This works through an OS change, where the DirectX team split D3D12.dll into two:

The Agility SDK model lets this happen while also ensuring that there are no interruptions to existing games that rely on the System32 DirectX 12 runtime, D3D12.dll. With the Agility SDK model, the DirectX team fixes this problem by allowing any application to light up newer DirectX 12 functionality than what’s on a given OS.

With an OS version often taking take 1-2 years for a given feature to reach a critical mass of users before developers can justify adopting this feature, this meant that OS rollout used to be a bottleneck for the latest DirectX innovation. Even though shipping with the OS means that all DirectX 12 features eventually reach a large audience of gamers, this also meant that DirectX features were gated on an OS upgrade. The DirectX team used to rely solely on Windows 10 OS Updates to get DirectX feature updates onto gamer machines. What is the Agility SDK and how does it work? Visit the DirectX Landing Page for more resources for DirectX developers. What is the Agility SDK and how does it work?īe sure to also see our Announcement blog, Downloads Page, Game Stack Live talk and spec.This guide is intended for developers who want to get started developing games that use the Agility SDK. It covers:

Directx 12 sdk