Debugging

Debugging with Visual Studio

An extension to Microsoft?Visual Studio?exists to support debugging some types of vertex shaders. For more information, see Shader Debugger.

Other Shader Debuggers

Some graphics chip companies provide a shader debugging tool on their Web sites. Find these tools by searching the Web or by reading the article listed below. You can attach a debugger to a program while it is running and use the debugger to step through a shader. By setting breakpoints, you can step through the shader code one line at a time and watch register state changes. For more information about vertex shaders and debugging tips, see Using Vector Shaders: Part I .

Texture Blending Debugging

Another sample application that is part of the software development kit (SDK) installation is MFC Tex Sample. This Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) application is a good way to learn how to perform multi-texture blending operations in the fixed function pipeline.

Diagnostic Support

Another option for help with debugging Microsoft DirectX?problems is to use the DirectX Diagnostic Viewer (DXDiag.exe) to create a dump of your computer. This is done by running DxDiag.exe after your computer has crashed and sending the dump to Microsoft, using either the Report button on the More Help tab or by sending it to directx@microsoft.com. The dump can be used to track down and reproduce the problem.

Additional debug information can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx 

For more information, see DirectX Diagnostic Tool.