PIX

PIX is a debugging and analysis tool that captures detailed information from a Direct3D application as it executes. PIX can be configured to gather data such as the list of Direct3D APIs called, timing information, mesh vertices before and after transformations, screenshots, and select statistics. PIX can also be used for debugging vertex and pixel shaders, including setting breakpoints and stepping through shader code.

In This Section

The documentation for PIX includes:

User's Guide

Describes the features of PIX and how to make use of them.

PIX Tutorials and Samples

Tutorials that demonstrate how to analyze some common application problems.

Reference

A complete description of the user interface to operate PIX.

Versions

PIX runs with the following versions of DirectX.

Both 32 and 64-bit implementations of PIX are distributed with Direct3D.

Recommendations

It is recommended that developers use the version of PIX native to the runtime version used on the development platform: the 32-bit version of PIX for 32-bit versions of windows; use the 64-bit version of PIX for 64-bit windows. When Direct3D is installed, file associations and the program menu are set to support this configuration.

The 64-bit version of PIX can be used with either 32 or 64-bit applications under 64-bit versions of Windows, although this may require administrative privileges under Vista (see PIX Requirements for Windows Vista for more information).

Note     PIX experiment files and run files have the same format regardless of the version of the runtime or the operating system. Therefore, a run file captured on a 32-bit version of Windows can be played back on a 64-bit version of Windows to make sure that the run file (and therefore the program it is derived from) will render correctly in that environment.

Path

On a 32-bit operating system, the 32-bit version of PIX is located in:

On a 64-bit operating system, the 64-bit version of PIX is located in:

See Also

DirectX Performance Tools