Using DX12 incorrectly

[Käs__Tobias]

Hi, not sure if this is an actual driver bug or expected behavior because I (obviously) use the API wrong.

When I specify the wrong format for a DX12 DepthStencilView the whole screen freaks out (not just for the application but for complete Windows). I did expect the application to crash or the driver to restart, but not for Windows to freak out.

I understand if it's not possible to fix this because DX12 is a low level API, but I thought it's worth reporting to someone in case there is a real bug (like a missing parameter validation).

Instructions for reproduction below, if required I can provide a zipped version of the sample project, but its based on a stock VS 2015 template with a single line edited. (I wanted to check if the D3D12 debug layers work and report errors and as a side effect discovered that the whole driver reacts very badly.)

System Setup Information:
-----------------------------------------

System Used: Surface Pro 4
CPU SKU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6650U
GPU SKU: Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics 540
Processor Line: (Y-Series, U-Series, etc.)
System BIOS Version:
CMOS settings:
Graphics Driver Version: 20.19.15.4326
GOP/VBIOS Version: 103.873.768
Operating System: Windows 10 (64 Bit)
OS Version: 10.0 Build 10586
API: DirectX 12

Steps to Reproduce:
-------------------------------
1. Launch VS 2015 SP 1
2. Create a new Visual C++ project from template "DirectX 12 App (Universal Windows)"
3. in Common/DeviceResources.cpp line 325 change format of the D3D12_DEPTH_STENCIL_VIEW_DESC to DXGI_FORMAT_R32_FLOAT
4. build the app (in Debug configuration) and execute it

Expected Results:
-------------------------------
possibly a crash of the application, possibly some driver restarts due to bad gpu usage

Actual Results:
-------------------------------
Screen freaks out, showing black/white bars for a few seconds. Windows restarts the driver several times until it gives up and switches the application to the warp driver. This is actually ok, but the screen freaking out was definitely unexpected.

[Michael_C_Intel2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Tobias,

Sorry for not responding sooner. I do have good news though, one of our graphics software engineers has found the root cause and a driver fix is on the way.

-Michael 

[Käs__Tobias]

Great, thanks for the info.