What is DirectX and How Does it Work? (DX11 vs. DX12)

[@GregSalazar]

- I should clarify: An API is analogous to "blueprints" in the sense that both are "assistants" of the development phase. They are guides; tools to assist in compatible platform coding. Without them, their building phases would be *very* difficult. I tried my best to simplify this as much as I could! Any other contributions and analogies, especially from those who have also coded in the past, are welcome!

[@PixelYohan]

love your channel :)

[@FindTheMasterpiece]

Let's give it a try. From a SW developer point of view Direct3D is like a vending machine of graphics operations. You want a shape to be displayed on the screen? Send some numbers to Direct3D, press the "display shape" button (call the DisplayShape API) and Direct3D will display the shape on the screen for you. APIs of a library are like buttons on a vending machine. You could say that just like a window is the user interface for applications like a web browser, an API is the user interface for a programmer to send requests to libraries like Direct3D. To make a car turn right you turn the steering wheel right. To make Direct3D display a shape on the screen you tell it 'DisplayShape'. The car interface consists of pedals, steering wheel and a gear stick (shifter), the Direct3D interface is its APIs, like 'DisplayShape'. (DisplayShape is not a real function, it's just for demonstration)

[@teacake7525]

Thanks for posting this. Once again, great video, great channel,. subbed, liked, and shared. I like these types of videos and you do great research.

[@AwesomeBlackDude]

www.pcgamesn.com/amd/amd-rx-490-release-date-specs-price

[@matteoventura6344]

Not the analogy I would use but I guess it's fine

[@whaszup1]

I have been gaming and building PC's for years and knew that D3D/DirectX was a renderer, but I never knew what it actually did. You explained that very well and still kept it simple to understand.

[@PeloyGeek]

i was staring at that pc the whole video

[@rvrv512]

haha me too.

[@robertdaniel4804]

same:))

[@james2042]

he has nerd porn just sitting in the background. everyone should be looking at it

[@crikhard]

same

[@tarundabas5002]

PeloyGeek which game is at 0.18

[@nuclearreactor7058]

You're the most underrated tech you tuber on the site, keep up the great work

[@pacobalthazar3138]

indeed

[@Superstark70LP]

By The end of July ^^

[@thefauvel7558]

he is

[@the80386]

He is not the most under rated. Gamer Nexus is. And they are also an excellent channel.

[@ramasamyrajasekaran19]

And look at him now!!

[@KennedyJ]

You should have like 3 millions subs seriously you have great quality content

[@llTheJVlusicInMell]

Yes definately

[@lucasonwheels]

Science Studio > LTT > Keemstar

[@pacobalthazar3138]

let's help Greg get to the top! who is with me?

[@taiefmiah]

it's like the 8 bit studio channel. except for modern stuff

[@addi.1813]

ikr, there are some tech channels out there not making actual content, it's only a matter of time before Sc.Studio surpasses them (in sub. count)

[@omarshehab7167]

I had to overclock my brain to keep up with this..

[@Syncro_esm]

Sc.St is Easily becoming my favorite "Tech youtuber". I love your informative videos man, keep it up, always look forward to your next one! :)

[@kebinpak]

Your channel is really blowing up! I wish you the best of luck to 1 million subscribers.

[@QuantumRads]

Funny, AMD Graphics cards don't work well with AMD CPU's.

[@StonedSoldering]

Pre-ryzen is funny to think about now

[@Aneroll4Real]

So if I have ryzen 7 and rx 590 should I use dr3d 12? I'm so confused

[@oORoOFLOo]

From what I have heard, AMD GPU and AMD CPU are essentially two different companies under one name tag, they really work with eachother, which is really weird but you can clearly see the difference in quality of their CPUs vs GPUs where they are behind him, especially with drivers.

[@Jv19979]

Yeah my pc has ryzen 7 and 1080 256 ssd. Dang thing is fast

[@hardekailawadi]

@@oORoOFLOo so is the gpu better than the cpu?

[@der_pinguin44]

"You gon - you gonna take it?" This is what I like about you, Greg. You're human.

