GitHub - A Call to Action
general-
Since the deprecation of the original DirectX SDK back in ~2011, I’ve been developing and maintaining a number of Open Source projects to fill the gaps left behind when the core DirectX components moved to the Windows SDK. A lot of this was to replace legacy D3DX which had great utility but was effectively abandoned, never to be serviced again. It was also an attempt to modernize the utilities for C++11, make them more easily consumable by professional and hobbyist developers, and to merge in learning from other variants like the Xbox XGraphics libraries.
For the majority of that time, I have been the sole developer. I’ve had sporatic contributions from various people–you can review the Credits section of the readmes or the project wiki to see the full list–, but they have for most of the past decade+ been my personal passion projects. At the beginning of July, I was impacted along with a large number of my colleges by the layoffs. One of my concerns was the fate of these projects because they have remained in a ‘one bus-factor’ state.
Thankfully, for the moment, I was able to find Microsoft people to take ownership of them since I lost corp access, but without a lot of personal passion and drive I’m not sure how long that will last. I’m also not sure where I’ll land in this very chaotic tech market. I am able to contribute as an “outside” developer for now, but ultimately these projects won’t last if there is no Microsoft FTE keeping the lights on.
I had purposely avoided putting telemetry into these projects as I felt it was not appropriate for these tools under the MIT license, but that also means there’s a data gap about adoption beyond some download/clone numbers. As such, if you have found these libraries to be valuable, included them in shipping products, or included them in your indie titles, it would be helpful to have the new owners hear and see your feedback to help justify investment to their management.
I have created an issue on each project where you can add any comments you may have:
You can also provide feedback on the DirectX Discord Server and/or Xbox Game Dev Discord Server.
Starring the GitHub projects if you haven’t already could also be helpful.
Thanks.
-Chuck Walbourn LinkedIn