Passing D3DFMT_UNKNOWN into IDirect3DDevice9::CreateTexture()

Question

I'm kind of wondering about this, if you create a texture in memory in DirectX with the CreateTexture function:

HRESULT CreateTexture(
  UINT Width,
  UINT Height,
  UINT Levels,
  DWORD Usage,
  D3DFORMAT Format,
  D3DPOOL Pool,
  IDirect3DTexture9** ppTexture,
  HANDLE* pSharedHandle
);

...and pass in D3DFMT_UNKNOWN format what is supposed to happen exactly? If I try to get the surface of the first or second level will it cause an error? Can it fail? Will the graphics device just choose a random format of its choosing? Could this cause problems between different graphics card models/brands?

Answer 1

MSDN doesn't say. But I'm pretty sure you'd get "D3DERR_INVALIDCALL" as a result.

If the method succeeds, the return value is D3D_OK. If the method fails, the return value can be one of the following: D3DERR_INVALIDCALL, D3DERR_OUTOFVIDEOMEMORY, E_OUTOFMEMORY.

Answer 2

I just tried it out and it does not fail, mostly

When Usage is set to D3DUSAGE_RENDERTARGET or D3DUSAGE_DYNAMIC, it consistently came out as D3DFMT_A8R8G8B8, no matter what I did to the back buffer format or other settings. I don't know if that has to do with my graphics card or not. My guess is that specifying unknown means, "pick for me", and that the 32-bit format is easiest for my card.

When the usage was D3DUSAGE_DEPTHSTENCIL, it failed consistently.

So my best conclusion is that specifying D3DFMT_UNKNOWN as the format gives DirectX the choice of what it should be. Or perhaps it always just defaults to D3DFMT_A8R8G8B.

Sadly, I can't confirm any of this in any documentation anywhere. :|

Answer 3

I think this falls into the "undefined" category. Some drivers will fail the allocations, while others may default to something. I've never seen anything in the WDK that says that this condition needs to be handled. I'm guessing if you enable the debug DX runtime you will see an error message.