[@IronMan-vh1yo]

when a youtuber says that you can dislike his video if you didnt like it, he instantly deserves a huge like! not many youtubers do that

[@That1guythatdidthat1]

You do a great job at explaining things! Even if you talk fast and I have to re-watch videos twice to fully catch everything its still x10 better and faster to learn stuff! You're a great tech youtuber!

[@sus6788]

i played the video on 0.75 speed xD no need to rewatch

[@IAmStefanNixdorf]

First video i see from this channel and instantly subscribed. Just reading the titles of some of the other uploads + so much knowledge was enough to convince me.

[@Leyvin]

Alright... so I'm not sure if you're unfamiliar with what an API (specifically a Hardware API, like Direct3D or OpenGL) works or if you're just terrible at analogies. Still, I've been developing with DirectX all the way back to when it was still Win32-G[S] (Windows 32-bit Graphics Software) and yes before the popularisation of the term API (Application Programming Interface) by Microsoft in the late 90s; so what exactly is an API? Well the best way to explain it would be like a 'Common Phrase Translator' ... an actual working example of this is what Final Fantasy XI and XIV have for communication with party members, where you can type a phrase and press TAB then it provides you with a selection like or or ... regardless of what language you're using Party Commands are always the same, even if the actual words each person knows for them is different. What allows you to do that is like a Party API, it lets you communicate with something you don't necessarily have the direct ability to talk to while still allowing everyone to understand what's going on. • Each Component has their own Role, thus needs their own Phrase Book for effective communication with that Class but at the same time you have no idea if said person (component) that fills that Role is Japanese, English, German or French. So you can't just have Shortcuts but that Translation so that everyone is communicating (at least from their perspective) in the same Language. • So, now we get on to the difference between DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 ... well let's keep with the MMORPG Translator Analogy here and we will introduce our Players. Our Dragoon (NVIDIA) and our Summoner (AMD), believe me these are extremely apt for the different approaches these Architectures take; so as we've established our API is how we communicate with the rest of the Party. DirectX 11 is like you're Standard D-Pad Tree, where in order to Help with Complexity the Further down the Trees you go the more 'Specialised' the Phrases become; now this approach is great for the Dragoon because they only really want to be slapping a single target at a time using little more than Brute Force before they move on to the next. Thus this system allows them to really Flourish to their full potential, especially once all the options are memorised. DirectX 12 works different... Instead holding down either (or a Combination) will open up a Dialogue Menu selectable with a quick flick of either Control Stick. On top of this it's entirely customisable with your own Macros, which provides it with exceptional power to communicate complex series of actions over one big approach; this benefits the Summoner far more here because their situation is always changing and they're used to Multi-Tasking... it isn't that the previous system wasn't good for them, but they really needed to essentially already know roughly what they're doing and just need hints rather than the Party Leader taking a good 5 minutes to type out what needs to be done for them. The Dragoon can of course still remain reasonably effective, but now you're also capable of utilising the Summoner to their full effect. • Still why make this change? Why not simply have the Summoner change their Class to Dragoon or Bard? Well you could, but actually what the Summoner brings to the table allows you to tackle Bosses that would typically start to be a problem for Classes that aren't idea at Crowd Control or doing two Separate Things. • I'd also make it clear here, when the Developer promises for several Expansions that an "Overhaul to the Translator is 'Coming Soon' in the next Expansion" ... well rather than leveling an entire new Class you're going to stick with what you like and know assuming the dev isn't lying. On top of this obviously those in Rival Classes to your own, don't exactly want to end up in long queues because at the moment they're basically the "Go To" DPS; so they're going to keep telling the Developer that the current system is FINE. With less Summoners (because they're more difficult and seen as 'Crappy' by others) this results typically in a voice that is less loud about an obvious issue that NEEDED to be resolved so that everyone could get back to playing how /they/ want to not how someone else wants them to play. • Now to me that probably far better explains the API, Differences and even Politics behind DirectX and the Major Players in a way that likely is going to be easily relatable. I could always do a more dry, technical version. [p.s. sorry about the block of text, just something that happens for me on ANY other Browser than Chrome; and frankly F-You Google, you can't force me to use a Browser I despite with a passion]

[@GregSalazar]

My analogy was sound. Read my original comment.

