Initializing Communication with the Direct3D User-Mode Display Driver

To initialize communication with the Microsoft Direct3D user-mode display driver DLL's version 11 DDI, the Direct3D runtime first loads the DLL. The Direct3D runtime next calls the user-mode display driver's OpenAdapter function through the DLL's export table to open an instance of the graphics adapter. The OpenAdapter function is the DLL's only exported function.

In the call to the driver's OpenAdapter function, the runtime supplies the pfnQueryAdapterInfoCb adapter callback function in the pAdapterCallbacks member of the D3DDDIARG_OPENADAPTER structure. The runtime also supplies its version in the Interface and Version members of D3DDDIARG_OPENADAPTER. The user-mode display driver must verify that it can use this version of the runtime. The user-mode display driver returns a table of its adapter-specific functions in the pAdapterFuncs member of D3DDDIARG_OPENADAPTER.

The user-mode display driver should call the pfnQueryAdapterInfoCb adapter callback function to query for the graphics hardware capabilities from the display miniport driver.

The runtime calls the user-mode display driver's CreateDevice function (one of the driver's adapter-specific functions) to create a display device for handling a collection of render state and to complete the initialization. When the initialization is complete, the Direct3D runtime can call the display driver-supplied functions, and the user-mode display driver can call the runtime-supplied functions.

The user-mode display driver's CreateDevice function is called with a D3DDDIARG_CREATEDEVICE structure whose members are set up in the following manner to initialize the user-mode display driver interface:

  • The runtime sets Interface to the version of the interface that the runtime requires from the user-mode display driver.

  • The runtime sets Version to a number that the driver can use to identify when the runtime was built. For example, the driver can use the version number to differentiate between a runtime released with Windows Vista and a runtime released with a subsequent service pack, which might contain a fix that the driver requires.

  • The runtime sets hDevice to specify the handle that the driver should use when the driver calls back into the runtime. The driver generates a unique handle and passes it back to the runtime in hDevice. The runtime should use the returned hDevice handle in subsequent driver calls.

  • The runtime supplies a table of its device-specific callback functions in the D3DDDI_DEVICECALLBACKS structure to which pCallbacks points. The user-mode display driver calls the runtime-supplied callback functions to access kernel-mode services in the display miniport driver.

  • The user-mode display driver returns a table of its device-specific functions in the D3DDDI_DEVICEFUNCS structure to which pDeviceFuncs points.

Note

The number of display devices (graphics contexts) that can simultaneously exist is limited only by available system memory.