PIX is a debugging and analysis tool that captures detailed information from a Direct3D
application as it executes. PIX can be configured to gather data, such as the list of
Direct3D APIs called, timing information, mesh vertices before and after transformations,
screenshots, and select statistics. PIX can also be used for debugging vertex and pixel
shaders, including setting breakpoints and stepping through shader code.
Versions of DirectX
PIX works with the versions of DirectX and Windows shown in the following table.
| Runtime
| Windows XP
| Windows XP x64 Edition
| Windows
Vista
| Windows Vista 64-bit Edition
|
|---|
| Direct3D 9
| x
| x
| x
| x
|
| Direct3D 10
|
|
| x
| x
|
| Direct3D 11
|
|
| x
| x
|
Both 32- and 64-bit implementations of PIX are distributed with Direct3D.
Recommendations
It is recommended that developers use the version of PIX that matches the version of
Windows; that is, the 32-bit version of PIX on 32-bit editions of Windows and the 64-bit
version of PIX on 64-bit editions Windows. When the DirectX SDK is installed, PIX file
associations and the Start menu are set to support this behavior.
The 64-bit version of PIX can be used with either 32- or 64-bit applications under
64-bit versions of Windows, although this may require administrative credentials
on Windows Vista (for more information, see PIX Requirements for Windows Vista).
.gif) Note |
|---|
|
PIX experiment
files and run files have
the same format regardless of the version of the runtime or the operating
system. Therefore, a run file captured on a 32-bit version of Windows
can be played back on a 64-bit version of Windows to make sure
that the run file (and therefore the program it is derived from) will render
correctly in that environment.
|
Path
The location of PIX depends on the version, as shown in the following table.
| 32-bit
| %DXSDK_DIR%\Utilities\Bin\x86\
|
|---|
| 64-bit
| %DXSDK_DIR%\Utilities\Bin\x64\
|
|---|
In This Section
The documentation for PIX includes:
- User's Guide
- Description of the features of PIX and how to make use of them.
- PIX Tutorials and Samples
- Tutorials that demonstrate how to analyze some common application problems.
- Reference
- A complete description of the user interface to operate PIX.
Related Topics