[@ianhamilton350]

Salazar Studio Your analogy was not sound. A blueprint would be more akin to the actual code written by the programmer, while the APIs would be the teams of people following the blueprint to create the building. Taking that a step further you could say that computer hardware is the tools used by the teams of people, and data is the materials When I watch your videos, you *seem* to be a very knowledgeable person with a deeper understanding of these subjects that other KZbinrs don't go into detail about. But then you don't go into detail either, really. You just throw out a bunch of analogies, one or two real world examples, and allude to your deeper knowledge of the subject and I, the viewer who came to your channel seeking this knowledge, find I haven't really learned much. I'm guessing you do this to simplify things and reach a broader audience. Don't. You aren't helping spread information, or creating a community of learned enthusiasts, you're amassing a group of followers who will praise you for your supposedly superior knowledge without having actually gained much of anything from your content. Unless that's what your going for, I guess

[@mptcultist]

Thank you for your excellent, in depth defense of your view, lord Salazar.

[@logicalfundy]

As a programmer, when I think about blueprints, I think about design patterns and algorithms. When I think about APIs, I generally think in terms of communication and interaction, rather than in terms of design. APIs are how the software you write interacts with and communicates with the operating system and other software.

[@MisterMuffin_]

I saw the request for this video on Twitter. It's great how you care about your viewers opinions :3

[@12theunknown12]

Great Video! Really liking these crash course type videos. Keep it up and you'll see that subscriber count multiply.

[@pqfamilyadventures]

Hm, it's always a bit hard to walk the line between over-simplifying and over-complicating, but you do it pretty well. Subbed.

[@GregSalazar]

Welcome aboard.

[@jayrambo1855]

I follow a lot of tech guys on here, but hands down u r definitely the smartest. Great channel keep up the good work bud.

[@patrickanderson9558]

graphics APIs describe a standard or generic GPU on a software level which programmers can write code to work with. The manufacturer then writes software for the computer to access the GPU following the API thus as long as they follow the API any program can then interact with any GPU.

[@ceezar]

I'd like to request an in depth video explaining how a graphics card works. what kind of data enters the gpu fed from the cpu and how it turns into the signal sent to the monitor. break down of all the gpu parts like Sm Rop Tmu so on and what they do. I've watched a million videos that sum up to "a gpu has thousands of small processors working in parallel solving math equations".

[@ingeborgsvensson4896]

And now it's 2019 and AMD has a 12 core processor and plans for a 16 core while Intel is desperately trying to keep up the pace. How things can change in only a few years time. ;) Great video btw, thanks!

[@GreenCowsGames]

Keep up the crashcourse series. Imo the best one on the channel so far!

[@letchukki]

I rarely see good and simple video like this, gj man!

[@csmith9684]

These crash course vids are fantastic!

[@SharaPrincessOfPowers]

Thank you for the amazing video. Process threads synchronization with accuracy on timing, the calculation and division for each cor from ALU... The physics behind that details and verification methods on how it got the exact value of timestamp for synchronization into data being processed output. Amazing... Inspired.

[@raider1779]

I had to watch twice to understand everything. So much useful information

[@Swing4gr8nessN8]

see this is why i enjoy your channel. i love the product reviews and versus videos but it's when you explain the engineering to us simpleminded folks what i really enjoy! Keep up the great work! Soon you'll hit 100k followers!

[@DriLL3iT]

That massive Marshall stack tho. Holy sh**. Good vid/explanation and I'm officially a new subscriber :)

[@BernieFromTheInternet]

I give this a thumbs up for partially convincing me I'll be fine with my 8350 for a few more years since DX 12 and Vulcan are designed for 8 cores max

[@chasebarnard1223]

excellent DX12 & APi tutorial! all your vids are fantastic with superb attention to detail!

[@STNG17-]

I hope you can upload a follow up on this topic because, why not? :D Keep your good content, you're the man!

[@Maeryaenus]

Great video with a lot of sense! I love the way you light up the deepth of "how it works". Looking forward for more videos like this.

[@12theunknown12]

Could you please put annotation links in the description? Many users watch your videos on mobile and want to see the videos you're referring to.

