Member list shows you a list of valid members from a type or namespace. Member list and Quick Info, as shown in the following screenshot, are just two examples of the IntelliSense features Visual Studio offers to make code writing easier and faster.
Use the full power of Visual Studio productivity features, including IntelliSense and code navigation, to write your game code in C++. Now we have a basic 3D app running, it’s time to add game logic in C++. Write C++ code with the full power of the Visual Studio IDE To build a DirectX desktop app, you can start with the Win32 Project template in the New Project dialog, or download a Win32 game template, or download a sample from DirectX11 samples or DirectX12 samples as a starting point. You should see a colored 3D cube spinning on your screen. Select one template and click OK.Īfter the project is created, you’re all set to run the DirectX app right away by pressing F5 or clicking Debug-> Start with debugging from the menu. Use the menu item New-> Project to launch the New Project dialog and then type “DirectX” in the search box in the upper right corner to find the project templates for DirectX: DirectX11 App, DirectX12 App, DirectX11 and XAML App. The UWP workload comes with 3 DirectX project templates. The “Graphics debugger and GPU profiler” component is highly recommended for DirectX development, as it brings in the Graphics Diagnostics feature for DirectX graphics debugging and GPU Usage feature for profiling GPU and CPU usage in DirectX games. The C++ UWP component adds the core C++ UWP support and 3 DirectX project templates for DirectX11 and DirectX12 to get you started quickly.
If you’re also interested in building DirectX games for UWP to run on a variety of devices in the Windows family, you can install the tools by checking the “ Universal Windows Platform development” workload under the “ Windows” category with the “ C++ Universal Windows Platform tools” option selected. Unreal Engine installer: installs Epic Games Launcher from, which you can use to download and install the Unreal Engine.Cocos: installs Cocos Creator from, the editor for building Cocos2d games.IncrediBuild: installs IncrediBuild from, a distributed computing solution for code builds, data builds and development tasks.Windows 8.1 SDK and UCRT (Universal C Runtime) SDK.
The pre-selected components are highly recommended. This workload gives you the core tools to build DirectX games for desktop, which includes the Visual Studio core editor, Visual C++ compiler, Windows Universal C Runtime, and Visual Studio debugger. To build DirectX desktop games, choose the “ Game development with C++” workload under the “ Mobile & Gaming” category. Install Visual Studio for DirectX developmentįirst, download Visual Studio 2017 and launch the Visual Studio installer.
Finally, we will talk about how to test your DirectX game and collaborate with your team members using Visual Studio. Next we will use the world-class Visual Studio debugger and the Visual Studio DirectX graphics debugger and profiler to catch and fix issues in the code.
First we’ll look at how to acquire the tools needed for DirectX desktop and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) development, then we will get started with a built-in project template, followed by writing C++ code and HLSL (High Level Shader Language) shaders for the DirectX game. In this blog post we will dive into DirectX development with C++ in Visual Studio.
Leverage the full power of C++ to build high-end games powered by DirectX to run on a variety of devices in the Windows family, including desktops, tablets, and phones.