FindNextValidTechnique, bad pointers

Greetings all, I'm a long time reader yet first time poster on the forums so thought I'd best start with a hello. :)

Alas, my first post does however come aside a question with regards to the HLSL. I have managed to get the HLSL working should I explicitly specify which techniques are to be loaded and when; the aim of my program however is based around strict component based design, allowing the users (other programmers) to modify and add to the engine thus, explicit specifications are a currently unwanted biproduct of my problem.

I currently have my effects stored as part of a vector of structs:

//Loaded effects objects and their associated parts.struct D3EFFECT_BUFFER{  LPD3DXEFFECT effect;                    //Main effects object.  string fileNameID;                      //Effects file location.  vector<D3DXHANDLE> *techniques;         //Techniques present for the effect object.  //Constructor for the struct.  D3EFFECT_BUFFER(){    effect = NULL;                        //Default the effect object to NULL;    techniques = new vector<D3DXHANDLE>;  //Default, create the vector for use.  }};  vector<D3EFFECT_BUFFER> *vpv_dbEffects;

I am then attempting to load a new effect via an 'add' method for the vector...the beginning code is as follows:

//Adds a new effect object to the 'vpv_dbEffects' vector.HRESULT DeviceGfx::dbEffectAdd(const string &fileName){  //Check to see if the vector is valid.  If not, create it.  if(vpv_dbEffects == NULL)    vpv_dbEffects = new vector<D3EFFECT_BUFFER>;    //Create the effect from file in accordance with the fileName.    D3EFFECT_BUFFER* newEffect = new D3EFFECT_BUFFER();    if(FAILED(D3DXCreateEffectFromFile(v_d3dDevice, fileName.c_str(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, &newEffect->effect, NULL)))        return DDIS_ERR;    newEffect->fileNameID = fileName;

Following this, I have attempted to iterate through each effect technique in two different ways:

1:

D3DXEFFECT_DESC desc;newEffect->effect->GetDesc(&desc);for(int x = 0; x < desc.Techniques; x(plusplus...code tags don't like the symbol here :())  newEffect->techniques->insert(newEffect->techniques->end(), newEffect->effect->GetTechnique(x));

2:

HRESULT hr = D3D_OK;D3DXHANDLE tech;hr = newEffect->effect->FindNextValidTechnique(NULL, &tech);while(hr == D3D_OK){  newEffect->techniques->insert(newEffect->techniques->end(), tech);  hr = newEffect->effect->FindNextValidTechnique(NULL, &tech);}vpv_dbEffects->insert(vpv_dbEffects->end(), *newEffect);

Both of the above attempts respond by returning a bad pointer...the first with the description will find two techniques and iterate correctly yet return a bad pointer for each, the second will get stuck in an infinite loop as the HRESULT is always S_OK.

Does anyone happen to have any ideas of where I'm potentially going wrong or for alternative workthroughs for the problem?


Thanks for your time...