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Why does D3DX11CompileFromFile keep returning a NULL pointer?

Started by jiro27 Sep 23, 2012 at 8:59 PM 4 replies 4.7k views

Original Post

Sep 23, 2012 at 8:59 PM

Hi everyone, I'm really new to DirectX programming and I have been having a problem with the attached code, [attachment=11424:drawTriangle.txt], where I am getting the error:
Unhandled exception at 0x777b15de in d3dDrawTriangle.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0x00000000.

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I've narrowed the problem down to these lines:[/font]
[font=courier new,courier,monospace] // load and compile the two shaders[/font]
[font=courier new,courier,monospace] ID3D10Blob *VS, *PS;
ID3D10Blob *VErrorMessage, *PErrorMessage;
D3DX11CompileFromFile(L"shaders.hlsl", 0, 0, "VShader", "vs_5_0", 0, 0, 0, &VS, &VErrorMessage, 0); // for some reason this is returning a NULL pointer for &VS
D3DX11CompileFromFile(L"shaders.hlsl", 0, 0, "PShader", "ps_5_0", 0, 0, 0, &PS, &PErrorMessage, 0); // for some reason this is returning s NULL pointer for &PS[/font]
[font=courier new,courier,monospace] // encapsulate both shaders into shader objects
dev->CreateVertexShader(VS->GetBufferPointer(), VS->GetBufferSize(), NULL, &pVS);
dev->CreatePixelShader(PS->GetBufferPointer(), PS->GetBufferSize(), NULL, &pPS);[/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]After some research I figured out that for some reason, D3DX11CompileFromFile is returning a NULL pointer, so when it tries to use VS, and I'm assuming PS, it is NULL, and thus doesn't work. I've tried updating my graphics card driver, but that hasn't helped, and I have no idea how to fix this problem. [/font][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Any help would be amazing.[/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Also, here's the shader file I am using:[/font]
struct VOut
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][font=courier new,courier,monospace]{
float4 position : SV_POSITION;
float4 color : COLOR;
};[/font][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][font=courier new,courier,monospace]VOut VShader(float4 position : POSITION, float4 color : COLOR)
{
VOut output;[/font][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][font=courier new,courier,monospace] output.position = position;
output.color = color;[/font][/font]
[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][font=courier new,courier,monospace] return output;
}[/font][/font]

[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][font=courier new,courier,monospace]float4 PShader(float4 position : SV_POSITION, float4 color : COLOR) : SV_TARGET
{
return color;
}[/font][/font]

21st Century Moose

Sep 23, 2012 at 9:32 PM

If you take your VErrorMessage and PErrorMessage blobs, call GetBufferPointer on them and cast the result to "char *" it will tell you what went wrong. Most probable is that it can't find the files you specify.

char *verror = (char *) VErrorMessage->GetBufferPointer ();
 char *perror = (char *) PErrorMessage->GetBufferPointer ();

jiro27

Sep 24, 2012 at 1:55 AM

If you take your VErrorMessage and PErrorMessage blobs, call GetBufferPointer on them and cast the result to "char *" it will tell you what went wrong. Most probable is that it can't find the files you specify.

Alright, I did that, and the char on both Error Messages results to this:
= CXX0030: Error: expression cannot be evaluated
I don't really get what that means, and I have moved the shaders.hlsl file into the project file, but that hasn't helped. I'm still stuck...

Nik02

Sep 24, 2012 at 6:01 AM

If you provide the file name but not the path, the file is expected to be in the same directory as the executable. The file being included in the project does not in any way guarantee this.

A robust way is to get the path of the executable using GetModuleFileName (, strip the exe file name from that), and concatenate it with the shader file name.

The error blobs do not catch "file not found", because the errors are written by the compiler after it actually gets to work on a found file data.

eppo

Sep 24, 2012 at 1:50 PM

Have you ever checked the return code (HRESULT) of the D3DX11CompileFromFile() call?

If it's unclear whether the FromFile() methods even know where to find the files in the first place, you should use a custom loader for the hlsl data. First make sure the data is available, then pass it to D3DX11CompileFromMemory.

jiro27

Sep 25, 2012 at 7:01 PM

Alright, maybe I need to first ask how I properly add a shader file to VC++ 2010 in the first place, as this might be the main problem.

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