Version 10 of Microsoft's API for 3D Graphics at the heart of DirectX 10. It was introduced with Windows 7. For Direct3D questions related to windows 10, use the more recent Direct3d12.
Direct3D is Microsoft's API for the rendering of 2D and 3D Graphics within the DirectX.
Direct3D10 corresponds to the version 10 introduced with Windows 7. Windows XP does not support it.
Originally called WGF 2.0 (Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0), then DirectX 10 and DirectX Next, Direct3D 10 features an updated shader model 4.0 and optional interruptibility for shader programs. In this model shaders still consist of fixed stages as on previous versions, but all stages support a nearly unified interface, as well as a unified access paradigm for resources such as textures and shader constants. The language itself has been extended to be more expressive, including integer operations, a greatly increased instruction count, and more C-like language constructs. In addition to the previously available vertex and pixel shader stages, the API includes a geometry shader stage that breaks the old model of one vertex in/one vertex out, to allow geometry to actually be generated from within a shader, allowing for complex geometry to be generated entirely on the graphics hardware.
See also:
- Direct3D on Wikipedia
- Direct3D10 reference from Mirosoft