[@GregSalazar]

You can click the cards in mobile.

[@12theunknown12]

+Science Studio oh I don't use the KZbin app so I didn't realize that works with annotations. Okay thanks for the quick reply!

[@mrskippingguyonmush]

Rocking that shinedown shirt! One of my favorite bands man!

[@EvelynRoods]

Completely off topic, but I noticed you were wearing a shinedown shirt. I like that shirt. I've been listening to shinedown's music for a while and have about half of their songs stuck in my head.

[@Chocwish]

Great topic. Loving this Crash Course series!

[@Gammanoize]

Thanks for the small footage of the sphere in it. When I was making a scarface level in Dedit (Shogo mobile armour devision game) I couldnt get that done. It looks so simple now. Maybe I should have googled it back in those days.

[@CHADRJUNG]

Love your videos man, keep up the good work!

[@AK-IT]

once more, this is what i wanted to know for a while now. thanks

[@Darkhalo314]

Runescape! I love that game. My fucking childhood!

[@prabalrh]

Yessss same!!!

[@mrskippingguyonmush]

played from 2005-2013 it was my fucking childhood

[@whosdr]

I'm surprised it turned up here. Wouldn't expect people to know the Java client was capable of both APIs.

[@MrMatapatapa]

unfortunately they ruined with with no PvP and trade limits, and the newly crappified battle system

[@flyingsamosa5282]

+Matapatapa VenomPS is a very good old school server. You should check it out

[@StandTallTx]

Nice video. I love these kind of deep dive videos on tech. Also classy use of the marshall cabinets as secondary decor.

[@dady924]

Your videos are so good man. Keep up the good work.

[@turjo119]

You're videos are so damn educational! Damn man I can see you going really far as a tech youtuber! Keep up the good stuff

[@C0nnie]

Looking forward to you shredding that Marshall can in the back

[@99meows]

love the videos man ! learning alot keep it up you will be big soon!

[@dhkatz_]

That whole building analogy could have been way better. Buildings are built on foundations and especially tall buildings need even more expansive foundations. APIs can be seen as the foundation for game creation because they dictate everything possible with current design methods.

[@GregSalazar]

I'm sticking with my blueprints (tools and guidelines) analogy, but that works as well.

[@LEXTHE4]

APIs are not blueprints, they're tools like CAD software, templates, regulations. Blueprints are more like source code.

[@GregSalazar]

You are confused. Blueprints are templates and guidelines for builders.

[@FrankieHiltz]

Nice Shinedown shirt, been a fan since the first album :] Thanks for the video though, love this stuff :D

[@andezzat]

Pretty good fairly in-depth video. Keep up the quality content :D

[@thomasjarvis3608]

I think the dog should deffo be part of every video

[@pinochska]

Your content is superb! Where do you get all the animations? They really help

[@bradleywalton970]

This raised more questions than answers

[@MorgueOfficialMusic]

Hmm. I've been wondering about details of Direct X for a long time. After 2 minutes of this my brain just switched off.

[@kole076]

Love these videos, subscribed af

[@-whiskey-4134]

Came for DX11 vs DX12, stayed for that massive Marshall cab behind you and because your PC rigs lights are a bit therapeutic.

[@mhmjamesdillon]

First time commenting/viewer. What is with that giant marshal amp? And do you have any music online.

[@AlexRuark]

I see that Marshall cab, and I'm just wondering when you're gonna talk about the SHARC DSP in the fractal and line 6 multi effects!

[@Ex_Arc]

I like the video but I hate everything about life, what do I do? like or dislike it?

[@thomasmahase]

share

[@xamnition]

You watched this video in ur life so u cant h8 everything about life

[@grrr1351]

I did dislike one of his video, because I was having a bad day

[@grrr1351]

I did dislike one of his video, because I was having a bad day

[@Paranoid1996]

If you liked this video you no longer hate everything about life.

