IndirectX

IndirectX is a term used in software development discussions to describe an abstraction or framework intended to support indirect rendering techniques within DirectX-based graphics pipelines. It is not an official Microsoft product or a standardized API.

In practice, indirectX appears in blogs, tutorials, and prototype projects as a concept rather than a released library. Proponents envision a layer that simplifies managing indirect draw and dispatch calls, resource lifetimes, and shader-based global illumination effects across DirectX 12-compatible backends.

A typical indirectX-like design would expose components such as an indirect command buffer that collects DrawIndirect and DispatchIndirect arguments, a resource manager for buffers and textures used during shading, and a shader library or runtime for indirect lighting, ambient occlusion, and other global illumination techniques. It would leverage DirectX 12 features such as ExecuteIndirect, descriptor heaps, and root signatures to decouple the application from low-level details while preserving performance.

Because indirectX is not standardized, implementations vary and most references remain experimental or educational. Real-world adoption remains limited, with most studios relying on bespoke pipelines, existing DX12 features, or alternative GI solutions rather than a common indirectX framework.

See also DirectX, Direct3D, indirect rendering, global illumination, compute shaders.