Editing D3DX (section)

{{Short description|High level API library}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2020}}

In [[computing]], '''D3DX''' (Direct3D Extension) is a high level [[application programming interface|API]] library which is written to supplement [[Microsoft]]'s [[Direct3D]] graphics API. The D3DX library was introduced in [[Direct3D#History|Direct3D 7]], and subsequently was improved in [[Direct3D#History|Direct3D 9]]. It provides classes for common calculations on vectors, matrices and colors, calculating look-at and projection matrices, spline interpolations, and several more complicated tasks, such as compiling or assembling shaders used for 3D graphic programming, compressed skeletal animation storage and matrix stacks. There are several functions that provide complex operations over 3D meshes like tangent-space computation, mesh simplification, precomputed radiance transfer, optimizing for vertex cache friendliness and strip reordering, and generators for 3D text meshes. 2D features include classes for drawing screen-space lines, text and sprite based [[particle system]]s. Spatial functions include various intersection routines, conversion from/to barycentric coordinates and bounding box and sphere generators.

The D3DX library contains pre-written routines for doing things common to most 2D/3D applications, such as games. Since the [[Direct3D]] [[API]] is relatively low-level, using the D3DX library is usually much simpler.

In 2012, Microsoft announced that D3DX 9, D3DX 10, and D3DX 11 would be [[Deprecation|deprecated]] in the [[Windows 8]] SDK,<ref name=D3DXInWindows8>{{cite web |url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/direct3d11/d3d11-graphics-reference-d3dx11-functions |title=D3DX Functions (Direct3D 11 Graphics) |date=18 August 2023 |publisher=Microsoft}}</ref> along with other development frameworks such as [[Microsoft XNA|XNA]]. Shader effects, texture management, geometry optimizations and mesh models are available as separate sources published through [[GitHub]].<ref name=LivingWithoutD3DX>{{cite web |url=https://walbourn.github.io/living-without-d3dx/ |title=Living without D3DX|date=20 August 2013| publisher=MSDN}}</ref> The mathematical constructs of D3DX, like [[Euclidean vector|vectors]] and [[Matrix (mathematics)|matrices]], would be consolidated with XNAMath into a DirectXMath<ref name=WhereIsDXSDK>{{cite web|title=Where is the DirectX SDK?|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/directx-sdk--august-2009- |publisher=Microsoft|access-date=28 June 2020|author=Microsoft}}</ref> and spherical harmonics math is provided as separate source.<ref name="LivingWithoutD3DX"/>