d3dx11.lib not found?

Question

I'm using Windows 8 / Visual Studio 2012, C++11 and Direct3D 11 for development.

I include the Direct3D libraries like this

#pragma comment(lib, "dxgi.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "d3d11.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "d3dx11.lib") // <-- error LNK1104: cannot open file 'd3dx11.lib'
#pragma comment(lib, "d3dx10.lib")

However, the linker can't seem to find the d3dx11.lib. After adding the path where the library is located to the 'Library directories' of the project, the linker still can't find those files. Even after I copied the lib files into the project directory itself, it doesn't work.

I installed the Windows 8 SDK as well as the DirectX SDK from June 2010. Am I missing anything?

Are you sure the "D3DX11" lib file is included with those you're copying? I suppose you can link it in, but the D3DX utility library is no longer supported - in fact you don't need to download the 2010 SDK at all. D3DX has been replaced with the DirectXMath library (XMMath). The conversion is a bit of a pain, but not too bad. — Mark Stevens
Ok. Didn't knew that. I'm pretty new to D3D11. I will see how to do it without this lib. — bytecode77
Sometimes D3DX is the way to go (I don't use DirectXMath because it complicates interop with CUDA). Also, some interfaces for DirectXMath are poor for porting (e.g. initialization). Did you find a fix? (A way of sticking with Windows SDK and neatly accessing D3DX?) — axon

Mark Stevens Mark Stevens · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-30T15:13:09

When dealing with this myself, I started here:

Where is the DirectX SDK?

then - in about the middle of that page, reading about DirectXMath:

DirectXMath

It's pretty much just including the right header files and changing "D3DX" prefixes to "XM". Not quite that simple, but that's the general idea.

Your first program will probably have inclusions/usings like this:

#include <d3d11.h>
#include “DirectXMath.h”
#include “DirectXPackedVector.h”

using namespace DirectX; 
using namespace DirectX::PackedVector;

struct mystruct
{
   DirectX::XMFLOAT3 position;
   DirectX::PackedVector::HALF packedValue;
};

Of course, it's not considered best practice to have "using namespace", but in this one instance I found that "DirectX::" on every line of my program was making my program almost impossible (for me) to read - so I went with the "using".

Good luck!

d3dx11.lib not found?

3 Answers