 11 Demo

7. In the demo window:

   • press F11 for fullscreen
   • press Esc to close

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Notes from the implementation

This project intentionally stays fairly close to the Direct3D 11 pipeline. That means even a simple textured cube requires a fair amount of setup code:

• device creation
• swap chain creation
• render target / depth buffer setup
• geometry buffers
• HLSL shaders
• texture loading
• sampler configuration
• matrix updates per frame

That is expected for low-level Direct3D work. The Vortice libraries make the APIs accessible from C#, but they do not remove the underlying Direct3D concepts.

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Current limitations

At the moment, the project is intentionally simple and does not yet include:

• lighting
• camera controls
• wireframe toggle
• advanced shader capability reporting
• full monitor mode enumeration
• explicit adapter selection UI
• audio / input diagnostics

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Possible next steps

Some logical next enhancements would be:

• add basic directional lighting
• add mouse-controlled camera movement
• add wireframe / culling toggles
• report more Direct3D capability details
• allow monitor / display mode selection
• show adapter memory and driver information

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Summary

This repository now contains a working WPF diagnostics launcher + Direct3D 11 textured cube demo built with modern C# tooling.

It demonstrates:

• WPF and Direct3D interop
• basic hardware / display diagnostics
• Direct3D 11 initialization from C#
• textured 3D rendering with HLSL shaders
• fullscreen/windowed demo control