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Direct3D software requirements in Windows 8

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This topic describes software requirements to support Microsoft Direct3D in Windows 8.

For Windows 8, independent hardware vendors must write a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.2 driver that can support the relevant Direct3D feature level user-mode driver (UMD) device driver interfaces (DDIs).

For example, Microsoft Direct3D 9-capable hardware must, at minimum, support the Direct3D version 9 DDI. These software requirements vary based on the Microsoft DirectX hardware level as specified in this table:

DirectX software requirements

DirectX hardware Software requirements
D3D9

Required: WDDM 1.2

Required: D3D9 - UMD DDI
D3D10

Required: WDDM 1.2

Required: D3D9 - UMD DDI

Required: D3D10- UMD DDI

Required: D3D11.1 - UMD DDI
D3D10.1

Required: WDDM 1.2

Required: D3D9 - UMD DDI

Required: D3D10- UMD DDI

Required: D3D10.1- UMD DDI

Required: D3D11.1 - UMD DDI
D3D11

Required: WDDM 1.2

Required: D3D9 - UMD DDI

Required: D3D10- UMD DDI

Required: D3D10.1- UMD DDI

Required: D3D11 - UMD DDI

Required: D3D11.1 - UMD DDI
D3D11.1

Required: WDDM 1.2

Required: D3D9 - UMD DDI

Required: D3D10- UMD DDI

Required: D3D10.1- UMD DDI

Required: D3D11 - UMD DDI

Required: D3D11.1 - UMD DDI

The following tables describe the functionality that's exposed by using user-mode driver (UMD) DDI changes in Windows 8.

D3D9 - UMD DDI exposes the following new features in Windows 8

Required? Feature
Required No overwrite and discard
Required Tileable copy flag

D3D11.1 - UMD DDI exposes the following new features in Windows 8 across feature levels 10, 10.1, 11, and 11.1

Required? Feature
Required No overwrite and discard
Required Support for cross-process sharing of texture arrays (including Stereoscopic 3D)
Required Tileable copy flag
Required ClearView
If Implemented Logic ops
Required Pixel formats (5551, 565, 4444) - exact support varies across feature level
Required Same-surface blits
Required Partial constant buffer updates
Required Offset constant buffer bind
Required Improved resource sharing
Required SampleCount=1 (limited Target-independent rasterization (TIR) on 10, 10.1, and 11)

D3D11.1 - UMD DDI exposes the following new features for feature level 11 & 11.1

Required? Feature
Required UAV-MSAA
If Implemented Double-precision shader functionality
Required Masked sum of absolute differences (MSAD)

D3D11.1 - UMD DDI exposes the following new features for feature level 11.1

Required? Feature
Required UAVs at every stage
Required UAV-MSAA (at 16 samples)
Required TIR