How to include Direct3D in a program?

Question

I am learning Direct3D from directxtutorial.com. I am including it through a preprocessor directive in the code below.

#pragma comment(lib, "d3d11.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "d3dx11.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "d3dx10.lib")

This is not doing it, however. I am guessing it is because the library files aren't where its checking to find them. But could someone explain what's going on here? Thanks. The error message is: "Intellisense: could not open source file"

Answer 1

You'll need to download and install the Windows SDK from this link .

Next, you'll need to configure your solution in Visual Studio to look for the appropriate files. This may be broken down in to two categories: Adding the include paths and Linking the libraries . Please take note of your Windows SDK directory. On my system, it is C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\7.0A\\ .

Adding include paths

Visual Studio comes pre-packed with a subset of the DirectX header .h files, but the complete collection is available in WindowsSDKPath\\Include .

Add this path to your project's additional includes:

• Right click the project in the Solution Explorer , and choose Properties from the menu:
• Configure the dialog box to affect both Debug and Release builds:
  • Select the first drop-down and choose All Configurations .
• From the tree on the left, choose Configuration Properties | C/C++ | General Configuration Properties | C/C++ | General Configuration Properties | C/C++ | General . This option will only appear if you have at least one .c or .cpp file in your project.
• In the Additional Include Directories box, add the path to your Windows SDK Includes, for example: C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft SDKs\\Windows\\7.0A\\Include .
• Press Apply.
• You're now ready to include the Direct 3D header files in your C++ code files, ie #include <d3d11.h> .

Linking the libraries

The Direct 3D libraries are contained in the WindowsSDKPath\\Lib folder.

• From the tree on the left, choose Configuration Properties | Linker | Input Configuration Properties | Linker | Input Configuration Properties | Linker | Input .
• Tick the arrow on the drop-down of the Additional Dependencies field, choose Edit...
• In the pop-up dialog, add the full paths to each library, with each path on its own line, like so:
• Press Okay, then press Apply or Okay.

Your project should now be configured to build Direct 3D Applications.