[@youssefakenkar459]

Thank you for the course ! keep up

[@mitthjarta5]

interesting thing you might not be aware of, is for while now (year or 2) WINE (windows compatibility layer) on Linux has allowed Command Streams (Direct3D calls to graphics hardware) to run in a multi-threaded dispatch mode via CSMT(command stream multi-threading), this means (i can attest to this) On AMD CPU + AMD GPU, you see substantial improvements where you'd traditionally see bottlenecks. It means even D3D9 receives multi-threading abilities, as well as increasing the 2 thread\core limit on DX10/11. Of course they've only implemented D3D9 in it's entirety. No DX10/11 they they're making progress towards DX10 and 11 features however (you can also run and dispatch native D3D9 instructions directly to the hardware, via the Gallium-nine state tracker, but that's different) By default however WINE translates D3D calls to OpenGL which has an overhead (and as we've seen on windows, openGL has a much higher driver overhead on AMD), CSMT mitigates that however.

[@roginus]

any plans on a ram cas latency vs frequency vid?

[@techprospcshop]

fantastic vid.. so to sum it all up. im still really confused. so when building a new unit, use radeon graphics with amd processor or intel processor in favor of direct x 12 and monitors supporting freesync technology to take full advantage of the new direct x 12?

[@vexyboi267]

That is a HUGE amplifier man... Cheers!

[@dolinydoliny2699]

You can also make a video about differencies between OpenGL and DirectX + maybe performance comparision.

[@THErealJJGrayg]

FUCKING HELL YEAH SHINEDOWN THAT DEMANDS A HELL OF A LOT OF RESPECT

[@reiannaidoo]

I put my PC on this morning, went strait to science studio and BOOM, another video hit out the park. Great job. They'll know soon enough how important you are. PS: My second channel was Linus Lol

[@xKINGZ583x]

I normally don't actually watch these, just listen. You're nice to look at tho.

[@ItsCith]

Great video!! Love your channel mate. :)

[@JoJoModding]

I think you misunderstood what an api is, so let me explain: An API allows a programm to use other programs, devices or anything without really knowing how that device work. A printer API allows a programmer to easily direct a printer to print an A without having to control the inner workings of the printer. Even more, the programmer does not need to care what kind of printer he is using. He simply uses the API. The printer manufacturer then writes the device driver and the firmware of the printer, which actually move the ink cardridge in the printer to the right space. It's the same thing with OpenGL or D3D: The program simply directs the GPU to draw some triangle here and give it that inage as texture. The OS and device driver then get to work and do all the hard stuff like rasterizing, blending, sending the image to the monitor and so on. You, on the other hand saved a lot of time and can focus on making your game great.

[@PhantomShane914]

loving the more informational videos :D

[@TrevorLentz]

Sad to not see a mention of Vulkan when mentioning OpenGL and DX. Enjoyable video regardless. :)

[@Dominus_Potatus]

Love how you explain it again

[@legendray2008]

This guy is underrated.

[@minh_710]

Now we need a video on asynchronous compute :)

[@briandeady575]

Greg, liking the Shinedown shirt. Science Studio is great!

[@james2042]

Oh man cant wait for vega. Something that goes toe to toe with the 1080 in dx11 but will steamroll it in dx12

[@smithwillnot]

Deciding on GPU in this generation is going to be nightmare. Personally I would like CUDA cores for non-gaming 3D rendering, but it looks like nvidia won't be as good for gaming (dx12), unless they can change something with driver updates, which might not be possible if what you said about hardware is limitation is true... Plus openCL is catching up with non-gaming GPU 3D rendering but it seems like slow process.

[@grimblankjustblank4316]

0:13 I do believe that is ashes of singularity for those curious I didn't read the description.

[@ezuanmukhriz1637]

Keep up the good work dude. Greet from Malaysia. 👍

[@progamer00006]

wow you already got 4 times the amount of subscribers you had when i subscribed... respect!

[@blairlohnes8103]

I was totally influenced by Shinedown!! Although I probably sound nothing like them. :P

[@urielsegura3910]

slow down...

[@GregSalazar]

No.

[@urielsegura3910]

+Science Studio haha I had to repeat some parts of the video to fully understand . English is not my native language that's why, but overall great job 👍

[@GregSalazar]

Thanks for watching and being a good sport!

[@urielsegura3910]

+Science Studio no prob , you still have my sub 😁

[@FindTheMasterpiece]

One of the main reasons I like this channel is the speed. You have to stay sharp to get it all.

[@AleksandarIvanov69]

Dude, thank you for that video! I was just about to research that on my own, but I guess I don't need it now :D Can I make a suggestion for a video on something really interesting I found this morning ?

[@FuPlaayz]

Good Stuff, as usual ! Thx.

[@tlita93]

I wish how Piledriver performs using Vulkan in Doom. It must be(speculation) way better then in GL, or even in other DX11 games. Anyway, great video. I actually thought that you'll talk about some generic stuff that, maybe, a lot of advanced users do already know. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, so really great video mate. :)

[@Nightstalker350119]

Btw what you were saying "if your graphics card doesn't support a version of Directx you can't use that api on that card is incorrect. You can specify a D3DCreation call when creating a Device and Swapchain to use a software driver fall back to actually use that version of the api ;)

[@chiefmad3732]

even if he speaks ultra fast how the video is transitioning from an idea to another with examples make me ingest all information's so fast wish i understood everything in my life this Fast :)

[@licensetochill1299]

I had a AMD FX 8330 paired with a GTX 1060. When I use OpenGL I was averaging between 70-90 FPS on high-ultra. When I turned it to Vulkan it was like 120+. I’m assuming it’s the way the CPU was being utilized.

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

What I kinda don't like about DX12 is, well, you keep not knowing how exactly it works. But in Vulkan, which is more straight-forward in my opinion, the way you would use multiple cores are, you would try to record multiple command queues and then send them to GPU at once, (and while waiting for that you can do something else) to reduce the waiting time. You can even pre-bake command queues and use it in every single frame in Vulkan, which I'm not sure if it's possible in DX12, to eliminate some of the redundent IO processes. And in addition to that, Vulkan and DX12 offers more low-level APIs so that things are not as CPU-bound as before, and there's less overhead when coming to GPU performance. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will get higher FPS though, you only get the possibility of achieving higher FPS. The thing is, some of the stuffs used to be handled by the graphics API and now you need to deal with it yourself, but that doesn't mean you don't have to do those stuffs.

[@photonboy999]

How DX12 affects noise and temperature would be interesting to investigate once more titles are out. Look at how demanding the older FURMARK app can get and it's not even DX12. I assume simple, similar code minimizes times the GPU is left waiting. Perhaps the TIME SPY demo would be a realistic representation? Will some games be unplayable? If the GPU is using more of its processing in the same time period it's going to run hotter and/or throttle down the GPU (as well as throttle up the fan). So it's a bit confusing so I guess we'd have to look at noise and performance at the same time using the DEFAULT fan profile to avoid further confusion.

[@bobbyjoe90]

Wait so you're telling me... DirectX isn't a CS: GO aimbot? Someone told me I would get VAC banned so I deleted it but no my CS: GO doesn't work? VAC Ban?

[@chadbullock6326]

Lol

[@darianalexander5503]

Can't tell if ignorant or troll...

[@dapp5574]

lol

[@nuclearreactor7058]

dude directX is a graphics API

[@lucasonwheels]

+Darian Alexander (Nerd With The Glasses) He's trolling

[@expresszor]

Subbed, you have great videos and keep 'em coming :)

[@bullettime2808]

Really missing this era of the channel 😢

[@josiahjones5293]

Salazar I have a question Dx12 seems to gimp my 1070 not a little A LOT is this a possible trend going forward ? or is the dx12 software development issue? I may switch back to team red when a 490x is released(6700k 4.6 16 gig 3466 G skill Asus saber Tooth mark 1 and and evga FTW 1070 running at 2088)

[@Pastechi]

You know....watching your video's makes me wonder how dahell you only have 75k subs.... Good work on this video

[@drmonstaa1]

i just realized that marshall cab behind you lol. what's your amp head?

[@therealnmg]

Maan your original case looks so good. :)

[@Hypersystemoff]

Haha bro!.. That Chili framework. That guy's the fucking man I tell you.

[@angelinapeden7553]

Oh my god I love your shirt!!!! Shinedown is the best!

[@jeobbbb]

hi greg. can you do a video like this again but this time, you talk about zen 2 v intel? and/or the difference between turing- and pascal-based GPUs?